Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors.

The psychosocial adaptation of children born or experiencing their early years during the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain. In order to implement prevention strategies, it is, therefore, a priority to deeply analyze children's mental health in this post-pandemic phase and to identify family risk and protective factors. Indeed, recent studies reveal that children's emotional distress increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in situations of high parental stress. The study investigates associations between some parental characteristics (coping strategies, parental burnout, resilience, perception of social support, and promotion of children's social-emotional competence) and children's emotional symptoms, considering gender differences. A total of 358 parents of children aged 2 to 6 years participated in this study. Regression analyses show that parental burnout is a predictor of emotional symptoms; moreover, for females, higher levels of emotional symptoms are associated with parental maladaptive coping strategies, whereas for males, the parent's ability to promote children's emotional competence is a protective factor. Results emphasize the importance of supporting parental well-being as a critical factor in shielding children from the repercussions of adverse situations.

Emotional Competence of Early Childhood Educators and Child Socio-Emotional Wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood educators are attachment figures for babies and play an important role in emotion socialization. This study aims to analyze the role of educators as emotional socializers and its relationship with infants' social competence and attachment security, considering various characteristics of educators (age, years of experience, level of knowledge of development and parenting) and the context (day-care center-family communication). METHODS: 563 infants attending day-care centers (age: M = 25.98 months SD = 5.41) and their 223 early childhood educators (age: M = 42.61 SD = 11.02) took part in this study. The educators completed: CEESQ-Crèche Educator Emotional Style Questionnaire, Information Sources Questionnaire, two sub-scales of KIDI-Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory, QRS-F-Questionnaire on the Relationship between Services and Families, QPI-Questionnaire on Peer Interactions, and AQS-Attachment-Q-Sort. RESULTS: Results showed that the educator's coaching style has a relationship with attachment security and social skills and is positively correlated with the educators' emotional self-efficacy and with the level of communication between day-care centers and families, while the correlation with knowledge of parenting is weak. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of enhancing not only educators' knowledge about educative strategies, but above all their emotional competence to promote children adaptation to day-care centers.

Student-teacher conflict moderates the link between students' social status in the classroom and involvement in bullying behaviors and exposure to peer victimization.

INTRODUCTION: Student-teacher relationships have been shown to influence bullying-related behaviors in students. In this study we considered the moderating role of student-teacher conflict and students' social status in the classroom and involvement in bullying behaviors and peer victimization. METHODS: Sample consisted of 1742 students (47.2% females, mean age = 10.79; SD = 1.36; range = 8-14) clustered in 113 classrooms, of which 1017 (58.4%) attended primary schools and 725 (41.6%) attended lower secondary schools. We implemented a series of multilevel analyses aimed at determining the role of student-teacher conflict, and students' social status among classroom peers (i.e., average, popular, rejected, neglected, and controversial statuses), as well their interaction, in influencing verbal, physical, and social forms of bullying and victimization at school. RESULTS: Student-teacher conflict had a significant positive effect on all bullying and victimization variables. Regarding students' social status, rejected students showed increased bullying and victimization when compared with average students, except in social bullying. Significant interactions emerged indicating that a highly conflictual student-teacher relationship exacerbated bullying behaviors and the risk of victimization among rejected students. Additionally, popular students who had conflictual relationship with their teachers were more likely to engage in physical bullying then average students. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests the importance of low conflictual student-teacher relationships in acting as a buffer for aggressive student-student interactions in the classroom, especially when these interactions involve students rejected by their classroom peers.

Maternal Attachment Representations during Pregnancy, Perinatal Maternal Depression, and Parenting Stress: Relations to Child's Attachment.

BACKGROUND: This paper aimed to explore the associations between maternal representations of attachment evaluated during pregnancy, pre and postnatal maternal depression, parenting stress and child's attachment at 15 months after childbirth. METHODS: Mothers (n = 71), and their infants participated in a longitudinal study of maternal attachment, pre and postnatal depression, parenting stress and child attachment. Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was conducted between 24 and 26 weeks of pregnancy (Time 1), depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale (EPDS) (at Time 1 and 6 months after childbirth, i.e., Time 2), parenting stress was assessed using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PS-SF) (at Time 2) and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at child's 15 months of age (Time 3). RESULTS: Free-autonomous maternal classification of attachment increases the likelihood of secure child classification in her offspring, while decreases that of avoidance and ambivalence. Insecure maternal representation of attachment evaluated during pregnancy and higher levels of parenting stress at six months after childbirth was associated with higher rates of infant insecure attachment at 15 months. CONCLUSIONS: Our study validates the importance of considering maternal representations of attachment crucial in determining the quality of the caregiving environment, thereby the healthy development of children, despite the presence of other contextual risk.

Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Victimization Across Three Generations: a Cross-Sectional Study.

Using data gathered from grandparents (G1), parents (G2), and young adults (G3), this study examines the continuity of intergenerational victimization (physical, emotional, and sexual) across three generations. The study included data from 168 participants within three generations: grandparents, G1 (19.2% male, 80.8% female, M = 78.13 years old); parents, G2 (25.5% male, 74.5% female, M = 50.13 years old); and young adults, G3 (40% male, 60% female, M = 21.10 years old). The data is analyzed at two levels: (1) bivariate analyses to address relationships between the variables studied by Spearman's correlations, and (2) a path model to examine the intergenerational abuse simultaneously considering all variables. Overall, path modeling showed that experienced abuse demonstrated continuity from G1 to G2 and from G2 to G3. Specifically, findings indicated that grandparents' physical and psychological victimization has a direct effect on parents' sexual and physical abuse victimization, respectively. Additionally, parents' physical victimization has a direct effect on young adults' psychological and sexual victimization, while parents' psychological victimization has a direct effect on young adults' physical and sexual victimization. These findings highlight the need for preventive interventions focused on breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse.

First-Time Mothers' and Fathers' Developmental Changes in the Perception of Their Daughters' and Sons' Temperament: Its Association With Parents' Mental Health.

OBJECTIVE: Most studies investigating the role of parenting behaviors on a child's development are directed to mothers. However, recent analyses show that mothers and fathers have a different influence on a child's functioning, specifically her/his temperament. The present study explored the developmental change of parents' perception of their daughters' and sons' temperament and its association with parental mental health problems. METHODS: The sample included 188 parents (94 couples) and their at-term 94 babies (55.3% boys, 44.7% girls). Assessments by self-reports were conducted at 3 (Time 1) and 12 (Time 2) months after the children's birth; at Time 1, mothers and fathers independently answered: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R). At Time 2, EPDS, STAI, and IBQ-R were again administered to mothers and fathers. RESULTS: In general, mothers and fathers would give similar descriptions of their child's temperament throughout the first year of life; however, infant temperament showed developmental changes as well as gender differences. Mother and father anxiety and depression symptoms are associated with the infants' negative affectivity. Also, mothers with high anxiety and depression levels perceive their infants with a minor tendency to approach novelty, to seek environmental stimulation, and to express/experience positive emotions. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the need to screen for infants' temperament vulnerabilities in the context of maternal and paternal depression in order to protect the child from behavioral, cognitive, and emotional difficulties and to create specific programs aimed at preventing dysfunctional parent-infant relationships.

Early styles of interaction in mother-twin infant dyads and maternal mental health.

Transition to parenthood is considered a critical process for mothers of twins. There are, however, few studies on the subject. This study aims to evaluate the differences between mother-twin infant dyads and mother-singleton infant dyads with regard to maternal depression, anxiety, parenting stress, and the quality of mother-infant interaction. Mothers of twin infants (N = 40) were compared to mothers of singletons (N = 72). At infant 3 months, maternal depression, anxiety, and parenting stress were assessed via a questionnaire and styles of interaction with the Care-Index. The results indicated that mothers of twins (vs mothers of singletons) had significantly higher state anxiety and higher scores on the Difficult Child Scale of the Parenting Stress Index at infant 3 months. No significant differences between the two groups were found with regard to maternal depression. Mothers of twins had significantly lower sensitivity and were more unresponsive than mothers of singletons. Twin infants had significantly more difficult and compliant behaviours than singleton infants. Assisted reproductive treatment (ART) and prematurity had no effect on any of the examined variables. State anxiety was shown to partially mediate the relationship between twin parenthood and maternal sensitivity and to completely mediate the relationship between twin parenthood and infant difficult style. Maternal unresponsiveness was shown to be exclusively linked to being the parent of twins. The study shows that twin parenthood has a significant effect on maternal mental health and on the quality of mother-infant interaction and highlights the importance of early prevention programmes for twin parents.

Students' Psychological Adjustment in Normative School Transitions From Kindergarten to High School: Investigating the Role of Teacher-Student Relationship Quality.

School transitions require students to adapt to new challenges and situations and can increase the risk of externalizing and internalizing psychological symptoms. The teacher-student relationship seems to be a protective factor for the risk of developing psychological symptoms during school transitions. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the quality of the teacher-student relationship predicts the decrease of internalizing and externalizing symptoms during three school transitions, namely: from kindergarten to primary school (T1), from primary to middle school (T2), and from middle to high school (T3). We recruited 127 kindergarten students (mean age = 5.40, SD = 0.49), 113 fifth grade primary school students (mean age = 10.64, SD = 0.54), and 240 eighth grade students (mean age = 13.88, SD = 0.37) and their teachers (response rate = 95%). Data were collected from 2016 to 2018. Teachers filled out an anonymous survey, acting as informants for the students, reporting demographic details (age, gender), psychological symptoms, and quality of the teacher-student relationship. The data show that a positive teacher-student relationship quality tends to be associated with a reduction of psychological symptoms. A stable, low-conflict teacher-student relationship was confirmed as a protective factor from increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms during all normative school transitions. Furthermore, we see that an increase in teacher-student conflict during the transitions from primary to middle school, and from middle to high school is linked to an exacerbation in students' externalizing symptoms during the first year of attendance of the new school. Our study confirms the importance of the teacher-student relationship in reducing psychological symptoms associated with school transitions, in every type of transition, favoring an improved psychological adjustment to the new environment. A positive teacher-student relationship represents a protective factor for the development of students. Study limitations are discussed.

Exploring the Dimensional Structure of Bullying Victimization Among Primary and Lower-Secondary School Students: Is One Factor Enough, or Do We Need More?

In adolescence, bullying victimization is typically represented in terms of a three-fold factor structure reflecting three components of verbal, physical, and social victimization. Recent studies have suggested the usefulness of alternativte models including both general and component-specific factors. In this study, we assessed the empirical and theoretical validity of an instrument assessing verbal, physical and social victimization using a set of alternative models of victimization: a unidimensional model, a three-factor model, and a bifactor model. Association between emerging factors and student variables were explored to establish theoretical fit of the models. Sample consisted of upper primary and lower secondary school students [N = 1311; 53% Male; Mean age (SD) = 10.73 (1.45)] and their teachers. The three factor and bifactor models showed good fit. In spite of acceptable fit, the unidimensional model showed lower empirical support when compared with the other models. The dimensions of the three-factor model showed similar associations with most student variables, while the bifactor showed more heterogeneous, and theoretically coherent associations. General victimization decreased with age and was positively related with externalizing and internalizing symptoms, student-teacher conflict and negative expectations. Verbal victimization showed increased prevalence among girls and older students. Physical victimization showed increased prevalence among boys and younger students, and positive associations with externalizing symptoms and student-teacher conflict. Social victimization was more frequent among girls, and positively related with internalizing symptoms and negative expectations toward teachers. These findings highlight the usefulness of modeling victimization using both general and form-specific dimensions for both assessment and theory-building purposes.

Examining the selection of university courses in young adults with learning disabilities.

The literature contains a great deal of research on Specific Learning Disorders (SpLDs). However, almost all of the studies related to SpLDs deal with the difficulties that said disorders cause during childhood or adolescence. An interest in adults with SpLDs is only recent, especially in university students like those in this study. In Italy, research on SpLDs in higher education is rather limited. This study aims to rectify this lack of data by making a brief analysis of the data on SpLDs prevalence in higher education and of the courses chosen by university students with SpLDs. Our sample consisted of 585 students with SpLDs enrolled at 19 public universities that communicated the number of students who contacted their offices of service for students with SpLDs. The prevalence of students with SpLDs in the higher education populations we sample had a mean of 0.13% (SD = 0.11) and ranged from 0.03% to 0.48%. The data showed that the higher education faculties with the highest number of reported SpLDs students in our sample were Statistics, Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Education, and Architecture. It is important to analyse the trend in university enrolment of student with SpLDs to protect the right to education for people with SpLDs.

Young Adult Retrospective Reports of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Prevalence of Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Abuse in Italy.

This study sought to understand the prevalence of childhood abuse in Italy using an instrument developed by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) and adapted to the Italian context. The study participants were 312 young adults, 106 males (34%), and 206 females (64%), aged 18-24 years, from various northwest Italian universities and workplaces, using an ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool retrospective questionnaire (ICAST-R). With reference to comparative data from other countries, the Italian context reveals a high incidence of emotional abuse (62%) followed by physical abuse (44%) and sexual abuse (18%). While males reported more physical abuse, females reported more exposure to sexual and emotional abuse. Moreover, the validity of the ICAST instrument was evaluated. The internal consistency for the three subscales was similar to the findings of previous studies, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.51 for emotional abuse to 0.59 for sexual abuse. We observe that children undergo forms of emotional and physical maltreatment for disciplinary purposes, and for this reason, such abuse is excused. Greater prevention measures should be adopted in this direction. Finally, our study has contributed to the validation of the ICAST-R instrument for use in the Italian context.

Emotionally Abusive Behavior in Italian Middle School Teachers as Identified by Students.

The aim of this article was to estimate the prevalence of psychological maltreatment in Italian middle school students by their teachers, and to test the applicability of surveying instruments for this phenomenon in Italian educational settings. The sample consisted of 105 teachers and 128 middle school students, who were asked about their experiences with emotionally abusive behaviors (i.e., demeaning, discriminating, dominating, destabilizing, distancing, and diverse) in the Italian school system. Teachers did not tend to perceive their behavior as abusive, while the students showed a very high perception of abuse (98%). Males were more likely to be victims of abuse, and they also reported lower scores in the Achievement scale. Emotional child abuse is highly present in Italian educational settings, and there is a strong need for interventions aimed at supporting teacher education, in the hopes of increasing the general well-being in schools.

The evaluation of behavioural problems in the first three years of life: Comparing parents and early childhood educators.

The study investigates the degree of agreement between mothers, fathers and educators in the evaluation of early childhood behavioural problems, through the CBCL 1½-5. Data analysis indicates a good level of agreement between mothers and fathers, along with a significant divergence between parents and educators.

Fear of childbirth in primiparous Italian pregnant women: The role of anxiety, depression, and couple adjustment.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of fear of childbirth in pregnant women is described to be about 20-25%, while 6-10% of expectant mothers report a severe fear that impairs their daily activities as well as their ability to cope with labour and childbirth. Research on fear of childbirth risk factors has produced heterogeneous results while being mostly done with expectant mothers from northern Europe, northern America, and Australia. AIMS: The present research investigates whether fear of childbirth can be predicted by socio-demographic variables, distressing experiences before pregnancy, medical-obstetric factors and psychological variables with a sample of 426 Italian primiparous pregnant women. METHODS: Subjects, recruited between the 34th and 36th week of pregnancy, completed a questionnaire packet that included the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, as well as demographic and anamnestic information. Fear of childbirth was treated as both a continuous and a dichotomous variable, in order to differentiate expectant mothers as with a severe fear of childbirth. FINDINGS: Results demonstrate that anxiety as well as couple adjustment predicted fear of childbirth when treated as a continuous variable, while clinical depression predicted severe fear of childbirth. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the key role of psychological variables in predicting fear of childbirth. Results suggest the importance of differentiating low levels of fear from intense levels of fear in order to promote adequate support interventions.

Muscle dysmorphia and psychopathology: Findings from an Italian sample of male bodybuilders.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the risk of muscle dysmorphia and psychopathological symptoms in an Italian sample of male bodybuilders. METHOD: The sample was recruited online (145 men with a mean age of 30.0 years) and participants were asked to fill out the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI), Symptom Cheklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II), and to provide other socio-demographic data. Bodybuilders at risk of muscle dysmorphia display greater global psychopathology and present higher scores on all SCL-90-R dimensions when compared to bodybuilders not at risk of muscle dysmorphia. Furthermore, risk of muscle dysmorphia is positively associated to dissociative symptoms. The Competitiveness dimension and anabolic steroid intake were not related to muscle dysmorphia, while age appeared to be more significant. Findings are discussed based upon previous studies and directions for future research are suggested.

Parental practices of Italian mothers and fathers during early infancy: The role of knowledge about parenting and child development.

Our contribution aims to verify whether parental knowledge about child development and parenting constitutes a protective factor in the application of dysfunctional educational practices. Numerous studies have found that parental knowledge has a great influence on parenting, however it remains unclear whether both are casually linked in a direct and linear way. Data currently available on parental knowledge almost exclusively refers to mothers and subjects at risk. Furthermore, there are almost no studies which take into consideration subjects who are Italian citizens. In contrast our work takes into consideration a normative sample of 157 Italian couples who are the parents of children aged between 16 and 36 months and who completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory (KIDI; MacPhee, 1981) and the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O'Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993). The results highlight differences between mothers and fathers, both in terms of knowledge levels (higher for mothers) and educational practices (maternal practices are more frequently dysfunctional); knowledge influences educational practices above all in the case of fathers, although said effect is slight, which supports the idea that interaction between knowledge and parental practices is not linear but rather mediated by other factors.

Names in Psychological Science: Investigating the Processes of Thought Development and the Construction of Personal Identities.

This paper examines the name as an issue of interest in the psychology field. In thinking about the role played by names for some of the most important approaches on the psychology panorama, it has been found that the analysis of names can be used as an instrument for the investigation of thought formation processes, or as an element in the process of constructing personal identity. In the first case, the focus is on the so-called "common" names, which designate objects; in the second case, instead, it is on people's given names and on the way they are perceived by their bearers and those who surround them. We have examined both domains, since it is essential to understand how the psychological concepts related to names develop in children's minds, if we aim to grasp their importance as designators of people's internal and external realities. Lastly, we have proposed our own view of the person's name, linked to the relational systems perspective which essentially sees the name as a signifier or "representative" of the child-parent relationship, while the "relationship" is the signified.

An Analysis of Italian Newspaper Articles on the Bullying Phenomenon

This paper focuses its attention on two Italian daily newspapers circulated nationwide: La Stampa and La Repubblica. By measuring the space dedicated to this issue on these two newspapers, the study evaluates the importance newspapers attribute to this phenomenon along with the journalists’ viewpoints. We studied the headlines and articles of the daily newspaper La Stampa, starting from the year 2000 up to September 10, 2007. We analyzed a total number of 891 articles or headlines which contained the term bullying. Articles published during the same years by the newspaper La Repubblica were also studied. The complete texts were taken from a selection of 245 articles. The articles of La Stampa underwent a quantitative analysis with the software SPSS 12.0. The research took into consideration the page number, the edition and the year of publication of a number of articles that mentioned the term bullying/bully in its title or body of the text. The articles of La Repubblica, were instead subjected to a textual analysis with the software T-Lab, to identify the words used and their association to the term bullying. We reached the conclusion that during the last two years, bullying has become a highly relevant social and political theme. An increasing number of articles on bullying is not only confined to news reports, but is also found in theoretical analyses of the phenomenon and preventive measures. Without mentioning the the public interest in the phenomenon, even politics has made its moves to create permanent observers and lay down guidelines for action on the territory (AU)

El objetivo de este artículo es considerar el espacio dedicado al fenómeno del bulliyng en los periódicos de tirada nacional La Stampa y La Repubblica, la importancia que se le otorga y el punto de vista con el que se afronta. Se han tomado en consideración los artículos publicados por La Stampa desde el año 2000 al 10 de septiembre de 2007 que contienen en el titular o en el texto la palabra bullismo (bullying), un total de 891 artículos. También se ha estudiado el texto completo de una selección de 245 artículos publicados en el mismo período por La Repubblica. Los artículos de La Stampa se han analizado cuantitativamente a través del software SPSS 12.0. El análisis tuvo en consideración el número de páginas y el número de artículos que utilizan el término bullying/ bully en el título o en el texto, indicando el año en que fue publicado. Finalmente, una evaluación del tipo de artículo fue estudiado. Los artículos de La Repubblica, también fueron analizados con el sotfware T-Lab, para identificar las palabras usadas y la asociación con el término bullying. Se concluye que el bullying se ha convertido en un tema de relevancia política y social en los dos últimos años. El incremento de artículos sobre el bullying no se refiere sólo a las noticias nuevas, sino también al análisis teórico del fenómeno y las medidas preventivas. Además del interés del publico en general, en el mundo político se han tomado medidas para crear observatorios permanentes y leyes que guíen la creación de líneas de actuación en el territorio (AU)