Emotional Difficulties in Adolescence: Psychopathology and Family Interactions.

Introduction. Several studies on developmental age have investigated aspects relating to emotional competence, and alexithymia in particular, showing that it is associated with behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence. Some such research has focused on the relationship between emotional difficulties and family interactions assuming a link between the quality of family relationships and a child\u2019s emotional competence. Subjects and Methods. The aims of the present study were: 1) to compare a group of psychiatric adolescents with a group of \u201chealthy\u201d adolescents in terms of any alexithymia and its relationship with the former\u2019s psychopathological issues; 2) to clarify the relationship, if any, between psychopathology, alexithymia and family interaction patterns in our sample of psychiatric adolescents. The experimental group consisted of 41 psychiatric adolescents and the control group of 41 students matched for gender and age. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to identify any alexithymic traits, the Youth Self Report (YSR) 11-18 and the CBCL to detect any psycho-behavioral problems, and the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) to analyze family interactions. Results. There was a higher prevalence of alexithymia among the adolescents with mental health problems than in the control group, and a correlation between their scores for internalizing problems and alexithymia. In the experimental group, adolescents with internalizing problems, somatic complaints and attention difficulties belonged to families revealing high levels of parental conflict. As for alexithymia, adolescents\u2019 difficulty identifying emotions correlated significantly with the same trait in their mothers. This feature also seemed to be associated with better family interactions. Conclusion. Our study confirms the importance of family relationships in the development of emotional skills, and highlights how deficiencies in the development of emotional competence are strongly associated with psychopathologies in adolescence. In the light of these findings, it is advisable in clinical practice to provide psychotherapeutic interventions for teens and their parents

Intergenerational transmission of attachment. Family interactive dynamics and psychopathology: what kind of relationship in adolescence?

Introduction: this work is an example of empirical research. The aim was to look to the possible transgenerational influence between parents and adolescents attachment bond to their respective parents, infant armonic and/or disarmonic development and functional or dysfunctional family interactions. Methodology: 40 families with adolescents aged from 12 to 18 years (μ = 14.575, σ = 1.716) coming for a psychodiagnostic evaluation were tested with Lausanne Trilogue Play, Parental Bonding Instrument, Child Behaviour Checklist and Youth Self Report. Hypothesis: a) is there an association between the adolescent’s perceived attachment relationship with his parents and his psychopathological symptoms? In this case a non parametric test for k independent groups was performed. b) is there an association between parents-adolescent interactive dynamics and the parents’ perceived attachment relationship with their parents (adolescent’s grand-parents). In this case correlations and non-parametric test for k independent groups were performed. Results: a) we found significant statistical differences (p < .05) between adolescent psychopathology and the quality of perceived relationship with both the mother and the father. b) we found positive correlations between quality of relationship between the mother and her father (adolescent grandfather) and the scores of some LTP scales concerning normative function; moreover we found negative correlations between the father and his mother (adolescent’s grandmother) and the scores of some LTP scales concerning affective function. Conclusion: these results underline a significant association between the internal working model of the mother and her ways to interact and manage the relation with her adolescent son; this is a clinical evidence too. Another relevant result is the association between adolescent’s psychopathology and his internal working model. Clinical applications regarding these findings should be taken in account when psychotherapeutically working with adolescents and their families

The Lausanne Trilogue Play within the outcome evaluation in infant mental health: a preliminary report

This study aims to contribute to the scientific debate about the evaluation of the intervention in infant mental health and presents the main results after one year of intervention based on integrated types of treatments (psychodynamic psychotherapy for the child/adolescent, parental support and observation and assessment of family interactions). Furthermore, the study aims to explore the use of the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) as a new assessment tool for planning the of treatments. The sample consists of 23 children and adolescents, aged between 4 and 17 years old, and their families, attending the Infancy, Adolescence and Family Service, Local Health Unit 16 of Padua due to their psychopathological problems. In order to assess their psychological conditions we used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to evaluate psycho-behavioral problems and the LTP to assess family interactions. The CBCL was used at the time of the diagnostic assessment (T0) and after 12 months of treatment (T12). Concerning the application of LTP, the sample was divided randomly in two groups: one where LTP was used in two different time intervals during therapy (T0 and T12) and another one where it was used in three different time intervals during therapy (T0, T6 and T12) with a video-feedback intervention at time T6. Results report a favorable outcome in regards of the gravity of patients’ symptoms, displaying, after one year of treatment, a statistical significant decrease in the clinical level of internalizing symptoms. In terms of family interactions, results show stability within the family patterns except for a statistically significant deterioration in the management of interactive mistakes. Regarding the use of LTP as evaluator of the above intervention, the study shows that the assessment of family’s interactions during long-term psychotherapy helps clinicians focus the intervention on those aspects that remain dysfunctional. These results and the possible interpretations, however, emphasize the need for further studies on this topic

An integrated approach to child psychotherapy with co-parental support: a longitudinal outcome study

Studies about the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy interventions with children and adolescents suggest potential adverse effects of this treatment when not supported by a parallel work with parents: it seems that it could damage family functioning and affect family balances. This research aims to assess psychopathological outcomes after two years of psychodynamic psychotherapy by comparing two groups (G) of children and adolescents, related to a Childhood Adolescence Family Service: G1 – individual therapy for child/adolescent only; G2 - therapy for child/adolescent and a separate session of co-parenting support. 21 families with children aged between 6 and 17 years completed the entire treatment. The research protocol involves: Lausanne Trilogue Play, Children Behavior Check List and Family Empowerment Scale. Results show a positive effect of the treatment on the child/adolescent psychopathological profile with a significant improvement concerning the reduction of both internalizing and externalizing problems. Results show the effectiveness of the integrated intervention in the improvement of parents’ abilities to validate the children emotional state. Our results suggesting that parenting support increase parental sensitivity, helping the parents to become more able to recognize the children’s emotional state and to validate it

Utilización de imágenes LandSat y de radar para el análisis de las costas de la Isla Marambio (Seymour), Antártida Argentina

En el marco del Anuncio de Oportunidad (AO) para el Desarrollo de Aplicaciones y Puesta a Punto de Metodologías Utilizando Imágenes SAR, banda L, Polarimétricas, realizado por Conae, se presentó este proyecto que se encuentra en ejecución. El objetivo principal es la observación de las costas de isla Marambio (Seymour) en la secuencia invierno – verano, en los años 2000, 2011 y 2012 y la comparación de las mismas mediante el procesamiento e interpretación de imágenes SAR y ópticas.Facultad de Ingenierí

Mass testing of the JUNO experiment 20-inch PMTs readout electronics

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a multi-purpose, large size, liquid scintillator experiment under construction in China. JUNO will perform leading measurements detecting neutrinos from different sources (reactor, terrestrial and astrophysical neutrinos) covering a wide energy range (from 200 keV to several GeV). This paper focuses on the design and development of a test protocol for the 20-inch PMT underwater readout electronics, performed in parallel to the mass production line. In a time period of about ten months, a total number of 6950 electronic boards were tested with an acceptance yield of 99.1%

Implementation and performances of the IPbus protocol for the JUNO Large-PMT readout electronics

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large neutrino detector currently under construction in China. Thanks to the tight requirements on its optical and radio-purity properties, it will be able to perform leading measurements detecting terrestrial and astrophysical neutrinos in a wide energy range from tens of keV to hundreds of MeV. A key requirement for the success of the experiment is an unprecedented 3% energy resolution, guaranteed by its large active mass (20 kton) and the use of more than 20,000 20-inch photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) acquired by high-speed, high-resolution sampling electronics located very close to the PMTs. As the Front-End and Read-Out electronics is expected to continuously run underwater for 30 years, a reliable readout acquisition system capable of handling the timestamped data stream coming from the Large-PMTs and permitting to simultaneously monitor and operate remotely the inaccessible electronics had to be developed. In this contribution, the firmware and hardware implementation of the IPbus based readout protocol will be presented, together with the performances measured on final modules during the mass production of the electronics

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Interactive family dynamics and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in psychiatric adolescent patients: a single case study

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a common, multifaceted phenomenon among adolescents. Recent researchers have shown that a number of psychological and psychiatric correlates are implicated in the onset/repetition of NSSI, but those previous studies did not directly observe the family interaction patterns of this clinical population. In this paper, the quality of family interactions was observed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play procedure to deepen the specific interactive dimensions associated with NSSI in adolescents. The results of a single case study showed a lack of positive emotional exchanges, a parenting style expressing hostility, a high level of control and difficulties in triangulation. Through this method, the authors show that a better understanding of the role of family interactions is crucial and could improve the assessment and treatment of Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious behaviors. Research and clinical implications are discusse