Eudaimonic Well-Being of Italian Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Predictive and Mediating Roles of Fear of Death and Psychological Inflexibility.

The literature has widely acknowledged the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of young adults. Despite extensive research, eudaimonic well-being, which focuses on self-knowledge and self-realization, has been scarcely investigated. This cross-sectional study aimed to add knowledge on the eudaimonic well-being of young adults one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, verifying its potential linkages with fear of death and psychological inflexibility. A total of 317 young Italian adults (18-34 years), recruited through a chain sampling method, completed measures of psychological inflexibility, fear of death, and eudaimonic well-being included in an online survey. The study's hypotheses were tested with multivariate multiple regression and mediational analyses. Results showed that psychological inflexibility was negatively associated with all the dimensions of well-being, while fear of the death of others was associated with autonomy, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance. Furthermore, in the association between fear of death and well-being, the mediation role of psychological inflexibility was verified. These results contribute to the extant literature on the factors associated with eudaimonic well-being, providing clinical insights into the work with young adults within challenging times.

The extended unconscious group field and metabolization of pandemic experience: dreaming together to keep cohesion alive.

Working with dreams in groups allows an understanding of phenomena that characterise the unconscious as a total unity. The dreamer becomes the vehicle of emotions, fantasies, and anxieties that dominate the group at a given moment, allowing them to be understood and processed. The analysis of shared dreams can further our understanding of emotional concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its psychological repercussions. Six sessions of social dreaming were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Our aim was not to investigate differences between and within groups: the analysis was performed by identifying the core themes encompassing the contents of dreaming sessions, as products constructed by and within groups that are informative of society's collective unconscious more broadly. The narratives were transcribed and thematic analysis was performed with the support of Atlas.ti software. Three main themes were identified: i) nightmares' descriptions and the links with the COVID-19 pandemic; ii) loss of control within the unexpected outbreak: the pandemic as a learned helplessness context and environmental mastery as an emergent psychological issue; and iii) recalls of the child-past as continuity-makers within the continuity-breaking pandemic present. Through the qualitative analysis of dream narratives, we identified the links between individuals and the shared field. It is arguable that, by sharing dreams, the members of the group develop meanings useful to process the painful experience that unites them, as the three main themes show.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation: From Research to Group Therapy.

The concept of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) refers to a variety of processes in which emotion regulation occurs as part of live social interactions and includes, among others, also those interpersonal interactions in which individuals turn to others to be helped or to help the others in managing emotions. Although IER may be a concept of interest in group therapy, specific theoretical insights in this field appear to be missed. In this article, we firstly provide a review of IER definitions, of classifications of IER strategies, and of IER clinical conceptualizations. Afterwards, we discuss the relevance of considering IER for group therapy, both in terms of non-specific group therapeutic factors and of group therapy techniques promoting adaptive emotion regulation, underlining the potentially relevant role of IER behaviors as intrinsically involved in group experience.

[Evaluation of burnout and alexithymia in a group of nurses in palliative care: a pilot study.] / La valutazione del burnout e dell'alessitimia in un gruppo di operatori in cure palliative: uno studio pilota.

OBJECTIVES: Health workers, particularly those working in palliative care, are confronted daily with situations that increase stress and emotional fatigue, since constantly exposed to the disease and the death of patients. The proximity to the pain and the feelings of psychological suffering of patients submits them to a very intense emotional charge, making them susceptible to burnout. The skills required for those involved in this type of assistance are very specific and it is therefore necessary training that is aimed at providing the healthcare professional knowledge and basic skills, both professional and empathic, because the service is of good quality. Psychological support for nursing staff is a key factor in giving voice to the anxieties that inevitably rise in palliative care. METHODS: The paper reports the evaluation of a psychological intervention for health workers (doctors and nurses) of a Hospice of Central Italy. It was measured the level of burnout and alexithymia of the workers in order to investigate possible relationships between the two constructs and assess the change in scores after the psychological intervention. RESULTS: The results showed a positive correlation between the total score of alexithymia and emotional exhaustion subscale (r = .44, p = .023) and an inverse correlation between the total score of alexithymia and Personal fulfilment subscale (r = - 0:55, p = .003). In addition, there is a reduction of the scores in both alexithymia dimensions and emotional exhaustion subscale. CONCLUSIONS: The results show the effectiveness of the intervention and invite us to continue to search for further relations between the construct of burnout and alexithymia and other variables.