Romantic Attachment, Internalized Homonegativity, and Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among Lesbian Women in Italy

© 2022 Tognasso, Trombetta, Gorla, Ramon, Santona and Rollè. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence (SSIPV) among lesbian women has been underestimated until few decades ago. While the association between romantic attachment and SSIPV has been widely demonstrated, mechanisms that mediate this association and the complex relationships between romantic attachment, SSIPV, and SSIPV-specific risk factors have not been adequately investigated to date. The current study assessed the influence of romantic attachment on SSIPV perpetration among lesbian women, exploring the mediating role of internalized homonegativity within this association. Three hundred and twenty-five Italian lesbian women with a mean age of 30 years were recruited and completed the following self-report measures: the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), the Measure of Internalized Sexual Stigma, and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale Short Form. The results showed a positive association between attachment anxiety, and general and psychological SSIPV perpetration. Similarly, attachment avoidance was positively related with general, psychological, and physical SSIPV perpetration. The association between romantic attachment, and general and psychological SSIPV was partially mediated by internalized homonegativity. These findings have theoretical implications and provide valuable information to implement services and interventions tailored for SSIPV, to date scarce and not effective.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The Mediating Role of Romantic Attachment in the Relationship Between Attachment to Parents and Aggression

Background: A secure attachment style could promote more intimacy in romantic relationships, while an insecure attachment style could be correlated with less positive romantic relationships in adulthood. Numerous studies have noted that a secure attachment to parents was correlated with lower levels of aggression, whereas insecure attachments were associated with higher levels of aggression. We aimed to investigate the role of the attachment system as a mediator of the expression of aggressiveness during adolescence. Specifically, we considered that the attachment to parents and peers could influence one's attachment to a romantic partner.Methods: We empirically tested whether there were relationships of parent and peer attachment on aggressiveness mediated by romantic attachment style. Participants of the study included 411 students.Results: Results indicated that for males an insecure father-child attachment style seems to be associated with higher levels of anxiety and avoidance in romantic attachments and then with aggressiveness. For females, an insecure mother-child attachment style seems to be associated with higher levels of aggressiveness.Conclusion: The attachment to parents and to peers plays a key role in defining romantic attachment according to gender, and these dimensions in turn tend to affect the levels of aggressiveness

Cogenitorialità e funzionamento familiare nell’epoca del Covid-19

A partire dall’inizio della pandemia causata dal COVID-19, per le famiglie con bambini, in particolare, si è verificato un drammatico flusso di eventi stressanti concorrenti. In particolare, il lockdown ha costretto genitori e figli a convivere nello stesso contesto condividendo scuola, lavoro, vita di coppia e familiare. Gli Autori hanno portato avanti un’indagine per valutare l’impatto della pandemia sulle relazioni cogenitoriali e familiari. Sono state esplorate le dimensioni dell’Integrità familiare e Conflitto attraverso la Coparenting Scale e quelle della Forza Familiare, Comunicazione Familiare e Difficoltà Familiari attraverso lo Score-15. Hanno risposto 626 genitori e i risultati hanno indicato che nella maggior parte dei casi i soggetti avevano percepito la famiglia come risorsa ottenendo punteggi migliori rispetto a quelli dei campioni normativi. Lo studio rappresenta uno stimolo a considerare le relazioni familiari come un focus rilevante sia per la ricerca sugli effetti psicosociali della pandemia causata dal COVID-19 sia per la progettazione di interventi consulenziali e preventivi nel contesto della psicologia dell’emergenza

Anxiety in Attachment and Sexual Relationships in Adolescence: A Moderated Mediation Model

Adolescence is characterized by several transformations, such as identity construction, progressive estrangement from parents, relational interest in peers, and body changes that also involve sexuality issues. In this process, attachment patterns play a fundamental role in relationships, and when these are dysfunctional, they can result in internalizing and externalizing problems. Often, females show their relational difficulties through internalizing expressions and males through externalizing expressions. Additionally, given the sexual progress involved in this life moment, psychological symptomatology may influence adolescents’ perception of sex and performance. Our purpose is to study the mediating role of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in the relationship between attachment patterns and sexual and psychological dimensions. In addition, we investigated the moderating effect of the sex assigned at birth on this mediation model. n = 493 adolescents (38.3% males; Mage = 16.51; SD = 1.17) participated in the study. The results show a significant mediation effect of internalizing symptomatology on the relationship between attachment and sexual anxiety. Additionally, this effect is moderated significantly by assigned-at-birth sex. These results confirm that in adolescence, attachment patterns can influence adolescents’ perception of sex. The connection between these two psychological dimensions is influenced by symptomatologic expression. Further investigations are needed

Attachment representations in community girls at risk for binge-eating.

Binge-eating disorder (BED) is the prevalent form of Eating Disorder (ED)s among community female adolescents, surpassing both Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa (Marzilli, Cerniglia &Cimino, 2018). Despite a number of studies investigating the relationships between EDs and attachment in clinical teenager population (Gander, Sevecke & Buchheim, 2015; Pace, Guiducci & Cavanna, 2016, 2017), few studies have deepened specifically the link between the risk for binge-eating symptoms and attachment in normative adolescents, usually using selfreports (Laghi et al., 2012). Therefore, the aim of our study was to compare attachment representations among community female adolescents at risk or not for binge eating symptoms using a semi-structured interview. Participants were 109 girls (aged 14-19y, M=16.47, SD = 1.3) recruited in public high schools: 56 were resulted at-risk for binge-eating (BE group) and 53 were not-at-risk for BE (NBE group) through the Binge Eating Scale (BES; Gormally et al., 1982). All the participants were assessed through the Friends and Family Interview (FFI, Steele & Steele, 2005), a semi-structured interview to assess adolescents\u2019 attachment representations as Secure (S), Dismissing (Ds), Preoccupied (P), Disorganized (D), both in terms of classifications and scales. The FFI classifications were 27 S (48%), 12 Ds (21%), 16 P (29%) and one D (2%) in the BE group , while they were 39 S (74%), eight Ds (15%) and six P (11%) with no D in the NBE group, revealing more insecure classifications, specifically Preoccupied ones, among girls at risk for BE compared with their control peers ( 2 = 8.451, df = 3, p = .038), as well as significantly higher scores on Preoccupied scale (BE: M = 2.11, DS = .86, NBE: M = 1.57, DS = .73, t = 3.532, p = .001). The attachment patterns showed by the community girls at-risk for BE were consistent with those found in literature on bulimia, more than in anorexia. Authors discussed clinical implications and future directions

The Relationship between Attachment, Dyadic Adjustment, and Sexuality: A Comparison between Infertile Men and Women

Infertility impacts several life dimensions. Among them, sexuality is particularly affected; yet studies have mainly focused on infertile women. We aimed to explore infertile men’s and women’s experiences in sexual satisfaction, internal control, and anxiety, and the relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexuality. The sample consisted of 129 infertile people (47.3% females, 52.7% males, Mage = 39 years) who fulfilled an ad hoc questionnaire, the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised (ECR-R), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). We found a significant effect of type of infertility and infertility factors on sexual anxiety only in infertile men. As regards infertile women, dyadic adjustment predicted sexual satisfaction, anxious attachment decreased sexual internal control, and avoidant attachment reduced sexual anxiety. As regards infertile men, high dyadic adjustment increased sexual satisfaction and a high avoidant attachment predicted high levels of sexual internal control. There was no relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexual anxiety for infertile men. From the results, it emerges how important is to consider both dyadic adjustment and attachment in studying how infertility impacts women’s and men’s lives

The Relationship between Attachment, Dyadic Adjustment, and Sexuality: A Comparison between Infertile Men and Women

Infertility impacts several life dimensions. Among them, sexuality is particularly affected; yet studies have mainly focused on infertile women. We aimed to explore infertile men’s and women’s experiences in sexual satisfaction, internal control, and anxiety, and the relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexuality. The sample consisted of 129 infertile people (47.3% females, 52.7% males, Mage = 39 years) who fulfilled an ad hoc questionnaire, the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised (ECR-R), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). We found a significant effect of type of infertility and infertility factors on sexual anxiety only in infertile men. As regards infertile women, dyadic adjustment predicted sexual satisfaction, anxious attachment decreased sexual internal control, and avoidant attachment reduced sexual anxiety. As regards infertile men, high dyadic adjustment increased sexual satisfaction and a high avoidant attachment predicted high levels of sexual internal control. There was no relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexual anxiety for infertile men. From the results, it emerges how important is to consider both dyadic adjustment and attachment in studying how infertility impacts women’s and men’s lives