Psychological Impact in Healthcare Workers During Emergencies: The Italian Experience With COVID-19 First Wave

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak imposed an overwhelming workload as well as emotional burdens on Healthcare workers (HCWs). In May 2020, an online survey was administered to HCWs in Italy to assess the pandemic's psychological impact and to investigate possible predictive factors that led to individual differences. Methods: The psychological experience was measured based on the prevalence of self-reported feelings during the pandemic, including negative and positive emotional states. We analyzed the relationship between factors of gender, age, geographic region, professional role, and operational unit, and the four-point scale used to rate the frequency of each emotional state experienced by performing several multinomial logistic regressions, one for each emotion. Results: Our findings suggest that more than half of HCWs experienced psychological distress during the first COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Female and younger respondents, especially those operating in northern Italy experienced more frequently negative emotional states such as irritability, anxiety, loneliness, and insecurity. However, positive feelings, first of all solidarity, were also reported especially by female and older workers. The majority of the negative as well as positive emotional states were experienced almost equally by both doctors and nurses, and independently of the operational unit in which they operated. Conclusions: This study can be very useful as a contribution to the current literature on the psychological effects of this pandemic on health workers. Moreover, our findings can provide useful information in planning more tailored psychological interventions to support this category of workers in the ongoing and future emergencies

Psychosocial Risk Factors and Psychopathological Outcomes: Preliminary Findings in Italian Pregnant Women

The perinatal period may represent a particularly challenging time for expecting parents. Previous studies have highlighted an association between several perinatal risk conditions (e.g., childhood maltreatment, poor social support, and stress levels) and the development of psychopathological symptoms in pregnant women, especially depression symptoms. The current study examined the effects of psychosocial risk factors (childhood maltreatment, poor social support, and stressful events) on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, irritability/anger, relationship problems, psychosomatic symptoms, specific physiological problems, and addiction/at-risk behaviors. Sixty-one pregnant women (age range = 24–45) participating in a larger study completed questionnaires about childhood maltreatment (CECA Q.), Maternity Social Support Scale (MSSS), questionnaire on stressful events, and the Perinatal Assessment of Maternal Affectivity (PAMA) during their pregnancy. Results from regression analysis indicated that the presence of childhood maltreatment predicted elevated depressive symptoms, elevated irritability and anger, and elevated relationship problems. Further, stressful events in the year prior to pregnancy predicted elevated psychosomatic symptoms during pregnancy. No other significant associations were found. In this study, traumatic childhood events were strongly associated with mental health symptoms during pregnancy. This is an important finding that suggests the importance of screening and targeting psychotherapeutic interventions for vulnerable women during pregnancy

Multiple and interpersonal trauma are risk factors for both post?traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder: A systematic review on the traumatic backgrounds and clinical characteristics of comorbid post?traumatic stress disorder/borderline personality disorder groups versus single?disorder groups

Background: Both BPD and PTSD are associated with exposure to traumatic events and are highly comorbid. No review to date has addressed the clinical presentations and traumatic backgrounds associated with these disorders although this work is essential for the development of effective interventions.Objectives: To systematically explore similarities and differences in traumatic history and clinical presentation in comorbid BPD and PTSD as compared to PTSD or BPD alone.Method: The Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PsychInfo, Medline, and PILOTS databases were searched systematically. Eligible studies included adult populations, compared comorbid BPD/PTSD to a single disorder, and published in English.Results: 10,147 cases across 33 studies were included; 2057 comorbid BPD/PTSD, 2648 BPD only, and 5442 PTSD only. The comorbid group overall reported greater exposure to multiple and interpersonal trauma and elevated emotion dysregulation compared to both single disorder groups. In terms of methodological quality, most papers achieved a Fair rating with improvements required in minimising bias through recruiting adequate and representative samples, and reporting on traumatic exposure.Conclusion: Multiple and interpersonal trauma might have a unique role in the development of comorbid BPD/PTSD features, particularly so for emotion dysregulation. Future research is required to unravel the unique characteristics of interpersonal trauma that can generate BPD and PTSD symptoms.Practitioner Points• Practitioners should routinely assess for interpersonal trauma considering its impact• Tackling emotional regulation difficulties might promote recovery from both PTSD and BPD symptoms• Presence of self-injury might be used to discriminate between PTSD and BPD and offer suitable intervention

Modifiable predictors of depression following childhood maltreatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Although maltreatment experiences in childhood increase the risk for depression, not all maltreated children become depressed. This review aims to systematically examine the existing literature to identify modifiable factors that increase vulnerability to, or act as a buffer against, depression, and could therefore inform the development of targeted interventions. Thirteen databases (including Medline, PsychINFO, SCOPUS) were searched (between 1984 and 2014) for prospective, longitudinal studies published in English that included at least 300 participants and assessed associations between childhood maltreatment and later depression. The study quality was assessed using an adapted Newcastle-Ottawa Scale checklist. Meta-analyses (random effects models) were performed on combined data to estimate the effect size of the association between maltreatment and depression. Meta-regressions were used to explore effects of study size and quality. We identified 22 eligible articles (N=12 210 participants), of which 6 examined potential modifiable predictors of depression following maltreatment. No more than two studies examined the same modifiable predictor; therefore, it was not possible to examine combined effects of modifiable predictors with meta-regression. It is thus difficult to draw firm conclusions from this study, but initial findings indicate that interpersonal relationships, cognitive vulnerabilities and behavioral difficulties may be modifiable predictors of depression following maltreatment. There is a lack of well-designed, prospective studies on modifiable predictors of depression following maltreatment. A small amount of initial research suggests that modifiable predictors of depression may be specific to maltreatment subtypes and gender. Corroboration and further investigation of causal mechanisms is required to identify novel targets for intervention, and to inform guidelines for the effective treatment of maltreated children

Sexting in adolescence: what are the reasons? An empirical study

Objectives: This study aims to provide an in-depth analysis on the phenomenon of sexting through the investigation of the motivations that lead adolescents to such practice. We took account of gender differences and the more used varieties of sexting behaviors. Recent studies have pointed out that sexual purposes, instrumental motivations and body image reinforcement, as well as the pressure exerted by partners and friends, seem to be the reasons that push teenager to resort to sexting. The aim of our research is to evaluate which of these motivations are mainly associated to sexting behaviors. Method: Our sample involved 157 teenagers aged from 13 and 20 years (M=17,39), among which 110 were female. We administered the sample the Questionnaire on Sexting Behaviors and the Questionnaire on Sexting Motivations. Results: Our results found that 69,4% of participants (n=109) reported having done sexting at least once. Statistically relevant differences emerged in favor of the male group as concerns the subdimension of received sexts and that of sent own sexts. On the other hand, no statistically significant differences were found in relation to gender and concerning the three sexting motivations, even if the results of a multivariate linear regression model have indicated that only Instrumental/aggravate reasons (p < .001) and Sexting forced by partner (p = 0.15) significantly predicted sexting. Conclusions: The role played by Instrumental motivations is a worrying wake-up call, since such behaviors can prelude to violent actions like dating violence and cyberbullying. Therefore, more in-cisive and early preventive measures are needed

Childhood adversity, bonding and family functioning – is there a specific association with borderline personality disorder in adolescents?

Objective: Despite growing evidence on risk-factors of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adults, there is a paucity of research on such specific characteristics of BPD in youth. Furthermore, studies on adolescence BPD in clinical setting are still rare. This study aimed to investigate adverse childhood experiences, parental bonding and family functioning in a sample of female adolescent inpatients with BPD, and to compare them with a clinical control group with mixed psychiatric diagnoses. Method: A consecutive sample of 91 female adolescents inpatients (ages 12-18 years) was recruited within a psychiatric university hospital. BPD was assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders. The Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q) was used to assess childhood abuse history, the Parental Bonding Instruments (PBI) was used to evaluate the parent–child bonding, and the Family Assessment Device (FAD) was used to evaluate familial functioning perceived by the adolescent. Results: A history of childhood abuse and maltreatment was significantly (p = <.001) more common in patients with BPD compared to their clinical controls. Using univariate regression, significant associations were found for all adverse childhood experiences, except for physical abuse from mother. Univariate regression analyses also showed significant associations for all subscale of the FAD and PBI. In the stepwise logistic regression model (p < .001), experiences of sexual abuse (OR = 14.11, CI = 3.21 – 62.04), problematic General Functioning (OR = 9.38, CI = 2.23 – 39.44), and low Care from mother (OR = 7.35, CI = 1.88 – 28.80) remained in the best predictive model of BPD. Conclusion: The findings of this study emphasize the importance of considering familial variables and a broad variety of adverse childhood experience in the etiology of BPD in adolescence. They have important implications for family involvement in the treatment of adolescent BPD

Le competenze degli studenti universitari: il progetto TECO

Nella giornata del 12 giugno presso l\u2019Aula Magna della \u201cSapienza\u201d Universit\ue0 di Roma si \ue8 tenuto il Convegno Nazionale \u201cLa valutazione delle competenze trasversali e disciplinari degli studenti universitari: il progetto TECO\u201d promosso dall\u2019ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione dell\u2019Universit\ue0 e della Ricerca)