A Systematic Review on Assessing Assessments: Unveiling Psychometric Properties of Instruments for Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder in Minors under Protective Measures.

BACKGROUND: Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED) manifest in individuals facing attachment system challenges, particularly observed in minors under protective measures. The lack of standardized tools for assessing these difficulties and uncertainty about the most effective instruments from a psychometric perspective prompted this study. AIM: Using the COSMIN checklist, we systematically reviewed instruments assessing RAD, adhering to PRISMA. METHODOLOGY: Examined tools included the Disturbance Attachment Interview, Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment, Relationship Patterns Questionnaire, Assessment of RAD and DSED, Development and Well-Being Assessment, and Reactive Attachment Disorder Questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the 10 articles analyzed, the results highlight a research emphasis on internal consistency and structural and construct validity, sidelining other properties. CONCLUSION: Most articles review structural validity and internal consistency. These measures are satisfactory but insufficiently evaluated. It is necessary to evaluate these tools using other indicators such as cross-cultural validity, measurement error, or responsiveness in adolescents under protective measures.

Reactive Attachment Disorder and Its Relationship to Psychopathology: A Systematic Review.

This study aimed to determine, through a systematic review, the relationship between Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and the presence of psychopathology in children and adolescents, and to determine the existence of differences in terms of internalising and externalising psychological problems between the RAD group and groups with other disorders or with typical development. Following the PRISMA methodology, a search was carried out in the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases. The search yielded 770 results, of which only 25 met the inclusion criteria. The results indicate a relationship between the presence of RAD and/or disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED), with the presence of internalising and externalising problems. These difficulties are more present in children with RAD compared to children without personal difficulties, or children with DSED, children with autism, children with intellectual disabilities or children with hyperactivity. It can be concluded that the presence of RAD has negative consequences on the mental health of children and adolescents, with these being greater in the inhibited group than in the disinhibited group, and with respect to children with autism or hyperactivity.

Systematic Observation of Emotional Regulation in the School Classroom: A Contribution to the Mental Health of New Generations.

Emotional regulation is a developmental milestone, as it promotes well-being throughout life. Children between 10 and 12 years old are expected to reach capacities that allow them to regulate themselves emotionally, the school context being a natural setting for this challenge. With the objective of analyzing the forms of expression and regulation of emotions that are observed in the school classroom, this research was conducted through a mixed methods study that systematically observed nine classes during five sessions each. The design was Nomothetic, Follow-up and Multidimensional; the observations were recorded on audio and in person and were later transformed into data by coding them according to an ad hoc designed instrument. The concordance of the records was evaluated, a sequential analysis of delays (GSEQ5) was performed to detect regularities and existing sequences, and a polar coordinate analysis (HOISAN) observed the relationships between the categories. Finally, the presence of multiple cases was detected. The results detail the ways in which different actors express emotions and interact, regulating the emotions of other people. The results are discussed based on the need to foster educational intentionality and allow students' emotional self-regulation.

Systematic Review and Critical Appraisal of Five of the Most Recurrently Validated Child Maltreatment Assessment Instruments from 2010 to 2020.

Assessment of child maltreatment has been inconsistent across literature due to its complexity, multidimensionality, and the variety of conceptualizations of this construct. Five instruments have recurrently examined psychometric properties across the last years of research: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure, Child Abuse Potential Inventory, Identification of Parents at Risk for child Abuse and Neglect, and Psychosocial Screening Tool. This article aims to examine and wrap up the knowledge regarding the psychometric properties of these instruments. A systematic review was performed through three of the most relevant databases in order to identify the most validated instruments to assess child maltreatment from 2010 to 2020, and 19 research articles were identified. Results indicate that there is a lack of information regarding some psychometric properties and therefore, in the light of this information, it is not possible to clearly determine if there are instruments with stronger scientific evidence for their psychometric properties, although the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure Scale (MACE) obtained the strongest psychometric evidence. This systematic review provided a comprehensive review on the main psychometric properties of five child maltreatment instruments in order to facilitate researchers and child welfare professionals the selection of the most suitable instrument for their specific purpose. We recommend addressing these gaps of information by further examining the psychometric properties of these instruments, and developing valid and reliable instruments for early detection in child maltreatment.

Emotional Self-Regulation in Everyday Life: A Systematic Review.

Emotional self-regulation in childhood and adolescence constitutes a growing interest in the scientific community, highlighting in recent years the need to observe its development in their daily life. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to characterize publications referring to the development of emotional self-regulation of people under 18 years-old, in natural contexts. Based on the PRISMA guidelines, searches are carried out in the Web of Science, Scopus and PsycINFO databases, and in Google Scholar until May 2020. After reviewing the full text of 376 publications, 14 works are selected that are observed in their extrinsic, substantive and methodological characteristics based on the GREOM and MQCOM guidelines, by two independent evaluators. Most of the studies correspond to the last 20 years, increasing the interest in observing older children, in interaction with adults and/or in different cultures. They apply mixed methodologies, not always ascribing to a low intensity design. Strengths are observed regarding the collection and analysis of the quality of the data; and weaknesses related to the failure to record the duration and sequence of behaviors, highlighting the use of guidelines as guides for future research.

Psychosocial Effects of COVID-19 in the Ecuadorian and Spanish Populations: A Cross-Cultural Study.

The world's population is currently overcoming one of the worst pandemics, and the psychological and social effects of this are becoming more apparent. We will present an analysis of the psychosocial effects of COVID-19: first, a cross-sectional study in an Ecuadorian sample (n = 301) and second, a comparative study between two samples from the Ecuadorian and Spanish populations (n = 83 each one). Participants completed an online survey to (1) describe how they felt (depression, anxiety, and stress) before and after confinement; (2) analyze which emotional and behavioral variables predict depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress perceived after the confinement; (3) carry out a comparative study in a sample of Ecuadorian and Spanish surveys. Results indicate, first, that Ecuadorians experience significantly more depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress after confinement. Second, variables which predict depressive symptoms and anxiety are greater public prosocial tendency, less stress as a challenge, and greater stress as a threat, as well as an empathetic tendency that implies greater emotional regulation. Experienced stress after confinement was predicted by a greater public prosocial tendency, as well as an empathetic tendency. Finally, scores for depression, anxiety, and stress are higher after confinement in both countries. However, results reveal the similarity of the psychosocial effects that are being experienced, regardless of the country, and the differences in the variables that can help explain these effects. This can contribute to the constitution of intervention plans which aim to soften and alleviate the effects produced by a situation such as that experienced with COVID-19.

Traditional Masculinity and Aggression in Adolescence: Its Relationship with Emotional Processes.

Traditional masculinity includes norms that encourage many of the aggressive behaviors whereas traditional femininity emphasizes aggression very little. In addition, the lack of emotional regulation as well as a poor impulse control have been related to aggression and, in particular, with reactive and proactive aggression. The objective of this study is to examine the role of gender stereotypes (masculinity/femininity) in reactive and proactive aggression, through regulatory emotional self-efficacy and emotion regulation. A total of 390 adolescents participated in a longitudinal study in Valencia, Spain. Structural equations modeling (SEM) was employed to explore a two-wave longitudinal model. The results show that femininity relates to reactive aggression through regulatory emotional self-efficacy and emotion regulation. This way, both emotional self-efficacy and emotional regulation mediate the relation between femininity and reactive aggression. Furthermore, reactive and proactive aggression relate positively and directly to masculinity and negatively to femininity. Therefore, violence prevention programs with adolescents should incorporate information to break down gender stereotypes and promote strategies to manage emotions. Such efforts may be helpful to reduce aggressive behaviors and violence.

Victimization and Peer and Parents Attachment: The Mediating Effect of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy.

Studies of the Spanish adolescent population has concluded that victimization is related to lack of emotional regulation and impulse control. Therefore, if a victim is unable to recognize, understand and regulate their emotions, this can result in rejection by their peers. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine regulatory emotional self-efficacy as a possible mediator in the association between peer and parents attachment and victimization. Adolescents (n = 563) completed Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy, Inventory of Parents and Peer Attachment and Kid at School questionnaires. Structural equation models (SEMs) were used to predict a latent variable of victimization with parents and peer attachment, emphasizing the mediating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy, as comprised by a positive and a negative aspect. Results showed that peer attachment had an indirect negative effect, through perceived self-efficacy, in managing a positive effect in victimization, while father attachment had an indirect negative affect, through perceived self-efficacy, in managing a negative affect in victimization, and Mother attachment had no statistically significant indirect effect in victimization. This study suggests that the roles of parents and peers, and also between mothers and fathers, are different in relation to the perception of victimization of adolescents. Findings provide relevant information regarding implications for prevention and intervention in victimization.

Depression and aggressive behaviour in adolescents offenders and non-offenders.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent behaviour is strongly linked to emotions. The aim of this study is 1) analyse the differences between young offenders and non-offenders in emotional instability, anger, aggressive behaviour, anxiety and depression, and also the differences according to sex; and 2) compare the relation between emotional instability and anxiety, depression and aggressive behaviour mediated or modulated by anger in both groups. METHOD: participants are 440 adolescents, both male and female (15-18 years old). 220 were young offenders from four different correctional centres of the Valencia Region. The other 220 participants were randomly chosen from ten public and private schools in the Valencia metropolitan area. In the Schools the instruments were applied collectively in the classroom, with a 50 minutes maximum duration. In the Youth Detention Centre the application was carried out in small groups. RESULTS: The structural equation model (SEM) carried out on each group, young offenders and non-offenders show a relation between the assessed variables. Emotional instability appears strongly related with anger in both samples, but anger just predicts depression and aggressive behaviour in the offender population. CONCLUSIONS: The results give relevant information for treatment and prevention of aggressive behaviour and delinquency in teenagers through emotional regulation.

Validación del Cuestionario de Conciencia Emocional en Adolescentes Españoles / Validation of Emotional Awareness Questionnaire in Spanish Adolescent

La regulación de la emoción es un proceso complejo que implica la iniciación, inhibición o modulación del propio estado o comportamiento en una situación dada (Cole, Michel & Teti, 1994). La regulación emocional tiene una función altamente significativa en la vida humana ya que reacciones emocionales inapropiadas, extremas o incontroladas pueden impedir un ajuste funcional a la sociedad (Koole, 2009). Sin embargo para una adecuada regulación emocional es necesaria una buena comprensión emocional y, a su vez, para una comprensión eficaz se requiere una apropiada percepción emocional. En este estudio se analizan las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española del Cuestionario de Conciencia Emocional revisado (Emotional Awareness Questionnaire, EAQ30) desarrollado por Rieffe, Oosterveld, Miers, Terwogt y Ly (2008). La versión española del EAQ30 fue administrada a 1.316 adolescentes españoles de 14 a 16 años. Los datos confirman la estructura original de la escala de seis factores: Distinción de las emociones, Intercambio verbal de las emociones, No ocultamiento de las emociones, Conciencia corporal, Análisis de las emociones y Atención a las emociones de los otros. Los coeficientes de consistencia interna de las subescalas del EAQ30 fueron satisfactorios y equivalentes a los obtenidos en la escala original. Por otra parte, el estudio también confirmó la invariancia de la estructura factorial del instrumento cuando se considera el sexo, en la adolescencia media. Estos resultados permitirían sostener que la adaptación al español aquí presentada puede ser utilizada para evaluar el constructo conciencia emocional en adolescentes de lengua española de un modo válido y confiable en ambos sexos.

Emotional awareness is an attentional process that enables us to monitor our emotions and to differentiate between various emotions in a qualitative sense, to locate their antecedents, and to acknowledge the physiological correlates of the emotion experience (Rieffe, Oosterveld, Miers, Terwogt, & Ly, 2008). Rieffe and colaborators (2008) consider that emotional awareness also includes attitudinal aspects such as positive or negative appreciation of the own emotions, consideration of them as aspects of oneself, or on the contrary, that they must be communicated to the others. Emotional awareness would be a cognitive skill that would enable the opportunity to regulate the most primitive emotional reactions and find patterns that are more appropriate reaction to a particular context (Rieffe, Terwogt, Petrides, Cowan, Miers, & Tolland, 2007). It is necessary to have a good emotional awareness to adequately cope a particular situation. Since there were no scales to measure emotional awareness but often alexithymia scales were used to evaluate it as its opposed emotional state, Rieffe and colleagues (2007) developed the Emotional Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ). Different analyses carried out by Rieffe and collaborators led to the Revised Emotional Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ Revised - Rieffe et al., 2008). Subsequent studies developed by Lahaye, Luminet, Broeck, Bodart, and Mikolajczak (2010) using the revised Emotional Awareness Questionnaire, found a positive correlation of the questionnaire’s six dimensions with emotional intelligence. The same study showed a negative correlation between emotional awareness and the three dimensions - difficulty in identifying feelings, difficulty in describing feelings, and oriented to an external thinking - that make up Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children developed by Rieffe, Oosterveld, and Meerum Terwogt (2006). Given the importance of emotional awareness to the emotional development of children and adolescents and that there are no instruments published in Spanish that validly measure this construct, in this study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Emotional Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ 30; Rieffe et al., 2008). The EAQ30 is a self-report questionnaire comprising 30 items rated on a 3-point scale (1 = Not true, 2 = Sometimes true, 3 = True). It includes six subscales or dimensions: (1) Differentiating emotions or ability to differentiate and understand the causes of emotions; (2) Bodily awareness or identification of the physical aspects of emotional experience; (3) Verbal sharing or verbal communication’s own emotional state; (4) Acting out emotions or impulsive tendency to show emotions of oneself in a way non- functional; (5) Analyses of emotionsor ability to deal voluntarily to one’s emotions; and finally, and (6) Attending to others’ emotions or the voluntary decision to deal with the emotions of others. The EAQ30 was administered to 1316 children aged 14 to 16 years old (age: M = 14.95; SD = .72), from Valencia (Spain), of middle socioeconomic level. The translation of this questionnaire was performed according to the International Test Commission guidelines for test adaptation (Hambleton, 2001). Asix-factor model was tested using AMOS Program; the results have shown that the original 6-factor structure was replicated in our data. The internal consistency coefficients of the EAQ30 subscales were satisfactory -Cronbach’s estimates between .68 and .70- and equivalent to those obtained in the original scale. A multiple group analysis was used to test whether the six-factor model was invariant across the gender by examining the change in model ji square and comparative fit index (CFI) values. We found the model of 6-factor has metric invariant through gender. These results allow us to claim that the Spanish version presented here can be used to evaluate the construct emotional awareness in Spanish adolescents of a valid and reliable way. It would be interesting to do further studies with different Spanish-speaking populations to see if the stability of the structure is preserved after making appropriate adjustments to the specific language in the use of Spanish for each of the populations involved.

Adaptación y validación en población española de la Escala de Expectativa de los hijos adolescentes sobre la reacción de sus padres frente al comportamiento prosocial y antisocial / Adaptation and Validation in Spanish Sample of Adolescents' Expected Parental Reactions to Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors

El objetivo de esta investigación es presentar una adaptación y validación en población española de la Escala de Expectativa de los hijos adolescentes sobre la reacción de sus padres frente al comportamiento prosocial y antisocial, desarrollada por Wyatt y Carlo (2002). La muestra estuvo compuesta por 631 adolescentes españoles de entre 15 a 18 años de edad, de clase media, de ambos sexos. Se realizó un análisis factorial confirmatorio para estudiar la validez de constructo de la escala y se analizó la consistencia interna a través del cálculo del alpha de Cronbach. Los resultados indican que la escala posee buenos índices de ajuste al modelo teórico propuesto por los autores en su versión original. Asimismo, se realizó un análisis multigrupo con la intención de mostrar la invarianza del modelo en función del sexo. El modelo se mantuvo invariante, lo que confirma la estructura bifactorial de la escala que mide la expectativa de los adolescentes de la reacción de sus padres frente a las conductas adaptativas y desadaptativas.

The aim of this study is to carry out an adaptation and validation of Adolescents' Expected Parental Reactions Scale in Spanish sample. This original scale was developed by Wyatt and Carlo (2002). The sample was composed by 631 adolescents, between 15 and 18 years, middle-class and both sexes. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to study construct validity and with Cronbach's alpha was studied internal consistence. The results showed that scale has good fit indexes to theoretical model proposed by original authors. On the other hand, a multigroup analysis was carried out to study the invariance of model through both sexes. The model was invariant, this supports the bifactiral structure of the scale that assessments adolescents' expected parental reactions on prosocial and antisocial behaviors.