The Influence of Gifted Children's Stress Management on Parental Stress Levels.

This study explores the associations between gifted children's stress management and parental stress level. A sample of 78 primary school children and their 76 parents took part in this study. Children were screened for intelligence and emotional quotients, while parents were tested for stress levels. Results show that the more children are aware of their stress-management skills, the less parents are stressed out. Moreover, the intelligence quotient is not significant in mediating this association, supporting the idea that it is not an a priori protective factor from a developmental perspective. The study findings suggest that when a child is equipped with the skills to handle stress by harnessing their emotional intelligence, it can have a beneficial effect on the entire family's well-being. Given that these skills can be developed, and the significant positive influence they have on a child's growth and adaptation, it is essential to offer specialized educational programs to gifted children. These programs should aim to enhance their emotional skills, which, in turn, can indirectly bolster the psychological health of the family unit as a whole.

Family Functioning and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Gifted Children.

INTRODUCTION: Although gifted children can express high cognitive skills, they can also show socioemotional difficulties. Drawing from Olson's circumplex model, the present paper assessed the role of family functioning in internalizing and externalizing problems in gifted children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 362 mothers and their 362 gifted children were included. The unbalanced subscales of the FACES IV-disengagement, enmeshment, rigidity, and chaos-and the CBCL were administered to mothers. The children completed the WISC-IV. RESULTS: The model predicting internalizing problems was significant and explained 5.6% of the variance. Only rigidity had an independent and positive effect on internalizing problems in gifted children over and above sociodemographic variables and QI, whereas disengagement, enmeshment, and chaos were not associated with internalizing problems. The model predicting externalizing problems was significant and explained 10% of the variance. Again, rigidity was the only variable that had an independent and positive effect on externalizing problems in gifted children over and above sociodemographic variables and QI, whereas disengagement, enmeshment, and chaos were not associated with externalizing problems in this population. DISCUSSION: Rigid families with a low ability to change in conditions that require readjustment appear to increase the risk of both internalizing and externalizing problems in gifted children. Although further studies are needed to support these preliminary findings, parental support interventions aimed at increasing flexibility appear to be useful.

Moral Disengagement, Empathy, and Cybervictim's Representation as Predictive Factors of Cyberbullying among Italian Adolescents.

This study aimed to evaluate which aspects of moral disengagement (MD), empathy, and representations of the victim's experience (VER) could be predictors of cyberbullying (CB). One hundred and eight-nine students (11-17 years old) completed 3 self-report questionnaires: An MD scale, an empathy scale, and a CB questionnaire. In relation to the personal experience of CB, four groups were identified: Victim, bully, bully/victim, and no experience with CB. The linear bivariate correlation analysis shows correlations between empathy and VER, between empathy and MD, and between MD and VER. A multinomial logistic regression identified which predictors could increase a subject's probability of belonging to one of the four groups regarding the personal experience of CB (victim, bully, bully/victim, no experience). Findings highlighted that low cognitive empathy might increase the probability for a student to belong to the bullies' group, rather than the victims' group. Furthermore, low perception of the consequences of CB on the victim might increase the probability of belonging to the bully, bully/victim, and no experience groups. Then, a high score in the diffusion of responsibility was a significant predictor of belonging to the victim group rather than the no experience group. Results from this study confirm the need for preventive measures against CB, including the empowerment of cognitive empathy, decreasing the diffusion of responsibility, and increasing the awareness of the consequences of CB on the victim.

Evaluation of the DSM-5 Severity Specifier for Bulimia Nervosa in Treatment-Seeking Youth.

A new severity specifier for bulimia nervosa (BN), based on the frequency of inappropriate weight compensatory behaviours (e.g., laxative misuse, self-induced vomiting, fasting, diuretic misuse, and excessive exercise), has been added to the most recent (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a means of addressing variability and heterogeneity in the severity of the disorder. While existing research provides support for the DSM-5 severity specifier for BN in adult patients, evidence for its validity and clinical utility in youth is currently lacking. To address this gap, data from 272 treatment-seeking adolescents with DSM-5 BN (94.2% female, M age = 15.3 years, SD 1.7) were analysed to examine whether these patients, sub-grouped based on the DSM-5 severity definitions, would show meaningful differences in a broad range of clinical variables and demographic and physical characteristics. Analyses revealed that participants categorized with mild, moderate, severe, and extreme severity of BN significantly differed from each other in 15 variables regarding eating disorder pathological features and putative maintenance factors (i.e., core low self-esteem, perfectionism, social appearance anxiety, body surveillance, and mood intolerance), health-related quality of life and comorbid psychiatric (i.e., affective and anxiety) disorders (large effect sizes). Between-group differences in demographics, body mass index, or age-of-BN onset were not observed. Collectively, our findings provide support for the utility of the frequency of inappropriate weight compensatory behaviours as a severity indicator for BN and suggest that age-at-onset of BN is probably more disorder- than severity-dependent. Implications for future research are outlined.

Classifying binge eating-disordered adolescents based on severity levels.

The new severity criterion for binge-eating disorder (BED), introduced by the most recent (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a means of addressing within-group variability in severity, was tested in 223 Italian (13-18-year-old) adolescents (86.1% females) with (DSM-5) BED presenting for treatment. Analyses revealed that participants classified with mild (35.9% of the sample), moderate (38.1%) severe (13.4%), and extreme (12.6%) severity of BED, based on their clinician-rated weekly frequency of binge-eating (BE) episodes, were statistically distinguishable in physical characteristics (body mass index) and a range of clinical variables regarding eating-related psychopathology and putative maintenance factors, health-related quality of life, and mood and anxiety disorder comorbidity (medium-to-large effect sizes). Between-group differences in age-at-onset of BED or demographics were not detected. The findings provide support for the utility of BE frequency as a severity criterion for BED in adolescence. Implications for future studies are discussed.

Validity and clinical utility of the DSM-5 severity specifier for bulimia nervosa: results from a multisite sample of patients who received evidence-based treatment.

A new "severity specifier" for bulimia nervosa (BN), based on the frequency of inappropriate weight compensatory behaviours (IWCBs), was added to the DSM-5 as a means of documenting heterogeneity and variability in the severity of the disorder. Yet, evidence for its validity in clinical populations, including prognostic significance for treatment outcome, is currently lacking. Existing data from 281 treatment-seeking patients with DSM-5 BN, who received the best available treatment for their disorder (manual-based cognitive behavioural therapy; CBT) in an outpatient setting, were re-analysed to examine whether these patients subgrouped based on the DSM-5 severity levels would show meaningful and consistent differences on (a) a range of clinical variables assessed at pre-treatment and (b) post-treatment abstinence from IWCBs. Results highlight that the mild, moderate, severe, and extreme severity groups were statistically distinguishable on 22 variables assessed at pre-treatment regarding eating disorder pathological features, maintenance factors of BN, associated (current) and lifetime psychopathology, social maladjustment and illness-specific functional impairment, and abstinence outcome. Mood intolerance, a maintenance factor of BN but external to eating disorder pathological features (typically addressed within CBT), emerged as the primary clinical variable distinguishing the severity groups showing a differential treatment response. Overall, the findings speak to the concurrent and predictive validity of the new DSM-5 severity criterion for BN and are important because a common benchmark informing patients, clinicians, and researchers about severity of the disorder and allowing severity fluctuation and patient's progress to be tracked does not exist so far. Implications for future research are outlined.

Pharmacological interventions on early functional gastrointestinal disorders.

BACKGROUND: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are chronic or recurrent gastrointestinal symptoms without structural or biochemical abnormalities. FGIDs are multifactorial conditions with different pathophysiologic mechanisms including altered motility, visceral hyperalgesia, brain-gut disturbance, genetic, environmental and psychological factors. Although in most cases gastrointestinal symptoms are transient and with spontaneous resolution in infancy multiple dietary changes and pharmacological therapy are often started despite a lack of evidence-based data. Our aim was to update and critically review the current literature to assess the effects and the clinical appropriateness of drug treatment in early (occurring in infants and toddlers) FGIDs. METHODS: We systematically searched the Medline and GIMBE (Italian Group on Medicine Based on Evidence) databases, according to the methodology of the Critically Appraised Topics (CATs). We included reviews, clinical studies, and evidence-based guidelines reporting on pharmacological treatments. Systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning pharmacologic therapies in children with early FGIDs were included, and data were extracted on participants, interventions, and outcomes. RESULTS: We found no evidence-based guidelines or systematic reviews about the utility of pharmacological therapy in functional regurgitation, infant colic and functional diarrhea. In case of regurgitation associated with marked distress, some evidences support a short trial with alginate when other non pharmacological approach failed (stepped-care approach). In constipated infants younger than 6 months of age Lactulose is recommended, whilst in older ages Polyethylene glycol (PEG) represents the first-line therapy both for fecal disimpaction and maintenance therapy of constipation. Conversely, no evidence supports the use of laxatives for dyschezia. Furthermore, we found no RCTs regarding the pharmacological treatment of cyclic vomiting syndrome, but retrospective studies showed a high percentage of clinical response using cyproheptadine, propanolol and pizotifen. CONCLUSION: There is some evidence that a pharmacological intervention is necessary for rectal disimpaction in childhood constipation and that PEG is the first line therapy. In contrast, for the other early FGIDs there is a lack of well-designed high-quality RCTs and no evidence on the use of pharmacological therapy was found.

The developmental effects of media-ideal internalization and self-objectification processes on adolescents' negative body-feelings, dietary restraint, and binge eating.

Despite accumulated experimental evidence of the negative effects of exposure to media-idealized images, the degree to which body image, and eating related disturbances are caused by media portrayals of gendered beauty ideals remains controversial. On the basis of the most up-to-date meta-analysis of experimental studies indicating that media-idealized images have the most harmful and substantial impact on vulnerable individuals regardless of gender (i.e., "internalizers" and "self-objectifiers"), the current longitudinal study examined the direct and mediated links posited in objectification theory among media-ideal internalization, self-objectification, shame and anxiety surrounding the body and appearance, dietary restraint, and binge eating. Data collected from 685 adolescents aged between 14 and 15 at baseline (47 % males), who were interviewed and completed standardized measures annually over a 3-year period, were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results indicated that media-ideal internalization predicted later thinking and scrutinizing of one's body from an external observer's standpoint (or self-objectification), which then predicted later negative emotional experiences related to one's body and appearance. In turn, these negative emotional experiences predicted subsequent dietary restraint and binge eating, and each of these core features of eating disorders influenced each other. Differences in the strength of these associations across gender were not observed, and all indirect effects were significant. The study provides valuable information about how the cultural values embodied by gendered beauty ideals negatively influence adolescents' feelings, thoughts and behaviors regarding their own body, and on the complex processes involved in disordered eating. Practical implications are discussed.

Testing the cognitive-behavioural maintenance models across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups: a multi-centre study.

The original cognitive-behavioural (CB) model of bulimia nervosa, which provided the basis for the widely used CB therapy, proposed that specific dysfunctional cognitions and behaviours maintain the disorder. However, amongst treatment completers, only 40-50 % have a full and lasting response. The enhanced CB model (CB-E), upon which the enhanced version of the CB treatment was based, extended the original approach by including four additional maintenance factors. This study evaluated and compared both CB models in a large clinical treatment seeking sample (N = 679), applying both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria for bulimic-type eating disorders. Application of the DSM-5 criteria reduced the number of cases of DSM-IV bulimic-type eating disorders not otherwise specified to 29.6 %. Structural equation modelling analysis indicated that (a) although both models provided a good fit to the data, the CB-E model accounted for a greater proportion of variance in eating-disordered behaviours than the original one, (b) interpersonal problems, clinical perfectionism and low self-esteem were indirectly associated with dietary restraint through over-evaluation of shape and weight, (c) interpersonal problems and mood intolerance were directly linked to binge eating, whereas restraint only indirectly affected binge eating through mood intolerance, suggesting that factors other than restraint may play a more critical role in the maintenance of binge eating. In terms of strength of the associations, differences across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups were not observed. The results are discussed with reference to theory and research, including neurobiological findings and recent hypotheses.

Morally disengaged and unempathic: do cyberbullies fit these definitions? An exploratory study.

In recent years, the phenomenon of cyberbullying has been gaining scholars' growing interest under various aspects, including its overlap with face-to-face bullying. Nevertheless, its relationships with cognitive and affective empathy, proactive and reactive aggression, and moral disengagement, constructs that proved to be crucial in distinguishing aggressive subjects from their targets and nonaggressive peers in traditional bullying, still represent, to some extent, an unexplored domain. The main purpose of the present exploratory study was to investigate the associations between cyberbullying and the mentioned constructs among Italian adolescents. 819 high-school students (mean age 16.08) were administered a battery of standardized tools, along with Cyberties, a new instrument created to assess the prevalence of (and the type of involvement in) different forms of electronic assaults. Analyses of variance were conducted to compare four roles ("pure" bullies, "pure" victims, bully victims, and noninvolved subjects). Participants who identified themselves as cyberbullies or cyberbully victims showed significantly higher levels of overall moral disengagement and of both types of aggression. Cyberbullies also displayed a lack of affective empathy. Our findings are in line with the ones in extant literature about correlates of traditional and electronic forms of bullying. Implications for prevention strategies are discussed.