Internalizing correlates of dyslexia

Over the last ten years a considerable amount of literature has described the socio-emotional discomfort that is often associated with learning disorders at all ages, but a comprehensive review about internalizing symptoms in dyslexia is needed. Medical and psychological search engines (PubMed, PsychArticles and Academic Search Elite) were used to identify all those studies published in peer-reviewed journals, relative to the association of reading difficulties, dyslexia, or learning disorders/disabilities, and internalizing symptoms, anxiety, or depression. The present review of studies confirms dyslexia as a specific risk factor for an increased internalizing, anxious and depressive symptomatology. The severity of dyslexia, its comorbidity with attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder, the level of perceived social support and female gender are some of the factors that mostly influence its psycho-social outcomes. Findings of this review confirm that suitable social, health and school policies aimed at identifying and treating dyslexia as a cause of discomfort are called for, and confirm the clinical need to assess and contrast additional risk factors that may increase the probability of this suffering in dyslexic students.