Using the time-varying autoregressive model to study dynamic changes in situation perceptions and emotional reactions.

OBJECTIVE: Assuming personality to be a system of intra-individual processes emerging over time in interaction with the environment, we propose an idiographic approach to investigate potential changes of intra-individual dynamics in the perception of situations and emotions of individuals varying in personality traits. We compared the semiparametric time-varying autoregressive model (TV-AR) that takes into account the non-stationarity of psychological processes at the individual level, with the standard AR model. METHOD: We conducted analyses of individual time series to assess intra-individual changes in mean levels and inertia on data from two adolescents who completed measures of personality and indicated their situation perceptions and emotions five times a day for 19 days. RESULTS: For the less honest, emotional, extraverted, and more agreeable adolescent, the TV-AR model detected reliable changes in the intra-individual dynamics of situation perceptions and emotions whereas, for the other individual, the standard AR model was more preferred, given the lack of changes in the intra-individual dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological processes dynamics in situation perception and emotions may vary from person to person depending on their personality. This work constitutes a first step in demonstrating that an idiographic approach has advantages in identifying changes in individuals' perceptions and reactions to situations.

Predictive Validity of the Three-Factor Model of Impulsivity for Risky Behaviors.

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct particularly relevant for understanding a wide variety of behaviors, especially risky behaviors. A recent conceptualization of impulsivity identifies three impulsivity factors-pervasive influence of feelings, feelings trigger action, and lack of follow-through-that have been shown to predict different behaviors. In this contribution, we examine the psychometric properties of an Italian version of such a three-factor model on a relatively large sample (N = 845). Moreover, on a subsample (n = 766) we determined whether specific dimensions of impulsivity are related to a series of risky behaviors, assessed 3 weeks later, by testing the predictive validity of the multidimensional inventory also in comparison with a standard measure of personality (HEXACO). An exploratory structural equation model confirmed the original 3-dimension structure and showed that the Italian adaptation has satisfactory psychometric properties. Convergent validity with the HEXACO dimensions was established. Furthermore, only the factors feelings trigger action and lack of follow-through, not pervasive influence of feelings, predicted risky behaviors. Findings provide a clear support to the 3-factor model of impulsivity and demonstrate its usefulness for a better comprehension of risky behaviors.

Rejection sensitivity and psychopathology symptoms in early adolescence: The moderating role of personality organization.

INTRODUCTION: Emerging personality organization may play an important role in the psychological adjustment of early adolescents, but research in this area is still limited. The current study evaluated if personality organization moderates the association between rejection sensitivity and adverse psychological outcomes in early adolescence. METHODS: Three-hundred eighty-six early adolescents (age range 13-15 years; 51% Female) attending junior high schools in Italy completed the semi-structured Interview of Personality Organization Processes in Adolescence (IPOP-A), the Children's Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (CRSQ), and the Youth Self Report/11-18 (YSR). RESULTS: Disruption in the emerging personality organization was associated with increasing symptom problems in early adolescence. Conversely, the successful development of personality organization buffered the relation between rejection sensitivity and negative psychological outcomes (i.e., conduct and affective problems). CONCLUSION: These findings encourage to accurately evaluate personality organization in adolescence, in order to take into account difficulties but also strengths in personality organization when treating early adolescents.

Mother-infant dyadic reparation and individual differences in vagal tone affect 4-month-old infants' social stress regulation.

Infants' social stress regulation (i.e., reactivity and recovery) might be affected by mother-infant dyadic functioning and infants' vagal tone (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA). This study investigated the role of a specific dyadic functioning feature (i.e., dyadic reparation) and individual differences in vagal tone regulation (i.e., RSA suppression vs. non-suppression) in relation to social stress regulation in 4-month-old infants. A total of 65 mother-infant dyads participated in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Social stress reactivity and recovery were measured as negative emotionality during Still-Face and Reunion episodes, respectively. RSA was measured during Play, Still-Face, and Reunion episodes. Suppressors had higher dyadic reparation during Play and higher recovery from social stress compared with non-suppressors. Higher reparation during Play was associated with lower reactivity and higher recovery only for suppressors. Findings suggest a joint role of infants' RSA individual differences and dyadic reparation in affecting infants' social stress regulation at 4 months of age.

Multiphasic Personality Assessment in a Case Series of Adolescent Patients with Suicidal Ideation and/or Attempts.

Suicide is an important public health issue. To examine the differences in personality characteristics between a group of adolescents with suicidal ideation (SI) and a group with a history of suicidal attempts (SA), we conducted a cross-sectional study. We enrolled 55 adolescents (51 females; 12-18 y.o.) who presented SI and/or SA. Using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, we divided the sample into two groups: adolescents with SI and adolescents with SA. All participants filled in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A). Adolescents in the SA group had greater difficulties in social relations, risky behaviors, and more intense suicidal ideation compared to those in the SI group. Adolescents in the SA group scored higher in Omission, in the Lie Scale, the Conduct Problem Scale, the Less Aspirations Scale, the Repression Scale in the MMPI-A, and item 283 of the MAST compared to the other group. The results suggest that using the MMPI-A to assess certain features (e.g., tendency to lie, repression) may be helpful in identifying young people who are at high risk of suicide. However, further research is required to determine the effectiveness of using this instrument.

Neurocognition and functioning in adolescents at clinical high risk for psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Once psychosis has set in, it is difficult for patients to achieve full recovery. Prevention of psychosis and early intervention are promising for improving the outcomes of this disorder. In the last two decades, neurocognition has been studied as a biomarker for clinical-high risk for psychosis (CHR-P). However, neurocognitive functioning has been under-investigated in adolescents. METHODS: We enrolled 116 adolescents from 12 to 17 years old (mean = 15.27, SD = 1.56; 76 females). This 3-year cohort study aimed to identify differences in neurocognitive and overall functioning in three groups of adolescent patients divided according to the semi-structured interview Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS): adolescents with established psychosis, adolescents with CHR-P, and adolescents not meeting either criteria (non-CHR-P). To differentiate the profiles, clinicians administered cognitive evaluation and neuropsychological tasks. Moreover, they filled in scales to assess their global, social, and role functioning and a questionnaire to assess the severity of the disease. RESULTS: We made a between-group comparison on neurocognitive measures and found that the CHR-P and the psychosis groups differed in processing speed (TMT-A; p = .002 in BVN categorial fluency (p = .018), and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure drawing from memory task (p = .014), with psychosis group showing worse performance. No differences emerged between non-CHR-P and CHR-P (p = .014) individuals. CHR-P had better functioning than the psychosis group but worse than the non-CHR-P one. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that neurocognition can be a helpful biomarker in identifying specific subgroups of adolescents with emerging psychopathology and help clinicians develop stratified preventive approaches.

Life Events in the Etiopathogenesis and Maintenance of Restrictive Eating Disorders in Adolescence.

Life events (traumatic and protective) may be critical factors associated with eating disorders and their severity. To date, there is little literature concerning the role of life events in adolescence. The main goal of this study was to explore in a sample of adolescent patients with restrictive eating disorders (REDs) the presence of life events in the year before enrolment and to characterize them according to timing. Furthermore, we investigated correlations between REDs severity and the presence of life events. In total, 33 adolescents completed the EDI-3 questionnaire to assess RED severity using EDRC (Eating Disorder Risk Composite), GPMC (General Psychological Maladjustment Composite), and the Coddington Life Events Scales-Adolescent (CLES-A) questionnaires to define the presence of life events in the last year. Of these, 87.88% reported a life event in the past year. A significant association emerged between elevated clinical GPMC and the presence of traumatic events: patients who had experienced at least one traumatic life event in the year before enrolment presented higher clinically elevated GPMC compared to patients who had not. These results suggest that obtaining early information about traumatic events in clinical practice may help prevent the occurrence of new events and improve patient outcomes.

Videoconferencing psychotherapy from a psychodynamic point of view. A qualitative analysis.

There is a growing interest in delivering videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP) due to the enormous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives since the beginning of severe restrictions worldwide in March 2020. Scientific literature has provided interesting results about the transition to remote sessions and its implications, considering different psychotherapy orientations. Less is known about whether and how VCP affects psychodynamic psychotherapeutic approaches and reports on remote work with severe and complex mental health problems such as severe personality disorders are still scarce. The aim of the study was to examine the experiences of psychodynamic psychotherapists, mainly delivering Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), with the transition and delivery of VCP during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four hundred seventy-nine licensed psychotherapists completed an online survey during the peak of the pandemic. Survey data were analyzed using qualitative analysis. Results are presented and discussed concerning advantages and disadvantages regarding the access to psychotherapy, the specificity of the online video setting, bodily aspects, the quality of the therapeutic relationship, the therapeutic process including technical aspects and therapist's experience. Furthermore, we analyzed and discussed the statements concerning transference and countertransference reactions differentiating between high-level borderline and neurotic patients and low-level borderline patients. Our results support the importance to identify patients who potentially benefit from VCP. Further research including more prospective randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate the therapeutic implications of the findings.

The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on the association between rejection sensitivity, aggression, withdrawal, and prosociality.

Although previous studies have shown that rejection sensitivity (RS) is related to aggressive, prosocial, and withdrawal behaviors, little is known on the underlying mechanisms. This contribution aims to fill this gap by showing the usefulness of differentiating between the cognitive (expectation) and emotional (anxiety, anger) components of RS and testing the potential mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation (ER) strategies for predicting aggressive, prosocial, and withdrawal tendencies. Results from data collected in a sample of young adults (N = 445) showed that rejection expectation was only negatively linked to prosociality and that 2 functional ER strategies (i.e., positive reappraisal and putting into perspective) negatively mediate this relation. Conversely, dysfunctional ER strategies positively mediated the positive links between anger about rejection and aggression (i.e., catastrophizing and other blaming) as well as withdrawal (i.e., catastrophizing) and between anxiety about rejection and withdrawal (i.e., self-blame and rumination). We discussed the implications of the results for the comprehension of the role of ER strategies in behaviors linked to RS. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived Family Functioning Profile in Adolescents at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: Rigidity as a Possible Preventive Target.

The presence of a positive family relationship has been suggested as a protective factor from parental stress and from the development of full-blown psychosis. However, to date, there is limited research on family functioning in adolescents with psychosis and at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P). This study is aimed at comparing family functioning and perceived stress in parents of adolescents with either CHR-P, early onset psychosis (EOP), or other psychiatric disorders (no CHR-P). As a secondary aim, it will correlate family functioning with parental perceived stress in order to find critical targets of intervention. We conducted a Reporting of Studies Conducted Using Observational Routinely-Collected Health Data (RECORD)-compliant, real-world, cross-sectional study. One-hundred and eleven adolescents aged 12-17 who access the institute of hospitalization and care with scientific character (IRCCS) Mondino Foundation Neuropsychiatric services (Pavia, Italy) between 2017 and 2020 and their parents (n = 222) were included. Sociodemographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents were collected. Family functioning was evaluated through the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-IV (FACES-IV) and the level of stress through the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Twenty adolescents had EOP, 38 had CHR-P, and 59 had no CHR-P. In total, 2.6% of CHR-P adolescents were adopted, 76.3% had separated-divorced parents, and 34.2% of parents had a depressive disorder. Among the FACES-IV sub-scale, maternal rigidity was progressively increased from no-CHR-P to CHR-P to EOP group, with statistical differences between EOP and the other two groups (p = 0.01). CHR-P mothers and fathers showed a high level of PSS values, without group difference. Lastly, PSS values correlated positively with the Rigidity, Disengagement, and Chaos scale of FACES-IV and negatively with the Communication scale (p < 0.05). Our results suggest that family functioning has a central role and could represent a worthwhile target of intervention for adolescents at CHR-P, leading the way to new preventive approaches.

Corrigendum: Perceived Family Functioning Profile in Adolescents at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: Rigidity as a Possible Preventive Target.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.861201.].

Psychiatric symptoms and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italian adolescents during the third lockdown: a cross-sectional cohort study.

A previous study showed that about 80% of Italian adolescents reported isolated symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress during the first lockdown in Italy. We proposed a new questionnaire to investigate the presence of symptoms related to anxiety, panic, depression, eating disorders, sleep disorders, social withdrawal, stress disorders, psychotic symptoms, anti-conservative thoughts, and self-harming acts aggravated by COVID-19 restrictions and possible differences between males and females. 500 adolescents (12-18 years) completed an online survey created using validated scales. 41% of the respondents felt more stress than during the first lockdown. 1.85% showed suprathreshold symptoms for post-traumatic stress disorder and 21% showed isolated symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress due to the pandemic. In addition, we found psychotic symptoms (16%), panic (25% suprathreshold), anxiety (46.8% suprathreshold), depression (18.7% suprathreshold), eating-related symptoms (51%), sleep difficulties (57%), a tendency to social withdrawal after the pandemic (15%), suicidal ideation (30%), and self-harming behavior (9%). Furthermore, girls showed a more severe level of distress. The results show a high prevalence of symptoms because of the COVID-19 pandemic and confirm the need for easy access to support and treatment service to help contain the bio-psycho-social risk factors prompted by the current pandemic and promptly and effectively manage the consequences.

Psychological and behavioral characterization of suicide ideators and suicide attempters in adolescence.

Suicide is a global cause of death, a chronic disability, and a significant public health problem. Recent works emphasize the importance of differentiating people with suicide ideation (SI) and people with suicidal attempts (SA), so we conducted a clinical cross-sectional study to better characterize the features most associated with SA. We enrolled 88 adolescents (77 females) from 12 to 18 years of age (M = 15.21, SD = 1.63) admitted to Northern Italian Child Neurology and Psychiatry Service who presented SI and/or SA. We conducted an assessment using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale, and divided participants into two groups: adolescents with SA, and adolescents with thoughts about killing themselves which may include a plan but no suicidal attempts (SI). We found that the SA group showed greater severity of SI [t (86) = -3.485, p < 0.001], higher levels of subjective depression [t (70) = -2.65, p = 0.01)], and a higher prevalence of personality disorders [ χ ( 3 ) 2 = 8.775, p = 0.032] than the SI group. Both groups presented a prevalence of internalizing problems compared to the externalizing ones in the Youth Self-Report (YSR). Higher scores on YSR internalizing problems correlate positively with the "Repulsion by Life" subscale of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency (MAST) Scale in both SA and SI groups (p = 0.41 and p = 0.67, respectively), while low levels of the MAST "Attraction to Life" subscale appear more often in the SA one (p = -0.71). In conclusion, results showed that some features (e.g., prevalence of personality disorders, SI intensity, and subjective depression) might help clinicians distinguish between patients with SI and those with SA and support the importance of carefully pursuing this distinction in research.

Short-term psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of the first wave of an ecological daily study in the Italian population.

COVID-19 pandemic involved several psychosocial consequences. We aimed at monitoring the mental health of Italian adults during the lockdown imposed by the government. We present here results from the baseline assessment of the "EmotionalThermometer [TermometroEmotivo] project on a sample of 1548 Italian adults. We assessed the socio-demographic conditions of participants, individuals' perception of the COVID-19-situation, psychological distress, emotion regulation strategies, and perceived social support. Having a worse representation of COVID-19 and consulting news more frequently, with higher anxiety and less credibility of different sources of information, were positively associated with psychological distress and post-traumatic responses. Being female, younger age, living in high-risk regions, having symptoms of COVID-19, and having relatives/friends with such symptoms represented risk factors for a worse perception of COVID-19 and distress. Social support and cognitive reappraisal represented protective factors for mental health.

Cognitive and Emotional Components of Rejection Sensitivity: Independent Contributions to Adolescent Self- and Interpersonal Functioning.

In this article, we focus on rejection sensitivity (RS) in adolescents. Although the RS model distinguishes clearly between the emotional (i.e., anger and anxiety) and the cognitive (i.e., expectation of rejection) components, research has rarely examined their unique connection with psychological problems. We argue that considering the three components separately would provide additional insights regarding the relationship between RS and psychological problems. We aimed to test the goodness of fit of a three-factor solution and to investigate the validity of the three components separately in predicting self- and interpersonal functioning in adolescents. Indeed, 720 adolescents completed the Children's Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, self-reports of self- and interpersonal functioning (self-esteem and interpersonal reactivity), and peer ratings of preference and bothersomeness. The three-factor solution showed fit indexes comparable to the two alternative one-factor solutions underlying the traditional approach of the composite scores. More importantly, we found specific contributions of each of the three RS components in predicting different features of self- and interpersonal functioning. Thus, depending on the psychological problems under consideration, the role of the three RS components varies. We discuss the implications of these findings.

A categorical approach to infants' individual differences during the Still-Face paradigm.

Cluster analysis was used to create patterns of individual differences reflecting infant behaviors during the initial interaction episode of the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm. The clusters were used as the basic unit of analysis for studying infant and maternal behavior and dyadic coordination (i.e., matching and reparation) across FFSF. Seventy-five 4-month-old infants participated with their mothers. Cluster analysis identified three patterns: a Socially Engaged cluster (33%) exhibited high levels of social engagement with their mothers; a Disengaged cluster (60%) showed a tendency to be low in social interaction and a Negatively Engaged cluster (7%) showed high negative emotionality. During the Still-Face episode, the Socially Engaged cluster reacted by reducing focus on their mother and shifting their attention elsewhere, while infants in the Disengaged cluster reduced focus on the environment. Although both the Socially Engaged and Disengaged clusters increased in negative emotionality during the Still-Face, the Socially Engaged group largely recovered during the Reunion, whereas the Disengaged group displayed more negative emotion. The Negatively Engaged cluster demonstrated high levels of negative affect throughout the entire procedure. Mothers of Negatively Engaged infants showed less positive engagement and more social monitoring than mothers in other clusters during all episodes. Dyadic interaction differed between groups, with greater levels of matching and reparations in the engaged group, less in the Disengaged group, and very little coordination in the Negatively Engaged cluster. Findings highlight the role of distinctive patterns of infants' individual differences in determining early dyadic functioning.