Promoting well-being in early adolescents through mindfulness: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: The Gaia program is a 12-week mindfulness intervention based on cultivating body, emotional, and ecological self-awareness, which has been shown to be effective in reducing children's and adolescents' internalizing problems at school. This paper presents the results of a cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at assessing the effectiveness of this program on improving psychological well-being, subjective well-being, and psychological distress in early adolescents. METHODS: A sample of 195 early adolescent students (boys, n = 99; girls, n = 96) with a mean age of 11.49 years (standard deviation = 0.80) attending 12 middle school classes participated in the study. Seven Gaia instructors belonging to six schools led the program. Measures were administered at three time points, approximately every 3 months: 1 week before treatment, 1 week after treatment, and 3 months after treatment. We used a multilevel regression model to test whether treatment was effective in increasing psychological well-being and subjective well-being, and reducing psychological distress, as compared to a waiting-list control group. RESULTS: The results showed that the Gaia program improved psychological well-being but not subjective well-being and psychological distress. Specifically, the Gaia program was effective in increasing personal growth and purpose in life, the key eudaimonic components of psychological well-being, in the experimental group whereas they decreased in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study provide preliminary evidence that the Gaia program for early adolescents may improve the core eudaimonic components of psychological well-being from pretest to follow-up that, conversely, decrease in the control group.

Symptoms of Prolonged Social Withdrawal, Problematic Internet Use, and Psychotic-Like Experiences in Emerging Adulthood: A Moderation Model.

Objective: Prolonged social withdrawal (PSW) or hikikomori and problematic internet use (PIU) have attracted the attention of mental health experts worldwide. The scientific literature suggests a complex relationship between these conditions and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) or disorders. In the present cross-sectional study, we tested the role of PIU symptoms as a moderator of the relationship between symptoms of PSW and PLEs in a sample of 238 Italian emerging adults. Method: Data was collected using the 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire, the Internet Disorder Scale, the Brief Prodromal Questionnaire, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. In addition, lifetime psychological disorders and drug and alcohol use during the last month were explored. No participant reported a lifetime episode of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder. Results: Symptoms of PSW and PIU were significantly associated with PLEs total distress and PLEs total number of symptoms endorsed, after adjustment for age and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Further, PIU symptoms moderated the relationship between symptoms of PSW and PLEs total distress (b= 2.745, s.e.= 1.089, p= 0.012). However, PIU symptoms did not moderate the relationship between PSW and PLEs total symptoms (b= 0.615, s.e.= 0.349, p= 0.078). This study is limited because the participants were most likely university students and because of the cross-sectional design. Conclusions: Findings from this study partially support the role of high symptoms of PIU as a risk factor in the relationship between symptoms of PSW and PLEs. Future longitudinal research is needed to confirm our findings examining the temporal relationship between PSW, PIU, and PLEs using both dimensional and categorical approaches.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the 25-Item Hikikomori Questionnaire.

A serious form of social withdrawal, initially described within Japan as hikikomori, has received increasing attention from the international scientific community during the last decade. The 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire (HQ-25) was initially developed and validated in Japan. To date, data on its psychometric properties in other populations where cases of hikikomori have been described are still scarce. Thus, the aims of this study were to (1) translate, adapt, and validate the Italian version of the HQ-25 analyzing its psychometric properties; and (2) verify the association between hikikomori and personality functioning, social support, and problematic Internet use. A sample of 372 Italian adults aged 18 to 50 years completed the HQ-25 and measures of psychoticism, personality dysfunction, social support, and problematic Internet use were employed to test the convergent validity of the HQ-25. The data showed a satisfactory fit for a three-factor model, significantly better than a one-factor model. The three factors (socialization, isolation, and emotional support, as in the original study on the HQ-25) correlated positively with psychoticism, personality dysfunction, and problematic Internet use, and correlated negatively with social support. A lifetime history of hikikomori was present in 1.1% of the sample (n = 4). This is the first study to use the Italian validated version of the HQ-25 with an adult population. The findings from this study provide evidence of the satisfactory psychometric properties of the Italian version of the HQ-25 and support further investigation of the HQ-25 as an instrument to help screen for and investigate the presence of hikikomori.

Mother-infant co-regulation during infancy: Developmental changes and influencing factors.

Dyadic interaction is the ecological niche in which early human development occurs and parent-infant co-regulation - the reciprocal adjustment between partners when interacting - is key for the dyadic functioning. Research showed that co-regulation changes with the advancing age; however how this development unfolds and by which variables would be affected is largely ignored. The present study investigated co-regulation longitudinal progression across seven-time points (4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 21 and 24 months of infants' age) while exploring the moderating effects of three infant variables (object manipulation, alternated gaze and shared meanings). The sample included healthy mother-infant dyads (N = 79) interacting for 5' in a context including objects. The interaction was coded by using the Fogel's Relational Coding System that distinguishes three main co-regulation patterns, i.e., unilateral, asymmetrical and symmetrical. Object manipulation, alternated gaze and shared meanings were also observed in the first, middle and final parts of the observational period, respectively. We used multilevel modeling technique to identify the developmental trajectories of each co-regulation pattern; we also analyzed whether the trends were moderated by specific factors at specific time periods. Results were statistically significant in both cases. We found an acceleration effect of the age on all the three co-regulation patterns. To specify, asymmetrical pattern decreased very soon, unilateral increased sharply from 6 to 9 months and then declined, symmetrical increased in the 12-15 months period and jumping up at the end. We also found a moderating effect of all the three infant's variables: infants who were higher in object manipulation increased unilateral pattern earlier and more than lower infants; infants who were higher in alternating the gaze between mother and object and in sharing meanings showed a higher and steeper trend of symmetrical pattern. This study is the first shaping co-regulation changes in their form and rate, so reliably accounting for the developmental nature of this process. It also showed that co-regulation changes related to different age dependent skills, thus contributing to define this process as a complex phenomenon.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the 25-Item Hikikomori Questionnaire for Adolescents.

Hikikomori is a form of social withdrawal that is commonly described as having an onset during adolescence, a life stage when other psychiatric problems can also emerge. This study aimed to adapt the 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire (HQ-25) for the Italian adolescent population, examining its psychometric properties; associations between hikikomori and psychoticism, depression, anxiety, problematic internet use (PIU), psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), to confirm convergent validity of the HQ-25; and the interaction effect between symptoms of hikikomori and PIU in predicting PLEs. Two-hundred and twenty-one adolescents participated in the study. Measures included the HQ-25, the Psychoticism subscale of the Personality Inventory for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the Depression and Anxiety subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Internet Disorder Scale, and the Brief Prodromal Questionnaire. Data showed a satisfactory fit for a three-factor model for the HQ-25 that is consistent with the original study on the HQ-25. Three factors (socialization, isolation, and emotional support) were associated with psychopathology measures. Six participants reported lifetime history of hikikomori. Symptoms of hikikomori and PIU did not interact in predicting PLEs. This is the first study to validate the HQ-25 in a population of adolescents. Findings provide initial evidence of the adequate psychometric properties of the Italian version of the HQ-25 for adolescents.

Maternal mind-mindedness during the first year of life: Developmental trajectories and moderators.

Mind-mindedness (MM) refers to caregivers' proclivity to treat a child as having an active and autonomous mental life. It has been shown to be a powerful predictor of many developmental outcomes and to mitigate the impact of risk conditions. However, longitudinal studies on MM reporting changes over time and individual differences among mothers have been scant and quite inconclusive, mainly due to the investigation of changes between only two time points. The current study analyzes MM's developmental trajectories across four time points (3, 6, 9, and 12 months of infants' age) along with the moderating effects of four variables (maternal sensitivity, age, education, and family income). The sample included healthy mother-infant dyads (N = 93, 46 female infants), belonging to monolingual Italian predominantly middle-class families, with 15% (n = 14) classified as low income (below the relative poverty threshold). The dyads were videotaped during semistructured play interactions and transcripts were coded for appropriate mind-related comments (AMRCs) and nonattuned mind-related comments (NAMRCs). Mothers' AMRCs, compared to NAMRCs, showed more temporal stability. Both AMRCs and NAMRCs showed a linear decrease with individual differences across dyads decreasing over time, and dyads becoming increasingly similar one with the other. Low income moderated the normative trend of appropriate mind-related comments. These findings suggest that MM, while depending largely on an individual trait at earlier ages, when infants' mental states are less intelligible, adapts to the increase of infants' sociocommunicative repertoire over time. They also highlight the importance of ecological constraints on the quality of caregiving. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Moderating Effects of Early Pointing on Developmental Trajectories of Word Comprehension and Production.

The present study investigated the moderating role of early communicative pointing on the developmental trends of word comprehension and production over the second year of life. Seventy-seven infants were involved in an experimental pointing task (T-POINT) in sessions at 9 and 12 months, and the MB-CDI questionnaire was filled in by their parents at 15, 18 and 24 months. Based on the age at which the infants were seen to use pointing, they were classified into three groups: the 'Early' pointers, who first pointed during the 9-month session; the 'Typical' pointers, who first pointed in the 12-month session; and the 'Late' pointers, who never pointed in either of the sessions. Using multilevel modelling, we traced the developmental trajectories and individual differences for the two lexical domains of word comprehension and production according to the three pointing groups. The main results showed that compared to the Typical pointers: (i) the Early pointers were faster for word comprehension development, and were similar for word production; (ii) the Late pointers showed lexical delay before 18 months for word comprehension, and between 18 and 24 months for word production. These data are discussed in light of the different roles of early pointing on receptive compared to expressive vocabulary development.

Adaptation and Psychometric Analysis of the Test of Mobile Phone Dependence-Brief Version in Italian Adolescents.

Since the diffusion of recent models of mobile phones, anyone with an internet connection can communicate continuously and search for information. This raises some questions about the possible consequences of problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) in a complex life phase such as adolescence. Therefore, we performed a psychometric analysis of the brief version of the Test of Mobile Phone Dependence (TMD) in Italy. The sample comprised 575 Italian adolescents aged 11 to 18 years. Data were collected using the TMD-brief, the Personality Inventory for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Sleep Disturbance Short Form. Regarding test dimensionality, the best-fit measurement model included four factors: "Abstinence"; "Abuse and interference with other activities"; "Tolerance"; and "Lack of control" (Satorra-Bentler χ2 (48) = 185.96, p < 0.01; robust root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.079 (90% confidence interval (CI): 0.067; 0.091); robust TLI = 0.904; robust comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.930). The Italian version of the TMD-brief was found to have good reliability and psychometric properties, and a four-factorial structure. PMPU predicted significant sleep disturbances and this relationship was moderated by clinical personality traits. Findings from this study support the use of the Italian version of the TMD-brief as a screening tool to investigate PMPU in Italian adolescents.

How Infant and Toddlers' Media Use Is Related to Sleeping Habits in Everyday Life in Italy.

BACKGROUND: Heavy media use has been linked to sleep problems in children, which may also extend to the infancy period. While international parent-advisory agencies, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (2016), advise no screen time before 18 months, parents often do not follow this recommendation. Research on Italian infants' early access to media is sparse, and only very few studies have investigated links with sleeping habits. METHOD: To address this gap, we examined concurrent associations between parent-reported surveys of child technology use and sleeping patterns. The Italian version of the 60 item Comprehensive Assessment of Family Media Exposure (CAFE) Survey, developed as part of a larger international study, (Barr et al., 2020), the Brief Screening Questionnaire for Infant Sleep Problems (BISQ) Sadeh, 2004) were completed online by 264 Italian parents of 8- to 36-month-olds and a subset (n = 134) completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) Abidin, 1995) between April 2017 and April 2018. RESULTS: More devices located in the child's room and the more time spent watching TV or using an iPad were associated with less hours of sleep at night. Furthermore, more time spent watching TV or using a smartphone, as well as the number of devices in the room was associated with going to sleep later at night. Instrumental media use was associated with less sleep. CONCLUSION: Like other countries, Italian infants have high levels of exposure to media, and differences in media patterns were associated with sleep patterns. Cultural factors influence both instrumental reasons for media use and sleep practices. Further research should explore how media use may serve to regulate emotion as a function of both contextual factors and individual differences.

Alexithymic Traits and Somatic Symptoms in Children and Adolescents: a Screening Approach to Explore the Mediation Role of Depression.

The association among alexithymia, somatic symptoms and clinical correlates has been scantly investigated in children. The present study examined alexithymic features and somatic symptomatology in schoolchildren with high and low levels of depression, testing the role of depressive symptoms in mediating the associations between alexithymia and somatic symptoms. Seven-hundred schoolchildren were involved in this study and divided into two subgroups (8-10 years and 11-14 years) in order to test differences according to the age. Participants completed the Children's Somatization Inventory-24 for the assessment of somatic symptoms, the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children to evaluate alexithymic features and the Children's Depression Inventory-2 to investigate depressive symptoms. Results showed that children with high levels of depression reported both higher alexithymia and somatic symptoms levels. Despite a direct effect of alexithymia on somatic symptoms, the mediation analyses also highlighted an indirect effect of alexythimia on somatic symptoms through depressive symptoms. Findings suggested that a depressive symptomatology may clarify why schoolchildren with high alexithymia scores tend to report higher levels of health problems. Results also support the possibility that depressive symptoms may contribute to the development of somatic symptomatology among schoolchildren in the presence of high levels of alexithymia.

Attachment Patterns in Subjects Diagnosed With a Substance Use Disorder: A Comparison of Patients in Outpatient Treatment and Patients in Therapeutic Communities.

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the quality of attachment in substance abuse patients in outpatient treatment vs. patients in therapeutic communities in order to identify the role of attachment insecurity in choosing a care system. The sample consisted of 127 subjects (107 males and 20 females); 97 were outpatients (83 males) and 30 therapeutic community patients (24 males). Attachment with respect to current, significant relationships was assessed using the Relationship Questionnaire. In the outpatient subgroup, the prevailing attachment style was preoccupied; for the therapeutic community patients, the prevailing attachment style was dismissive. The dimensions of care (how the caregiver is perceived as loving and caring) and overprotection (how the caregiver is perceived as intrusive and interfering)-evaluated by means of the Parent Bonding Instrument-were higher in the outpatient subgroup. Scores were higher with respect to maternal subscales regardless of treatment modality. No differences emerged with respect to self-perceived symptoms (SCL-90-R) between the subgroups; however, fearful-avoidant and dismissive-avoidant individuals reported higher self-perceived symptom regardless of treatment modality. Understanding the distribution of different attachment patterns with respect to the treatment modality may improve efficacious interventions, attuning them to the individual and his or her developmental environment.

Italian validation of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire: Exploring associations between shyness and psychosocial functioning.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the implications of shyness for the psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents, exploring its association with internalizing problems. Research in an Italian context is hindered by the lack of a validated self-report measure of shyness. We report two studies aimed to assess the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire (CSQ-it) and investigate its correlations with convergent and divergent constructs. The first study aimed to examine associations between CSQ-it and self-report measures of anxiety and somatic symptoms and attachment with parents and peers. The second study aimed to investigate its relations to internet addiction. METHODS: The self-report measures were completed by 550 participants in the first study and 131 participants in the second study. Parents provided information on their child's problems. Psychometric properties were assessed by Cronbach's alpha in both studies and by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in Study 1. The relations between shyness and measures of internalizing problems and attachments were analyzed by correlational methods. In Study 2 a moderated mediation model tested the hypothesis that the relationship between shyness and internet addiction is mediated by somatic symptoms and that shyness moderates the relationship between somatic symptoms and internet addiction. RESULTS: The reliability and validity of the Italian Version of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire were satisfactory. Results from confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the single-factor model of the questionnaire previously identified in North American and Chinese studies. There were significant correlations between shyness, anxious and somatic symptomatology, impaired psychosocial functioning and specific components of attachment relationships. In Study 2 the indirect effect of shyness on internet addiction through somatic symptoms was significant as well as significantly moderated for high shyness scores but not for low levels of shyness. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge this is the first study that explored the psychometric proprieties of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire in the Italian context. Findings demonstrated that this self-reported measure of shyness has sound psychometric properties and can be used as a sensitive and appropriate instrument for the assessment of shyness in children and adolescents.

Pathologic Use of Video Games and Motivation: Can the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS) Predict Depression and Trait Anxiety?

Videogaming is an increasingly prevalent activity among adolescents worldwide. The present study aimed at adapting the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS) to the Italian context, assessing its psychometric properties and verifying its sensitivity to predict depression and anxiety levels. From a sample of 1899 participants, a group of 388 adolescents who participated in the survey was divided into two subgroups of Heavy (HG, N = 188) and Light Gamers (LG, N = 200). A sub-sample of N = 172 adolescents also filled-in CESD and STAI to assess, respectively, depression and trait anxiety. Internal consistency and factorial structure of the Italian version of GAMS (GAMS-it) have been evaluated. Moreover, a latent regression structural equation model by predicting the CES-D and STAI scores with the GAMS-it factors has been carried out. GAMS-it has adequate validity and reliability levels, showing a very similar factorial structure to the original version. Therefore, this scale can be used to evaluate gaming motivation, which is useful for gaming motivation screening. Finally, it has been found that lower gaming motivation can be related to high level of depression and anxiety. The present findings provide a coherent picture, supporting the reliability and validity of the GAMS-it, that appears potentially useful in predicting anxiety and depression levels in a population of adolescents.

Daily motor characteristics in children with developmental coordination disorder and in children with specific learning disorder.

An association between learning disorders and coordination problems has been reported in several studies over the last few decades. In this study, we have investigated daily motor characteristics in children with a diagnosis of specific learning disorder (SLD) and compared them with those of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and those of typically developing controls. Ninety-six children aged 5 to 12 years were included: 29 with a diagnosis of SLD, 33 of DCD, and 34 controls. The Italian version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire 2007 (DCDQ-Italian) was used to measure children's coordination in everyday functional activities. The mean DCDQ-Italian total score was significantly lower in both SLD and DCD groups as compared with controls. Regarding subscores, both clinical groups scored significantly lower than controls on "Fine motor/handwriting" skills and on "General coordination." The DCD group scored also significantly lower than controls on "Control during movement." Moreover, clinical groups differed from each other, with SLD children scoring significantly higher on "Control during movement" and "General coordination" subscores. SLD children diverged from typically developing children in some motor skills during ordinary activities, and although this discrepancy was not as severe as in DCD children, it could have an impact on self-esteem and sport inclusion.

Is Social Categorization Spatially Organized in a "Mental Line"? Empirical Evidences for Spatial Bias in Intergroup Differentiation.

Social categorization is the differentiation between the self and others and between one's own group and other groups and it is such a natural and spontaneous process that often we are not aware of it. The way in which the brain organizes social categorization remains an unresolved issue. We present three experiments investigating the hypothesis that social categories are mentally ordered from left to right on an ingroup-outgroup continuum when membership is salient. To substantiate our hypothesis, we consider empirical evidence from two areas of psychology: research on differences in processing of ingroups and outgroups and research on the effects of spatial biases on processing of quantitative information (e.g., time; numbers) which appears to be arranged from left to right on a small-large continuum, an effect known as the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC). In Experiments 1 and 2 we tested the hypothesis that when membership of a social category is activated, people implicitly locate ingroup categories to the left of a mental line whereas outgroup categories are located on the far right of the same mental line. This spatial organization persists even when stimuli are presented on one of the two sides of the screen and their (explicit) position is spatially incompatible with the implicit mental spatial organization of social categories (Experiment 3). Overall the results indicate that ingroups and outgroups are processed differently. The results are discussed with respect to social categorization theory, spatial agency bias, i.e., the effect observed in Western cultures whereby the agent of an action is mentally represented on the left and the recipient on the right, and the SNARC effect.

EARLY MORAL CONSCIENCE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MORAL SHORT PLAYED STORIES PROCEDURE.

We set up a cross-sectional study to investigate how moral core self's mental representations develop from age 3 to 6 years. An ad hoc instrument (Moral Short Played Stories Procedure; MSPSP) was developed to tap into how moral emotions, conducts, and cognitions referred to moral and nonmoral characters. A total of 143 preschoolers completed the MSPSP and moral dilemmas procedures, together with attachment and behavioral inhibition assessment. The main results confirm the hypothesis of a mild developmental trend characterized by the prominence of moral conduct over moral emotion and cognition. In addition, our results stress the emergence of a developmental turning point at around age 4 when procedural moral activation in children predicts the declarative feature of moral conscience.

A comprehensive approach to understand somatic symptoms and their impact on emotional and psychosocial functioning in children.

INTRODUCTION: Somatic symptoms are frequently reported by children with significant impairment in functioning. Despite studies on adult populations that suggest somatic symptoms often co-occur with difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, little research has been done in childhood. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and frequency of somatic symptoms as well as to investigate the functional impairment in children with high number of self reported somatic symptoms versus those with fewer somatic symptoms. Additionally the parental perception of their children's somatic symptoms and functioning was explored. Finally, we explored the direct and indirect effects of difficulties in identifying feelings in predicting somatic symptoms and functional disability among school-aged children. METHODS: 356 Italian school-aged children and their mothers participated in this study. Children (mean age = 11.43; SD = 2.41) completed the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI-24) to assess somatic symptoms, the Functional Disability Inventory (FDI) to assess physical and psychosocial functioning and the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC) to evaluate alexithymic features. Mothers completed the parental forms of the CSI and the FDI. RESULTS: Among children, 66.3% did not declare somatic symptoms and 33.7% reported one or more somatic symptoms in the last two weeks. A significant positive correlation emerged between children's and mothers' CSI total scores. Both children's and mothers' FDI total scores were significantly correlated with CSI scores. A significant correlation was observed between somatic symptoms and alexithymic features. Furthermore, the data showed that somatic symptoms mediated the relationship between difficulties in identifying feelings and functional impairment. Finally, it was showed that alexithymia facet of difficulty in identifying feelings contributed in large part to the prediction of the somatic symptomatology (b = 0.978, p < 0.001; R2 = 0.164, F(5, 350) = 10.32, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study provide evidence that a higher frequency of somatic symptoms is associated with functional disabilities and alexithymic facets in school-aged children.

The Potential Impact of Internet and Mobile Use on Headache and Other Somatic Symptoms in Adolescence. A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether migraine or tension-type headaches are associated with abuse of the internet and/or mobile phones and to explore whether headache and the abuse of the two technologies are associated with sleep disturbances and other self-reported somatic symptoms. BACKGROUND: In the last several years, estimates indicate the increasing pervasiveness of the internet and other technologies in the lives of young people, highlighting the impact on well-being. DESIGN: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted between February 2013 and June 2014. METHOD: The initial sample was composed of 1004 Italian students (aged 10-16 years) recruited within public middle schools not randomly selected in central Italy. The final convenience sample consisted of 841 students (Males = 51.1%; Females = 48.9%) who were included in the analysis. Data were collected using self-reported measures. RESULTS: Headache was reported by 28.0% of the total sample. A significant relationship was determined with gender (χ(2) (1) = 7.78, P < .01), with female students being overrepresented in the headache group. Approximately 39.6% of subjects were non-abusers of both technologies, internet and mobile. Mobile only abusers were approximately 26.0% of the study population; internet only abusers were approximately 14.9%; and abusers of both media were 19.5%. No significant relationship was found between students with and without headache with respect to the abuse of internet and mobile phone categories (headache was, respectively, the 26% in no abusers, the 30% in internet abusers, the 29% in mobile abusers, and the 29% in internet and mobile abusers, P = .86). Additionally, also by excluding the no headache group, the relationship between the two groups of headache (migraine and tension type headache) and the abuse of media (tension type headache was the 31% in no abusers, the 43% in internet abusers, the 49% in mobile abusers, and the 29% in internet and mobile abusers) is not statistically significant (P = .06). No significant relationship emerged between headache and the internet and mobile phone addiction groups (headache was the 28% in no addiction group, the 35% in mobile addiction group, the 25% of internet addiction group, and the 28% in mobile and internet addiction group, P = .57) as well as no significant relationship was found when only the different headache types were considered (tension type headache was the 39% in no addiction group, the 40% in mobile addiction group, the 32% in internet addiction group, and the 31% in mobile and internet addiction group, P = .71). Daily internet users reported higher median scores for somatic symptoms than the occasional internet users in the no-headache group (Kruskal-Wallis χ(2) (1) = 5.44, P = .02) and in the migraine group (Kruskal-Wallis χ(2) (1) = 6.54, P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: Results highlighted the potential impact of excessive internet and mobile use, which ranges from different types of headache to other somatic symptoms. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to determine if there is a need for promoting preventive health interventions, especially in school setting.

Reactions to ingroup and outgroup deviants: an experimental group paradigm for black sheep effect.

In the classic black sheep effect (BSE) an ingroup deviant member is usually evaluated more negatively than the corresponding outgroup deviant. This effect is usually obtained by using scenarios and asking people to imagine the situation as vividly as possible. The present study proposes a new method to investigate the BSE by considering the behavioral and physiological reactions to unfair behavior (aggressive game behavior) in a realistic experimental group-setting. The study involved 52 university students in a minimal group setting who performed a modified version of the competitive reaction time (CRT) task adapted to be played in groups of four people. The classic BSE was replicated for evaluation but not for the behavioral reactions (retaliate to aggression) to deviants. More interestingly, a negative relationship emerged in the ingroup deviant condition between the level of behavioral derogation and the systolic blood pressure level.

A Questionnaire for the Assessment of Violent Behaviors in Young Couples: The Italian Version of Dating Violence Questionnaire (DVQ).

In the last years, intimate partner violence (IPV) became a relevant problem for community and for social life, particularly in young people. Its correct assessment and evaluation in the population is mandatory. Our objectives were: Confirm factor structure of Dating Violence Questionnaire (DVQ) and investigate its convergent and divergent validity. The DVQ along with other personality measures were filled by a sample of 418 university students (Females = 310) of average age of 23 y.o. (SD = 4.71). A subsample of participants (223 students) consented in being involved also in retest and filled also the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (short form) and a brief scale for describing the behavior of the (past) partner after the breaking of the relationship (BRS). The 8-factor structure, with respect to the two other competing models, reported better fit indexes and showed significant correlations with other personality measures. Personality traits, both Neuroticism and Psychoticism, correlated with Sexual Violence, while Detachment correlated only with Neuroticism and Coercion, Humiliation and Physical Violence correlated with only Psychoticism. Extraversion did not report significant relationships with any of the 8 DVQ factors. Also the predictive validity of DVQ was satisfactory with the partner violent reaction to the break of relationship predicted positively predicted by Coercion (b = 0.22) and by Humiliation (b = 0.20) and negatively by Emotional Punishment (b = -0.18). The present results indicate a good factor structure of the questionnaire, and interesting correlations with personality traits, allowing to identify psychological aspects with a predisposing role for anti-social aggressive behaviors. Further studies will be aimed at ascertaining other possible determinants of intimate partner violence and the weight of cultural aspects.