Establishing Levels of Personality Functioning Using the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO-R): a Latent Profile Analysis.

Both the new ICD-11 and the latest Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders focus on self and interpersonal functioning as the central feature of personality pathology, also acknowledging that personality disorders are organized along a dimensional continuum of severity. This revised understanding is in line with long-standing psychodynamic conceptualisations of personality pathology, in particular Kernberg's object relations model of personality organization. Despite existing evidence for the clinical utility of the derived Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO-R), empirical support for the identification of clear cut-points between the different levels of personality functioning is missing. For this purpose, a total of 764 adult participants were recruited across two clinical (outpatient and inpatient) settings (n = 250) and two non-clinical (university students and general community) samples (n = 514). Results from the mixture modeling suggested the existence of five groups across the clinical and non-clinical samples that covered: healthy personality functioning, maladaptive personality rigidity, and mild, moderate, and severe levels of personality pathology. All five indicators of personality organization were found to be reliable predictors of personality pathology. Of the five STIPO-R indicators, Aggression and Moral Values had the most discriminative power for differentiating between the Mild, Moderate, and Severe personality disorder groups. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Attachment styles, mental health, and trauma during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in an Italian adult population.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted adults' mental health around the world. Various studies highlighted the role of sociodemographic risk factors, including age, gender, and level of education, in increasing this impact. Although insecure attachment styles are considered a vulnerability factor for psychopathology and difficulties in coping with stressful situations, few studies have examined the role of attachment styles in relation to psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the role of attachment styles in affecting psychopathological problems and post-traumatic symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of Italian adults (N=1548). During the first lockdown in Italy, the Attachment Style Questionnaire, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Symptom Checklist 90-Revised were administered to the participants to assess attachment styles, trauma-related symptoms, and psychopathological problems. The results showed that 41% of the participants had symptoms of clinical and subclinical relevance during the pandemic. Anxious and avoidant insecure attachment styles predicted psychopathological problems and post-traumatic symptoms, whereas secure attachment style was a protective factor. Our results highlighted the significant role played by the quality of attachment styles on adult mental health during the pandemic, providing valuable elements for targeted psychological support interventions.