Exposure to animal suffering, adult attachment styles, and professional quality of life in a sample of Italian veterinarians

Contextual and individual risk factors of veterinarians’ professional quality of life are being debated. Research suggests that attachment styles are relevant predictors of professional quality of life; however, their role in work-related well-being of veterinarians is yet to be ascertained. In the present study, self-report measures on exposure to animal suffering, adult attachment styles, and professional quality of life were administered to 1,445 Italian veterinarians (70% females) aged 24 to 74 years old; sociodemographic information and information on workload were also collected. Female gender, higher levels of ordinary workload, on-call hours per week, exposure to animal suffering, together with fearful and preoccupied attachment styles were significantly associated with lower levels of veterinarians’ quality of life. This suggests that work-related factors may combine with individual psychological features in promoting or disadvantaging the professional quality of life of veterinarians. Implications of these findings for promoting veterinarians’ quality of life and directions for future research 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

The Relationship between Psychological Distress during the Second Wave Lockdown of COVID-19 and Emotional Eating in Italian Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Emotional Dysregulation

This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the impact of psychological distress experienced during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on emotional eating and to assess the mediating role of emotional dysregulation in a sample of Italian young adults (20-35). A total of 437 participants provided demographical data and were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Emotional Eating subscale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Correlational analyses were performed to assess the relationship between continuous variables, while ANOVA was conducted to detect differences between males and females for emotional eating. To assess whether demographic and clinical data predicted emotional eating, hierarchical linear regression was performed. Then, a mediation analysis was conducted to assess whether emotional dysregulation was a mediator between psychological distress and emotional eating. Emotional eating was associated with psychological distress and emotional dysregulation. Moreover, higher levels of emotional eating were found in females than in males. Predictors of emotional eating were sex, psychological distress, and emotional dysregulation. Mediation analyses showed that the indirect effect of psychological distress on emotional eating through emotional dysregulation was significant (b = 0.0069; SE = 0.0024; CI = 0.0024-0.0118), confirming that the relationship between psychological distress and emotional eating was mediated by emotional dysregulation, controlling for sex. The model explained 26.8% (R-2 = 0.2680) of the variance. These findings may help to plan and develop psychological interventions aimed at addressing emotional eating in young adults by targeting emotional dysregulation

Modifying effect of dual antiplatelet therapy on incidence of stent thrombosis according to implanted drug-eluting stent type

Aim To investigate the putative modifying effect of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) use on the incidence of stent thrombosis at 3 years in patients randomized to Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (E-ZES) or Cypher sirolimus-eluting stent (C-SES). Methods and results Of 8709 patients in PROTECT, 4357 were randomized to E-ZES and 4352 to C-SES. Aspirin was to be given indefinitely, and clopidogrel/ticlopidine for ≥3 months or up to 12 months after implantation. Main outcome measures were definite or probable stent thrombosis at 3 years. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was applied, with stent type, DAPT, and their interaction as the main outcome determinants. Dual antiplatelet therapy adherence remained the same in the E-ZES and C-SES groups (79.6% at 1 year, 32.8% at 2 years, and 21.6% at 3 years). We observed a statistically significant (P = 0.0052) heterogeneity in treatment effect of stent type in relation to DAPT. In the absence of DAPT, stent thrombosis was lower with E-ZES vs. C-SES (adjusted hazard ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.19, 0.75; P = 0.0056). In the presence of DAPT, no difference was found (1.18; 0.79, 1.77; P = 0.43). Conclusion A strong interaction was observed between drug-eluting stent type and DAPT use, most likely prompted by the vascular healing response induced by the implanted DES system. These results suggest that the incidence of stent thrombosis in DES trials should not be evaluated independently of DAPT use, and the optimal duration of DAPT will likely depend upon stent type (Clinicaltrials.gov number NCT00476957

Is psychological distress the key factor in the association between problematic social networking sites and poor sleep quality?

Background and aims: Problematic Social Networking Sites Use (PSNSU) has been indicated as potentially detrimental for users’ mental and sleep health. The present study tested whether PSNSU is directly associated with poor sleep quality and indirectly via psychological distress (stress, anxiety, depression) in a healthy adult sample of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) users. Design: Cross-sectional study among Italian adults who completed online questionnaires between December 2020 and January 2021. Setting: Italy. Participants: A convenient sample of N = 726 SNSs users (51.8% females; mean age = 28.59 years, SD = 8.19 years). Measurements: Self-report data were collected on problematic social networking sites use, sleep quality, psychological distress (stress, anxiety, depression), and socio-demographics. Findings: PSNSU was not directly associated with poor sleep quality. Depression and stress mediated such association. Conclusion: Healthcare providers should consider psychological distress and PSNSU when encountering sleep problems, with consideration of the potentially important role of users’ age and mental health status

Problematic social networking sites use and attachment: A systematic review

A systematic review of the literature was conducted to summarize research that examined the associations between problematic social networking sites use (PSNSU) and attachment-related phenomena among adolescents and adults. Records were included in the systematic review if they presented original data, assessed attachment and PSNSU, were published in peer-reviewed journals between 2004 and 2021 and were written in English. After duplicates removal, 373 studies were found eligible for scrutiny. Among the screened full texts, 32 articles met the eligibility criteria. The selected studies included a total of 16,938 participants. Findings from these studies highlighted that PSNSU is negatively associated with indicators of secure attachment and positively associated with indicators of attachment anxiety, whereas results regarding indicators of attachment avoidance were mixed. Furthermore, an analysis of mediators showed that the relationship between PSNU and attachment-related phenomena is affected by individual, interpersonal, and SNS-related variables. Future directions for research as well as implications for clinical practice are discussed

Linking childhood emotional neglect to adolescents' parent-related loneliness : Self-other differentiation and emotional detachment from parents as mediators

Background: The detrimental role of childhood emotional neglect (CEN) on long-term affective and social development has received increasing attention in the literature. Individuals who were emotionally neglected during their childhood are more prone to feeling isolated and excluded by their parent during adolescence. However, little is known about the mediating processes underlying this association. Objective: This study investigated whether self-other differentiation (SOD) and emotional detachment from parents mediate the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness. Method and participants: A sample of 535 high school students aged 13-18 years (63.6% female; Mage = 16.21; SD = 1.40) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, CEN, SOD, emotional detachment, and parent-related loneliness. Results: After controlling for demographic covariates, structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that (a) CEN was positively associated with parent-related loneliness (13 = 0.64, p < .001), (b) SOD did not mediate the relationship between CEN and parent-related loneliness (13 = -0.01, p = .142), (c) emotional detachment partially mediated the relationship between CEN and parentrelated loneliness (13 = 0.16, p < .001), and (d) SOD and emotional detachment partially and sequentially mediated the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness, albeit with a small effect size (13 = 0.02, p = .027). Conclusions: The findings underscore the significance of the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness in adolescence. Moreover, our results suggest that some adolescents with a history of CEN have difficulties in establishing clear boundaries between "self" and "other" and tend to engage in emotionally detached relationships with their parents, which may lead them to feel more parent-related loneliness. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed

Assessing passionate love: Italian validation of the PLS (reduced version)

n the last few years, scientists have been trying to better comprehend the complex mechanism of love. The Passionate Love Scale (PLS) has been shown in previous research to measure a general dimension of passionate love. Due to the increase of its administration in neuroscientific studies, there is a need for a validated Italian version of the scale. The aim of this study was to validate the unidimensional structure of the reduced version of the PLS (PLS\u2010R) in a group of Italians adults. A cross\u2010validation approach was used on a sample of 784 participants. The diagonal weighted least squares method was implemented, which represents a useful option for Likert scales. The results were consistent with previous studies from other cultures and suggest that the Italian translation of the PLS\u2010R is a valid instrument to assess passionate love among the Italian populatio