Childhood emotional abuse and problematic social networking sites use in a sample of Italian adolescents: The mediating role of deficiencies in self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning

Objective: Childhood emotional abuse (CEA) is associated with various negative mental health outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the association between CEA and problematic social networking site (SNS) use in a sample of Italian adolescents. Design: Using structural equation modeling, the study examined whether the relationship between CEA and problematic SNS use was sequentially mediated by self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning in 1308 Italian adolescents (628 males, age range 13–19 years). Results: A history of CEA was positively associated with problematic SNS use. Furthermore, deficiencies in self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning partially mediated the relationship between CEA and problematic SNS use. Conclusions: The present study provides additional insight into the psychological dynamics underpinning problematic SNS use among adolescents. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed

Vulnerable Narcissism and Problematic Social Networking Sites Use: Focusing the Lens on Specific Motivations for Social Networking Sites Use

Research highlighted that Problematic Social Networking Sites Use (PSNSU) and vulnerable narcissism are associated. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. The present study aimed to test the mediating role of motives for social networking sites (SNSs) use between vulnerable narcissism and five symptoms of PSNSU (i.e., preference for online social interactions, mood regulation, cognitive preoccupation, compulsive use, and negative outcomes) in a sole model. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 344 SNSs users in the age range of 18–30 years (76.5% females; mean age = 23.80 years, standard deviation = 2.30 years). Vulnerable narcissism, three motives to use SNSs (coping, conformity, enhancement), and symptoms of PSNSU were assessed. Structural equation modeling was used to test for mediation. The results indicate that both motives with positive (i.e., enhancement) and negative (i.e., coping and conformity) valence partially mediated the association between vulnerable narcissism and different symptoms of PSNSU. We conclude that individuals with vulnerable narcissism may develop PSNSU not only as a compensatory strategy to cope with psychosocial difficulties but also as a result of a gratification-seeking process

Childhood emotional abuse and problematic social networking sites use in a sample of Italian adolescents: The mediating role of deficiencies in self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning.

Childhood emotional abuse (CEA) is associated with various negative mental health outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the association between CEA and problematic social networking site (SNS) use in a sample of Italian adolescents. Using structural equation modeling, the study examined whether the relationship between CEA and problematic SNS use was sequentially mediated by self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning in 1308 Italian adolescents (628 males, age range 13-19 years). A history of CEA was positively associated with problematic SNS use. Furthermore, deficiencies in self-other differentiation and uncertain reflective functioning partially mediated the relationship between CEA and problematic SNS use. The present study provides additional insight into the psychological dynamics underpinning problematic SNS use among adolescents. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed

Parental Quality of Life and Involvement in Intervention for Children or Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review

Previous research has examined several parental, child-related, and contextual factors associated with parental quality of life (QoL) among parents with a child or an adolescent with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, no systematic review has examined the relationship between parental QoL and parental involvement in intervention. To fill this gap, a systematic review was conducted using four electronic databases and checked reference lists of retrieved studies. Records were included in the systematic review if they presented original data, assessed parental QoL, and involvement in intervention for children or adolescents with ASD, were published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2020, and were written in English. Among the 96 screened full-texts, 17 articles met the eligibility criteria. The selected studies included over 2000 parents of children or adolescents with ASD. Three categories of parental involvement (i.e., none, indirect, direct) were identified, which varied across studies, although most had direct parental involvement. The results from this review show that increased parental involvement in the intervention for children or adolescents with ASD may be one way to promote their QoL. However, further research specifically focused on parental involvement during the intervention for children and adolescents with ASD is warranted

Targeting the autosomal Ceratitis capitata transformer gene using Cas9 or dCas9 to masculinize XX individuals without inducing mutations

Background: Females of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Medfly) are major agricultural pests, as they lay eggs into the fruit crops of hundreds of plant species. In Medfly, female sex determination is based on the activation of Cctransformer (Cctra). A maternal contribution of Cctra is required to activate Cctra itself in the XX embryos and to start and epigenetically maintain a Cctra positive feedback loop, by female-specific alternative splicing, leading to female development. In XY embryos, the male determining Maleness-on-the-Y gene (MoY) blocks this activation and Cctra produces male-specific transcripts encoding truncated CcTRA isoforms and male differentiation occurs. Results: With the aim of inducing frameshift mutations in the first coding exon to disrupt both female-specific and shorter male-specific CcTRA open reading frames (ORF), we injected Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (Cas9 and single guide RNA, sgRNA) in embryos. As this approach leads to mostly monoallelic mutations, masculinization was expected only in G1 XX individuals carrying biallelic mutations, following crosses of G0 injected individuals. Surprisingly, these injections into XX-only embryos led to G0 adults that included not only XX females but also 50% of reverted fertile XX males. The G0 XX males expressed male-specific Cctra transcripts, suggesting full masculinization. Interestingly, out of six G0 XX males, four displayed the Cctra wild type sequence. This finding suggests that masculinization by Cas9-sgRNA injections was independent from its mutagenic activity. In line with this observation, embryonic targeting of Cctra in XX embryos by a dead Cas9 (enzymatically inactive, dCas9) also favoured a male-specific splicing of Cctra, in both embryos and adults. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the establishment of Cctra female-specific autoregulation during the early embryogenesis has been repressed in XX embryos by the transient binding of the Cas9-sgRNA on the first exon of the Cctra gene. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that the shift of Cctra splicing from female to male mode is induced also by dCas9. Collectively, the present findings corroborate the idea that a transient embryonic inactivation of Cctra is sufficient for male sex determination

Factive Scientific Understanding Without Accurate Representation

This paper analyzes two ways idealized biological models produce factive scientific understanding. I then argue that models can provide factive scientific understanding of a phenomenon without providing an accurate representation of the (difference-making) features of their real-world target system(s). My analysis of these cases also suggests that the debate over scientific realism needs to investigate the factive scientific understanding produced by scientists’ use of idealized models rather than the accuracy of scientific models themselves

Adolescenza e solitudini

Il capitolo tratta il tema delle diverse esperienze di solitudine in adolescenza, connesse ai diversi compiti evolutivi del periodo. In particolare viene presentata una ricerca condotta con la versione italiana dell'LLCA di Marcoen, Goossens e Caes (1987), che evidenzia la distinzione tra esperienze oggettive e soggettive della solitudine e tra affinità e avversione nei confronti di tale esperienza

Il gioco solitario nei contesti educativi

Il capitolo traccia le differenti tipologie di gioco solitario che si riscontrano solitamente all'interno della scuola dell'infanzia, tra i bambini di età prescolare. Confronta inoltre le interpretazioni che di tale tipo di gioco vengono date sia dagli insegnanti sia dai genitori