Strenghts and Limitations
There are two limitations in this study. Clinical evaluations by an experienced clinician could provide more valid information to evaluate alexithymic features. Also, due to the cross-sectional design of the study, we could not obtain results regarding the causality.
This study has also some strengths. One of them was larger sample size compared to similar studies in the literature. In addition, considering the psychiatric symptoms and factors affecting alexithymia helped us to better understand the relationship between alexithymia and obesity. Finally, the predictors of obesity/overweight were examined by regression analysis.
As a conclusion, obese and overweight adolescents have more alexithymic properties. These properties have positive associations with overeating which is triggered by emotional states. But alexithymia is not a predictor of obesity/overweight. It is shown that problematic eating behaviors such as restrained and emotional eatings are predictors of obesity/overweight. While emotional and restrained eatings were more common in obese and overweight adolescents, responding with overeating to food related cues was not significantly associated with obesity, but was related with insuline resistance in obese adolescents. Additionally, emotional eating was found to be positively associated with alexithymia and depression / anxiety symptoms and it is concluded that emotional eating is related with psychological factors.