Search

Previous studies indicated atypical Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at different ages. However, research focused on adolescents with ASD is still rare. This study aims to fill the gaps in the literature, by investigating ToM abilities in adolescents with ASD and in a group of typically developing ones. We applied the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.), a semi-structured interview that allows a multi-dimensional measurement of ToM, including different perspectives (first/s-order, first/third-person, egocentric/allocentric), various mental states (emotions, desires, beliefs) and metacognitive abilities related with mental states (awareness, relation, and strategies). The results indicated that ToM develops atypically in ASD, with strengths and weaknesses. First, participants with ASD were comparable to controls in some specific ToM aspects, i.e., third-person ToM, both from an egocentric and an allocentric perspective. However, they were significantly weaker in attributing an understanding of the mental states of others, both in first- and second-order ToM scenarios. Second, they showed the same level of awareness about mental states as controls, but they were significantly weaker in conceptualizing the relationship between mental states and behavior. Also, they found it very difficult to think about possible strategies that they or others might employ to realize desires and needs. Finally, they performed similarly to controls in understanding emotions, while they poorly understood desires and beliefs. These results point out the distinctive characteristics of ToM development in individuals with ASD, with important implications for individualized interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Fadda, Congiu, Doneddu, Carta, Piras, Gabbatore and Bosco.)

Introduction: The recent advances of large language models (LLMs) have opened a wide range of opportunities, but at the same time, they pose numerous challenges and questions that research needs to answer. One of the main challenges are the quality and correctness of the output of LLMs as well as the overreliance of students on the output without critically reflecting on it. This poses the question of the quality of the output of LLMs in educational tasks and what students and teachers need to consider when using LLMs for creating educational items. In this work, we focus on the quality and characteristics of conceptual items developed using ChatGPT without user-generated improvements., Methods: For this purpose, we optimized prompts and created 30 conceptual items in kinematics, which is a standard topic in high-school level physics. The items were rated by two independent experts. Those 15 items that received the highest rating were included in a conceptual survey. The dimensions were designed to align with the ones in the most commonly used concept inventory, the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We administered the designed items together with the FCI to 172 first-year university students. The results show that ChatGPT items have a medium difficulty and discriminatory index but they overall exhibit a slightly lower average values as the FCI. Moreover, a confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a three factor model that is closely aligned with a previously suggested expert model., Results and Discussion: In this way, after careful prompt engineering, thorough analysis and selection of fully automatically generated items by ChatGPT, we were able to create concept items that had only a slightly lower quality than carefully human-generated concept items. The procedures to create and select such a high-quality set of items that is fully automatically generated require large efforts and point towards cognitive demands of teachers when using LLMs to create items. Moreover, the results demonstrate that human oversight or student interviews are necessary when creating one-dimensional assessments and distractors that are closely aligned with students' difficulties., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Küchemann, Rau, Schmidt and Kuhn.)

This study examined the relationship of compliance with immediate and delayed suggestibility and types of resistant behavioral responses (RBRs) in 454 children (10-15 years) using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS 2) and a slightly adapted version of the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS). The GCS was found to have satisfactory internal consistency with this age group. Immediate suggestibility and delayed suggestibility were significantly correlated (small effect size). Compliance was most strongly correlated with Yield 1 (large effect size) and Yield 2 (medium effect size) and only modestly with Shift and delayed suggestibility (both small effect size). Of both theoretical and practical importance was the finding that out of the three resistant behavioral responses (RBRs) where misleading questions were not yielded to, 'direct explanation' and 'no answers' were the only salient predictors of compliance. 'Do not know' answers were found to have the weakest association with compliance. The current findings help better understand the complex relationship of compliance with immediate suggestibility (i.e., Yield and Shift), RBRs, and delayed suggestibility in children. The findings have important implications for future studies as well as interview practice., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Gudjonsson, Giostra, Maiorano and Vagni.)

In her essay "Situated Knowledges," the biologist and philosopher of science Donna Haraway tackles the question of scientific objectivity from a feminist perspective and opts for a 're-vision' of science that overcomes the traditional dualisms of epistemic subject and object as well as of nature and culture (science). Beyond scientific realism and radical social constructivism, Haraway understands 'nature' or 'world' neither as a passive resource nor as a human product of imagination. Rather, she argues, the world is to be understood as a 'witty agent' that has its own efficacy and historicity in the production of knowledge. Instead of epistemic reification, possession, and appropriation of 'nature', knowledge production should be understood as a conversation between material-semiotic actors, human, and non-human, from which none of the actors leaves as they entered. In this study, I want to explore what it means to conceive of nature or world in knowledge processes as a "witty agent" and how exactly one is to imagine this form of non-human agency. To this end, I will first explain Haraway's re-vision of "nature" beyond scientific realism and radical social constructivism (sect. 2). From this, I will discuss her underlying conception of agency (sect. 3). This involves first, a reconception of the traditional relation between epistemic subject and object as dynamic and situational relation (sect. 3.1). Second, Haraway characterizes the world's epistemic agency in more positive terms by using the 'trickster' figure as it appears in Southwest Native American representations in the form of a Coyote (sect. 3.2). Finally, I will come back to Haraway's initial question of an objective scientific approach to the world, which for her consists in a power-charged social relation of conversations with the world. I will conclude with a critical reflection of what Haraway's conception of the world as an agent means for scientific practice and its engagement with objects of knowledge., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Trächtler.)

Collaboration improves multiple academic and social outcomes. Accordingly, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) can be beneficial in distance education contexts to overcome the issues specific to online learning (e.g., underperformance, low identification with university). Distance universities often attract a substantial number of non-traditional students (e.g., students with disability, students with migration background). Despite their representation, non-traditional students face negative stereotypes and associated social consequences, including social identity threat, diminished sense of belonging, and less motivation for social interactions. In the context of online learning, where there is little individuating information, social categories like socio-demographic group memberships become salient, activating stereotypes. Consequently, socio-demographic group memberships can have detrimental consequences for the integration of non-traditional students. The purpose of the present study was to (a) determine the extent of social identity threat for students in higher distance education, (b) explore the social consequences of this threat in the same context, (c) validate these findings through longitudinal analyses embedded in a CSCL task, and (d) use learning analytics to test behavioral outcomes. In a longitudinal study with three measurement occasions over 8 weeks ( N  = 1,210), we conducted path analyses for cross-sectional associations and Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models for longitudinal predictions. The results showed that non-traditional students mostly reported higher social identity threat than traditional students. While the expected longitudinal within-person effects could not be demonstrated, we found stable between-person effects: students who reported higher levels of social identity threat also reported lower sense of belonging and lower social approach motivation. Exploratory analyses of actual online collaboration during CSCL offer potential avenues for future research. We conclude that social identity threat and its social consequences play an important role in higher distance education and should therefore be considered for successful CSCL., Competing Interests: MB was employed by Research Institute for Telecommunications and Cooperation e.V. This research institute is a legally independent organization at the FernUniversität that is connected to the FernUniversität regarding staff, place, and organizationally but is no part of the university. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Bick, Froehlich, Voltmer, Raimann, Reich-Stiebert, Seidel, Burchart, Martiny, Nikitin, Stürmer and Martin.)

Potential traumatic events, such as breast cancer, can influence autobiographical memory (AM), interrupting the continuity of narrative identity. AM is based on a hierarchical search across different levels of specificity that are indexed from top to bottom when a memory is retrieved. In the breast cancer field, non-specific AMs are an observed clinical phenomenon. In particular, breast cancer survivors report issues related to self-defining memories (SDMs), specific and significant AMs that evoke strong emotions and sensory details at the time of memory. SDMs are linked to life goals and facilitate adaptation to critical experiences, preserving the continuity of identity. This study explored the narrative identity integration process of breast cancer survivors, analyzing themes, specificity, and integrative meaning in SDMs. Ten women participated in an online group support program centered on the integration of AMs linked to the cancer journey. Participants were asked to assess their body image perceptions, filling out an online survey three times, in which they had to report three SDMs each time. A reflexive thematic analysis of the SDMs identified three main themes: the onset of breast cancer; the labeling of negative emotions, and changes in the body. The results indicated inhibited retrieval of specific episodes, fostering a progressive failure in memory characterization and the concurrent meaning-making process. Participants struggled with connecting the memories to insights regarding their self and life, as well as relating the memories to external conditions and other individuals. Further studies might examine the impact of these difficulties on the psychological adjustment of BC long-term survivors. They could also explore cognitive reconstruction by reframing the memories and re-evaluating their traumatic meanings., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Martino, Sebri, Singer, Madow, Giudice, Mazzoni, Freda and Pravettoni.)

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented problems for contemporary society. Among the numerous challenges faced following the spread of the virus, the need to provide assessment tools and remote psychological assistance certainly deserves particular attention. Indeed, this profound paradigm shift in psychological assessment and care occurred during a period of fragility for people already suffering from the restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the virus. One population particularly affected by the pandemic was students, including university students. The latter faced the pandemic in a particularly critical formative period., Methods: For these reasons, our systematic review has two main objectives: (i) identify the assessment tools and psychological dimensions most used/investigated during the pandemic in Italian university students; (ii) systematize and deepen our knowledge about the impact of the pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of Italian university students. Our search used PRISMA 2020 guidelines on Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus, and EBSCOHost., Results: The results indicated that the psychological dimensions most investigated in university students during the pandemic were anxiety and depression. At the same time, the most used assessment instruments were the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Furthermore, it is clear from the results that the pandemic has harmed the psychological wellbeing of university students. Finally, we dedicated a section to discuss the interventions implemented by university counseling services during the pandemic., Discussion: This review could improve the work of university counseling services in this post-pandemic period and contribute to developing specific screening and assessment programs for future emergencies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor GC declared a past co-authorship with the authors FT and MC., (Copyright © 2024 Celia, Serio, Trotta, Tessitore and Cozzolino.)

In this study, we analyzed the emotional and motivational aspects characterizing the profile of university students with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD). We assessed 61 university students, 32 with SLD (age = 23.6) and 29 in the control group (age = 23.00). The results highlighted that individuals with SLD exhibit higher levels of anxiety and depression and lower resilience compared to the control group. The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale - Short Form, which explores perfectionism, did not reveal differences between the groups. Conversely, lower scores emerged in SLD students for the intrinsic motivation sub-scales of the Academic Motivation Scale. This indicates less engagement in studying out of personal cognitive curiosity. The Self-Regulated Knowledge Scale - University, which measures various cognitive strategies, showed significantly lower scores in the SLD group for knowledge linking, knowledge training, and knowledge critique. This suggests a lower frequency with which SLD students attempt to connect new knowledge with what they already possess, apply their knowledge, ask questions, and critically analyze what they have learned. Therefore, psychological and motivational consequences are evident in this population and can impact well-being and quality of life., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Iaia, Vizzi, Carlino, Turi, Marinelli and Angelelli.)

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, young adults worldwide showed signs of distress as they were affected in their specific developmental tasks, including the construction of personal and professional futures., Methods: The present study aimed to assess the situational future time perspective of Italian university students during the second pandemic wave, as measured by an ad hoc constructed instrument, to explore its interaction with some dispositional traits relevant in future construction, such as optimism, sense of life, aggression, and dispositional future time perspective, and to test their effect on psychological well-being. The total sample consisted of 389 subjects (18-35 years, M  = 23.5, SD  = 4.4)., Results and Discussion: The results indicated that the pandemic experience, assessed by surveying specific indicators, negatively affected the future time perspective of students, particularly those dispositionally optimistic and convinced that life has meaning. However, awareness of the negative impact that the pandemic brought to the vision of the future seems to have dampened the levels of depression and stress, while anxiety was found to be related only to dispositional traits. The results also suggested the need for educational and economic policies that help young adults develop confidence in the future and in their ability to build it., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Parrello, Postiglione, Sica, De Rosa, Parola, Regnoli, Fenizia and Sommantico.)

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the emotional well-being of adolescents worldwide. Some studies suggested that individuals with high Environmental Sensitivity may have been more likely to experience poor psychological adjustment during the pandemic than those with lower sensitivity. However, there is still limited research on how emotional responses varied across different stages of the pandemic and whether Environmental Sensitivity increased adolescents' vulnerability to the psychological impact of prolonged pandemic restrictions., Methods: To address this gap, this study used a three-year longitudinal design (2020-2022) with a sample of 453 adolescents. They completed an online survey measuring their positive and negative emotions throughout the pandemic period, with Environmental Sensitivity considered a time-invariant covariate., Results: The results revealed that all participants, regardless of their level of Environmental Sensitivity, experienced a decrease in positive emotionality between the first and second years. However, this trend reversed, showing an increase between the second and third years. Regarding negative emotions, highly sensitive adolescents experienced a significant linear increase over time. In contrast, low-and medium-sensitive adolescents exhibited a quadratic trend, with a notable increase in negative emotions between the first and second years, followed by a slight decrease between the second and third years., Discussion: These findings provide further evidence of the negative impact of the pandemic on adolescents' emotional well-being. They also support the notion that Environmental Sensitivity is associated with individuals' ability to respond and adjust to adverse life events, with significant implications for future research and practice., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Dragone, Colella, Esposito and Bacchini.)

Introduction: The dominance behavioral system, a fundamental aspect of human behavior, orchestrates the drive for dominance, regulates dominant-subordinate dynamics, and shapes responses to perceived power dynamics. While the existing literature extensively delves into the components of this system, scant attention is paid to its interplay with mentalization, theory of mind, and assertiveness. Moreover, gender disparities in dominance behaviors are largely studied in terms of biological variables (levels of testosterone) and clinical populations. This study aims to understand the relationships between activation strategies of the dominance behavioral system, mentalization processes, theory of mind abilities, and levels of social discomfort in assertive communication. Moreover, to identify gender differences in the dominance behavioral system in a non-clinical sample., Methods: Our sample was composed of 67 students from a non-clinical population. They claimed the absence of any psychological, neurological, or developmental disorders., Results: A regression analysis was performed, and we found that levels of mentalization predict levels of hyperactivation of dominance behavioral system, but no significant results for the deactivation levels of the system were found. Moreover, no gender differences were found in levels of activations of the dominance behavioral system., Conclusion: These findings underscore the pivotal role of mentalization abilities in interpersonal dynamics, emphasizing the need for individuals to navigate social interactions adeptly. Furthermore, our research unveils implications for individual well-being and psychopathology, urging further investigation into how these dimensions intersect with various psychological disorders. By discerning the intricate mechanisms at play, we can develop targeted therapeutic interventions tailored to specific behavioral patterns, ultimately enhancing psychological resilience and fostering healthier social relationships in a non-clinical population., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Cerciello, Esposito, La Penna, Sica and Frolli.)

Introduction: There are several risk factors associated with developing mental disorders among people over 60 years of age. Mental health encompasses multiple domains or capacities, which can comprise the psychological wellbeing of older people. Therefore, resilient coping, self-compassion, self-esteem, hopelessness, quality of life, and depression are considered the characteristics and adaptive mechanisms that bring together the main risk and protective factors for imbalance in mental wellbeing., Objective: This study aimed to establish the demographic, social, and family factors, as well as the clinical characteristics and lifestyle habits that influence the mental health of the elderly people in the city of Medellín, in the year 2021, to build a mental health index., Methodology: This study adopts a quantitative approach, employs retrospective temporality, and utilizes secondary sources. A cross-sectional survey was carried out with the SABAM Project (health and mental wellbeing of older adults from five cities in Colombia in 2021 by its Spanish acronym) database (secondary source), which is part of the research group "Public Health Observatory" of CES University (Medellín, Colombia). The database comprised 500 records of people aged over 60 years from the city of Medellín in 2021. While constructing the index, a principal component analysis was used, along with the Varimax method for factor analysis rotation., Results: The median age of the general population was 67 years (IQR 63-72); for men, the median age was 66 years (IQR 63-71) and for women, the median age was 67 years (IQR 63-72). An association was found between low socioeconomic levels, alcohol consumption, and the level of higher education (university-postgraduate) with low levels of the Mental Health Index in people over 60 years of age in Medellín during the year 2021., Conclusion: A quantitative model was developed to predict either a positive or negative prognosis in the mental wellbeing of the population over 60 years of age in the city of Medellín. The model was also used for the development of a sociodemographic profile highlighting the impact on mental health among people over 60 years of age with limited economic resources., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Ochoa-Nieto, Benjumea-Gómez, Cardona-Arango, Segura-Cardona, Segura-Cardona and Robledo-Marín.)

Introduction: Stress and burnout can negatively affect performance, mental health, and the overall well-being of healthcare workers. The study aims to examine the prevalence of stress and burnout, and investigate links between stress, burnout, mental state, and well-being among healthcare workers in the Czech Republic., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the Czech Republic, focusing on healthcare professionals working in various healthcare settings. A total of 1,064 healthcare workers participated in the study. A standardized questionnaire battery was used, consisting of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Supso-7 measuring mental state. Separate correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted., Results: 46.24% of the healthcare workers reported high levels of emotional exhaustion, 25.56% reported high levels of depersonalization, 24.15% reported low levels of personal accomplishment, while 11.18% reported high levels of perceived stress. The findings revealed that emotional exhaustion, a core component of burnout, was associated with increased feelings of anxiety and depression. Perceived stress was also linked to anxiety and depression, while personal accomplishment appeared to mitigate depression and support positive psychological well-being., Conclusion: The study provides promising evidence suggesting that addressing stress and emotional exhaustion, while fostering a sense of personal achievement, could lead to improvements in the mental health and work performance of healthcare workers. These findings highlight the importance of addressing burnout and stress management strategies to support the overall well-being of healthcare professionals., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Dobešová Cakirpaloglu, Cakirpaloglu, Skopal, Kvapilová, Schovánková, Vévodová, Greaves and Steven.)

Introduction: Evidence on parental educational level (PEL) as a risk factor for Eating Disorders (EDs) is mixed, and no study has assessed its role in relation to the compliance and outcomes of treatments in EDs. Further, no study differentiated from the educational level of mothers and fathers, nor considered the possible mediation of perfectionism in fostering EDs., Methods: A clinical sample of 242 first-ever admitted inpatients with EDs provided information on PEL and completed the following questionnaires: the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS). Clinicians also provided information on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) for each participant., Results: Individuals with high PEL (whether mothers, fathers, or both parents) showed significantly higher scores on depressive symptoms and lower on parental criticism, were younger, had an earlier age of onset, had fewer years of illness, more were students and employed, and fewer had offspring. Individuals with fathers or both parents with high educational levels suffered more from Anorexia Nervosa rather than Bulimia Nervosa, had a longer length of stay during the current hospitalization, had less dietary restraint, and had higher personal standards. Individuals with mothers with high educational levels showed a lower rate of previous substance or alcohol addiction. Personal standards partially mediated the relationship between higher PEL and lower dietary restraint., Discussion: PEL emerged to be a twofold psychosocial risk factor, being associated with higher depressive symptoms and a longer length of stay, but also with a shorter duration of illness and better scholar and working involvement. Higher PEL was related to higher personal standards but not to global perfectionism. Patterns of eating psychopathology emerged based on the high PEL of mothers or fathers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Bevione, Martini, Longo, Toppino, Musetti, Amodeo, Abbate-Daga and Panero.)

TIAP is an observational procedure to assess family functioning detecting simultaneously the role of each participant and the interdependence of relational behaviors. In particular, the procedure requires family members to play according to different interactive configurations (parent1-children; parent2-children, all together, children and parents as separate units) and therefore different microtransitions from one configuration to another. As such, the procedure allows to study how family members coordinate to maintain stability, promote change, and encourage members to explore different interactive configurations within the family system. TIAP has been validated through several studies conducted with different non-clinical groups of families that have highlighted the salient aspects of family functioning, and significant correlations with variables external to the family system, such as children's social-emotional competence in the educational context. This paper focuses on the use of TIAP in the contexts of assessing parental competence. Specifically, the article aims to describe, through the reference to a clinical case, the results emerged from a study conducted with 33 families involved in a parenting assessment process. The study is part of a broader collaborative project between the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Clinic of the Italian National Health Service in Parma, the University of Parma, and the Bologna Family Therapy Center. TIAP was administered to all the families involved as a complement to other tools routinely used for all cases handled by the professionals of the clinic. The coding system includes different indices. Some analyze the interactive family modes: family coordination (mutual attention and responsiveness), the responses to potentials for change (disregard, absorption, amplification), and intra-familiar exploration. Other indices concern the quality of the interactions: the relational triadic dynamic of microtransition (detaching-entrusting-welcoming-joining) and the consistency/inconsistency of the communication channels. The results highlighted how TIAP makes it possible to identify the specific interactive modalities of the different members and their interdependence and reciprocity, favoring the identification of both family weaknesses and family resources, including the children's contribution. Furthermore, the general data trend showed that TIAP indices detect some important prognostic elements capable of guiding the court's decisions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Cigala, Venturelli and Fruggeri.)

Introduction: The capacity to understand others' emotions and react accordingly is a key social ability. However, it may be compromised in case of a profound sensory loss that limits the contribution of available contextual cues (e.g., facial expression, gestures, body posture) to interpret emotions expressed by others. In this study, we specifically investigated whether early blindness affects the capacity to interpret emotional vocalizations, whose valence may be difficult to recognize without a meaningful context., Methods: We asked a group of early blind (N = 22) and sighted controls (N = 22) to evaluate the valence and the intensity of spontaneous fearful and joyful non-verbal vocalizations., Results: Our data showed that emotional vocalizations presented alone (i.e., with no contextual information) are similarly ambiguous for blind and sighted individuals but are perceived as more intense by the former possibly reflecting their higher saliency when visual experience is unavailable., Disussion: Our study contributes to a better understanding of how sensory experience shapes ememotion recognition., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Ferrari, Arioli, Atias, Merabet and Cattaneo.)

Introduction: Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the present study aimed to validate "The Technical and Administrative Staff Quality of Life At Work" (TASQ@work), a new tool to assess the quality of life at work in academia focused on technical and administrative staff., Methods: This tool was developed by the QoL@Work research team, a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The TASQ@work was elaborated in different steps. The first phase was aimed at the identification of the dimensions of the tool. The second phase was aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the tool. The validation process involved confirmatory analysis and measurement invariance of the various constructs selected. The analyses were performed in a convenience sample of two Italian universities in different regions (one in the Northwest and the second in Central Italy)., Results: The sample was composed of 1820 Administrative Staff, comprising 69.4% from University 1 ( N  = 1,263) and 30.6% from University 2 ( N  = 557). The TASQ@work presented satisfactory psychometric properties (normality of the items, reliability and content, construct and nomological validity) and measurement invariance across gender, seniority, and Athenaeum., Discussion: The results indicate that the tool can be considered a reliable and valid instrument to assess job demands, job resources, and outcomes in the working life of technical and administrative academic staff. In this perspective, the present study represents the first contribution to the debate on the psychosocial risks in academic contexts by presenting a new tool, the TASQ@work, aimed at contextualizing the JD-R model to understand the role played by psychosocial aspects in affecting the well-being of the academic employees., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Bruno, Buono, Falco, Brondino, Capone, Dell’Aversana, Giancaspro, Gilardi, Girardi, Guglielmi, Ingusci, Miglioretti, Pace, Platania, Signore and Spagnoli.)

Background: Healthcare systems constantly evolve to improve care quality and resource utilization. One way is implementing Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) an economic approach. This scoping review aims to identify and describe the literature on VBHC, particularly its psychosocial aspects, to uncover research gaps., Method: The review followed the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews. We took the following 14 steps: (a) defining the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) 15 mapping data; (e) collecting, synthesizing and reporting results. A detailed Boolean search was conducted from January 2021 to August 31, 2021, across APA PsycINFO and PubMed databases using keywords such as "Value-Based Healthcare" and "psychosocial perspective." Initially, three reviewers screened 70 e-records independently, assessing titles, abstracts, and full-text against the inclusion criteria. Discrepancies regarding the evaluation of the articles were resolved through consensus sessions between the reviewers., Results: The final review included 14 relevant e-records in English from peer-reviewed sources, focusing on quantitative and qualitative research. From the analysis, four areas emerged: (1) Value chains in Healthcare; (2) Styles, activities, and practices of value co-creation in Healthcare; (3) Value co-creation in the encounter process; (4) Value co-creation in preventive health services., Conclusion: The scoping review findings suggest several potential key aspects, including the interdependence between patients and healthcare organizations, organizational culture in healthcare, and the role of patient-centered approaches that focus on relationships, communication, and social support in healthcare. This can be achieved through patient engagement, patient-centered care and communication, health literacy, psychosocial support services, comprehensive psychosocial assessments, care coordination, and continuity of care. Integrating psychosocial elements in VHBC enhances quality and optimizes resource use. Findings highlight the need to develop practical guidance on how to implement a culture of value in care that takes into account the psychosocial aspects that have emerged, but not fully addressed. The pandemic teaches that the workforce poorly receives sudden and unsystematic changes. This review could provide an initial basis for the redesign of value in healthcare and a paradigm shift that has already begun with patient-centered medicine and patient engagement., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Marino and Capone.)

Recently, scholars have focused more on changes in higher education, leading to significant insights into the working lives of academics and certain related processes, such as stress or well-being. The interest in academia is also justified by the role of universities as institutions that promote health and well-being, serving as a bridge between society, the world of work, and the local community. This study aims to identify social factors that can enhance the well-being of academic workers (lecturers and technical-administrative staff), highlighting how processes linked to social identity, based on the dynamics of identification with a territory or an organization, can serve as resources that promote well-being. Researchers conducted the survey on 198 workers at the University of Foggia (South Italy). Correlation and reliability assessments were first performed between the variables. Finally, a SEM study was completed. The goodness of fit of the model seems to be sufficient. The social aspects examined in the study, namely, organization identification, territorial well-being, and place attachment, were positively and significantly correlated with general well-being. Findings of the study demonstrated that for teaching and technical-administrative staff, among the key components for enhancing well-being in the academic setting was the social dimension of relationships, understood both inside and outside the university. Therefore, acting the belonging process to an area, implementing and strengthening relations with the social actors involved, as well as on the sense of belonging and identification with an organization, can have precise impact in enhancing well-being., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Signore, Esposito, Di Napoli, Agueli, Ingusci, Mannarini, Toto, Arcidiacono and Fantinelli.)

Objectives: This study aimed to examine age-related differences in the comprehension of Korean comparative sentences with varying word orders by employing both offline and online measures, and to investigate how variations in word order affect sentence processing across different age groups., Methods: A total of 52 monolingual native Korean speakers, 26 young adults, and 26 older adults, completed a sentence-picture-matching task under two word order conditions: comparative-first and nominative-first. Offline measures included accuracy and response time, while an online method involved eye-tracking within the Visual World Paradigm. Data analyses were performed using linear and generalized linear mixed-effects models., Results: Older adults demonstrated lower accuracy and longer response times compared to younger individuals. Distinctive fixation patterns were observed, particularly in the sentential-final phrase, across different age groups. Specifically, nominative-first sentences elicited greater target advantage scores among younger adults, whereas older adults showed higher scores in comparative-first sentences., Conclusion: The study highlights the potential of comparative sentences in elucidating age-related changes in sentence comprehension. These differences were evident not only in offline tasks but also in real-time processing, as evidenced by eye-tracking data. The findings suggest distinct processing strategies employed by young and older adults and underscore the importance of considering both syntactic and semantic cues in sentence comprehension., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Hwang, Lee and Sung.)

Syncopation - the occurrence of a musical event on a metrically weak position preceding a rest on a metrically strong position - represents an important challenge in the study of the mapping between rhythm and meter. In this contribution, we present the hypothesis that syncopation is an effective strategy to elicit the bootstrapping of a multi-layered, hierarchically organized metric structure from a linear rhythmic surface. The hypothesis is inspired by a parallel with the problem of linearization in natural language syntax, which is the problem of how hierarchically organized phrase-structure markers are mapped onto linear sequences of words. The hypothesis has important consequences for the role of meter in music perception and cognition and, more particularly, for its role in the relationship between rhythm and bodily entrainment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Fiorin and Delfitto.)

Background: Flexible work arrangements have become increasingly popular, driven by the widespread adoption of digital technologies in the workplace because of the pandemic. However, there is a scarcity of studies concerning remote work, especially related to technical-administrative staff (TAS) in academia. Therefore, the current study, adopting the Job Demands-Resources model, aimed to investigate the relationships between remote working self-efficacy, organizational support, techno-complexity, mental well-being, and job performance among TAS during remote working., Methods: A total of 373 individuals from TAS of a large Italian university participated in this study by completing a self-report questionnaire., Results: The findings showed positive and significant relationships between remote self-efficacy and job satisfaction as well as between such a perceived efficacy and mental well-being. Perceived support from supervisors acted as a protective factor against techno-complexity. In contrast, perceived support from colleagues emerged as able to promote well-being and job satisfaction. In addition, the latter was positively associated with well-being. Finally, individual job performance was positively affected by job satisfaction and negatively by techno-complexity., Conclusion: This study highlights the need for interventions to support TAS in remote working environments by leveraging employees' self-efficacy as a key factor in reducing stress related to new technologies as well as enhancing well-being, job satisfaction, and, in turn, their performance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Capone, Schettino, Marino, Camerlingo, Smith and Depolo.)

Introduction: Autobiographical narrative skills and resistance to suggestibility factors are central aspects in children's testimony. While the assessment of suggestibility relies on standardized questionnaire, no such an instrument exists to reliably assess autobiographical skills in children. This aspect is further important when considering that the development of such skills seems to be related to the suggestibility, that is, suggestibility would be reduced in presence of higher autobiographical skills. However, no direct test of this relationship is available in literature, also due to the lack of quantitative instruments for assessing autobiographical skills., Methods: To fulfill both these methodological and theoretical issues, in this study a new tool was validated to measure the main autobiographical narrative skills (Where, What, When, Who, and How) in relation to both Retrospective Memory and Prospective Memory: the Children Recalling Autobiographical Memory (CRAM). We recruited a sample of 321 children aged 7-16 years., Results and Discussion: The result of the EFA analysis showed one-factor model, and revealed also good fit indexes and internal reliability. After validating this new tool, we further used it to test our main hypothesis, that is, children with higher autobiographical memory skills were less vulnerable to interrogative suggestibility as assessed by Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS2). A hierarchical linear regression model showed a reduction in suggestibility with age and level of autobiographical skills. Moreover, the level of such skills moderate the effect of age, such as only in presence of high or moderate level of autobiographical skills the age significantly reduces the level of suggestibility., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Vagni, Giostra and Simione.)

Introduction: Limited research focused on the association between parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors comparing same- and different-gender parent families. The present study considered 76 Italian families (73% same-gender and 27% different-gender parent families) with 8-year-old (SD = 2.17; 49% assigned female at birth) children born through assisted reproductive techniques, to explore parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors., Method: We ran a Multiple-group-by-couple Structural Equation Model in which we estimated the predictive role of parenting on children's behaviors, controlling for age, gender, and family socioeconomic status using the Maximum Likelihood estimation., Results: Results showed that both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of parental warmth and very low levels of hostility and rejection; regarding children's behaviors, both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of prosociality and low levels of externalizing behaviors. In addition, same-gender parents reported significantly higher levels of children's prosociality and parental warmth than different-gender parents. Regarding associations between parenting practices and behaviors, we found a positive association between positive parenting practices and increasing children's prosocial behaviors and decreasing children's externalizing behaviors, in both same- and different-gender families, controlling for family background characteristics., Conclusion: The present study encourages future research to investigate how specific parenting practices can influence behavioral adjustment in children, focusing on same-gender parent families., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Baiocco, Favini, Pistella, Carone, Speranza and Lingiardi.)

Changes in psychoanalytic therapy have been traditionally attributed to self-knowledge (insight) in the client, provided by the therapist's interpretations. In recent years there has been growing realization that such changes can also be the consequence of the development of new forms of relatedness through client-therapist interaction, particularly through special intersubjective moments called moments of meeting. Drawing on the methods and findings of Conversation Analysis about the sequential organization of psychotherapeutic interaction, this single-case study examines the unfolding of a moment of meeting in the final session of a brief psychoanalytic therapy in Peru (in Spanish) with a female client victim of domestic violence. Our analysis shows that the moment of meeting, which resolves a challenge to the intersubjective relationship posed by a now moment, comes about interactionally through a sequentially accomplished shared practice of co-animation. In this sequence the client, who had previously assumed a passive role, exercises her own agency to assume an active role, which the therapist ratifies through his response. In this way, a momentary but significant transformation in the here-and-now relationship between client and therapist occurs. Thus, our analysis contributes to the understanding of how a transformation of relation-the transitory emergence of a new form of relatedness-can take place in and through sequentially organized talk and action in psychotherapy. Our study also sheds light on the role of language in moments of meeting, as the moment of meeting in our segment does not occur in parallel with the exchange of linguistic utterances between client and therapist, but through the exchange of such linguistic utterances and through the sequence of actions carried out by that exchange. In this way, the sequential doing-together with words leads to a moment of meeting, bringing about change, at least momentarily, in the implicit ways-of-being-with-others of the client., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Herrera, Ugarte, Vásquez-Torres, Durand and Sánchez.)

Introduction: This research aimed to investigate the influence of value congruence on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers' work engagement, with a focus on the mediating role of teacher enthusiasm., Methods: A sample of EFL teachers ( N = 453) in China participated in the study. Data were collected using self-report measures, including the Value Congruence Scale, Teacher Enthusiasm Scale, and Work Engagement Scale. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data and test the proposed model., Results: The results revealed that value congruence had a significant positive direct effect on work engagement. Furthermore, teacher enthusiasm was found to mediate the relationship between value congruence and work engagement., Discussion: These findings suggest that when EFL teachers perceive a congruence between their personal values and the values upheld by their educational institutions, they are more likely to experience higher levels of work engagement, and this relationship is partially explained by their level of enthusiasm. The study contributes to the understanding of the factors that influence EFL teachers' work engagement and highlights the importance of value congruence and teacher enthusiasm in fostering a positive work environment. These findings have implications for the development of interventions and practices aimed at enhancing EFL teachers' well-being and job satisfaction., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Cao and Zhang.)

Introduction: Despite increasing interest in measuring social and emotional learning (SEL), there is a lack of European-validated tools for assessing the efficacy of SEL programs. The aim of this study was to validate an Italian version of the social skills improvement system (SSIS) SEL brief scales-student form., Methods: Participants were 1,175 students (mean age: 11.02 years; SD: 2.42; range: 8-16 years; males: 46.8%) recruited at schools in Northern Italy., Statistical Analyses and Results: Initial confirmatory factor analysis encountered a series of challenges, implying non-convergence of the original five-factor measurement model (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) based on the Collaborative on Academic Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) competency framework established with students in the United States. Further exploratory and confirmatory analyses supported a four-factor model that remained partially invariant across gender groups. The Italian version of the SSIS SEL brief scales was thus shown to be an efficient measurement tool for estimating social and emotional learning in students., Discussion: We discuss the implications of findings in relation to selecting valid and reliable instruments for assessing children's and adolescents' SEL competencies, while considering the culturally-situated nature of the constructs under study., Competing Interests: The SSIS SEL brief scales are published by SAILCoLab, and the authors CA and SE receive royalties from any external use and purchases. CA and SE did not receive any royalties from the research team that used the SSIS SEL Scales in this study. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Cavioni, Conte, Grazzani, Ornaghi, Cefai, Anthony, Elliott and Pepe.)

Objective: This scoping review aims to provide an accessible summary of available evidence on the efficacy of psychological couple-based interventions among patients with heart disease and their partners focusing on specific aspects and strategies by assessing different emotional and physical cardiac-related outcome measures., Methods: A literature search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Medline, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases using the keywords "heart diseases" and "couple-based intervention." A literature search using systematic methods was applied. Data were extracted to address the review aims and were presented as a narrative synthesis., Results: The database search produced 11 studies. Psychological couple-based interventions varied in terms of the type of intervention, personnel, format (group or individual, phone or in person), number of sessions, and duration. Most of the contributions also lacked adequate details on the training of professionals, the contents of the interventions, and the theoretical models on which they were based. Finally, although partners were involved in all the treatment, in most studies, the psychological strategies and outcomes were focused on the patient., Conclusion: The variability of the psychological couple-based interventions of included studies represents a challenge in summarizing the existing literature. Regarding their impact, psychological interventions for patients with cardiovascular disease and their partners were found to moderately improve patients' and partners' outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer VS declared a past co-authorship with the author AG to the handling editor., (Copyright © 2023 Rapelli, Giusti, Tarquinio, Varallo, Franceschini, Musetti, Gorini, Castelnuovo and Pietrabissa.)

This study proposes a psychometric validation of the Italian version of the Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) developed by Pianta in 1992. Based on attachment theory, the scale assesses parents' relationship perceptions with their own child and comprises three scales: Closeness, Conflict, and Dependency. A sample of 501 parents (188 fathers and 313 mothers) completed 30 items of the Italian version of the Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS-I) online, but only 437 answered 85% of the entire protocol; hence, the analyses only focused on 437 participants. The first analysis of the original theoretical model revealed poor fit, item loadings, and internal consistency. Therefore, a follow-up analysis was conducted. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses with a split sample (EFA = 218; CFA = 219) confirmed the original three-factor structure of the Italian sample, although some items were eliminated. The validity and reliability of the Italian version of the CPRS-I were also verified by correlating the above three factors with measures of adult attachment styles and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The CPRS-I showed significant correlations with all tested constructs, in line with those found by Driscoll and Pianta for the short form of the scale. Our results confirm that the CPRS-I has the same structure as the original scale; therefore, it can be a useful tool for assessing parents' perceptions of their relationship with their children. The implications for educational and clinical settings are also discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Rinaldi, Castelli, Palena, Greco, Pianta, Marchetti and Valle.)

In a metaphor, such as language is a bridge , two distinct concepts known as the topic (i.e., language ) and vehicle (i.e., bridge ) are juxtaposed to produce figurative meaning. Previous work demonstrated that, when creating metaphors, participants choose vehicles that are concrete, rather than abstract, and are also a moderate semantic distance away from the topic. However, little is known about the semantic representations underlying metaphor production beyond topic-vehicle semantic distance and vehicle concreteness. Here, we studied the role of two semantic richness variables in metaphor production - semantic neighborhood density (SND), which measures the proximity of a word and its associations in semantic space, and body-object interaction (BOI), which reflects the ease with which a human body can motorically interact with a word's referent. In each trial, participants were presented with an abstract topic, such as miracle , and were instructed to make an apt and comprehensible metaphor by choosing a vehicle word (e.g., lighthouse ). All of the topics were abstract but half were high-SND (from dense semantic neighborhoods) and half were low-SND (from sparse semantic neighborhoods). Similarly, half of the potential vehicle words were either high or low in SND and also differed on BOI such that half were high-BOI (e.g., bicycle ), whereas half were low-BOI (e.g., rainbow ). We observed a three-way interaction such that participants selected low-BOI, rather than high-BOI, vehicle words when topics or vehicles were high-SND. We interpret this finding to suggest that participants attempt to reduce the overall semantic richness of their created metaphors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Al-Azary and Katz.)

How do people talk-and potentially think-about abstract concepts? Supported by abundant linguistic evidence, Conceptual Metaphor Theory posits that people draw upon concrete concepts to structure abstract ones via metaphorical connections. Often, the source domain for a metaphor draws upon embodied physical experience, as in the time is space system, whereby representations in the domain of time are thought to arise from experiences of navigating through, orienting within, and observing motion in space. In recent years, psychological evidence has suggested that the connections between space and time are indeed conceptual; however, many gaps in our understanding of the workings of metaphor remain. Notably, until recently, the unique variations in the ways in which people experience metaphor have been largely overlooked, with much research falling prey to what Dąbrowska has identified as one of the 'deadly sins' of cognitive linguistics: to ignore individual differences. By focusing on two widely studied metaphors for time, Moving Time and Moving Ego, this review article shines a spotlight on the varied ways in which people draw on their embodied and enculturated experiences, along with 'human experience' on an individual level and the contexts within which they use metaphor. In doing so, it highlights the importance for metaphoric conceptualization of variation across languages, across contexts, and across individuals, suggesting that while the use and interpretation of metaphor may begin with cross-domain connections, they are but part of the story., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Feist and Duffy.)

Introduction: Self-determination construct is a motivation theory used in professional and educational context to foster special needs teachers' development of metacognition, and psychological wellbeing. The Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ) is a validate questionnaire used to underly teachers' professional and personal competence, and improving social, emotional and career outcomes. The present paper aims to evaluate the degree of reliability (R1) and the adherence of construct validity to the construct of self-determination (R2) of the Italian adaptation of the LCQ., Methods: A confirmatory factorial analysis was conducted to evaluate the factorial structure of the LCQ in a sample of Italian special needs teachers ( N  = 953). Teachers was asked to complete an online version of the LCQ. Construct validity was conducted by relating the learning climate with the basic psychological needs satisfaction, measured with PBNSF, and with academic motivation scale, measured with AMS., Results: The analysis showed a good reliability (R1) and construct validity of the Italian adaptation of the questionnaire, with a high internal consistency compared to those obtained in other studies (R2)., Discussion: Teachers' autonomy support and teacher-student relation can positively impact the students' psychological factors and enhance students' learning motivation and academic achievement. Findings reveal that higher levels of learning climate could also be a key factor in reducing teachers' negative stress and mental health consequences., Conclusion: This study may facilitate further research about the autonomy-supportive learning climate in educational settings in Italy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Monacis, Sulla, Peconio and Limone.)

Introduction: Research has well demonstrated that the pandemic entailed several implications among university students worldwide in terms of increased use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), technostress, disruptions in academic goals and motivation processes, and growing psychological suffering. Responding to the new research need to go in-depth into the processes linking technostress and motivation dimensions to inform current research/interventions, the present study aimed to explore the direct effects of perceived Technostress dimensions (Techno-Overload, Work-Home Conflict, Pace of Change, Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, and Techno-Sociality) and Academic Motivation dimensions (Amotivation, Intrinsic, and Extrinsic Motivation dimensions) on students' perceived levels of Anxiety/Depression and test the potential indirect effect (mediating role) of Academic Motivation dimensions in the associations between Technostress and psychological health conditions., Methods: Overall, 1,541 students from five European countries (Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Serbia, United Kingdom) completed a survey comprising a Background Information Form, the Technostress Scale, the Academic Motivation Scale-College, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Hayes' PROCESS tool was used to test direct and indirect (mediating) effects., Results: Data revealed that Techno-Overload, Work-Home Conflict, Amotivation, and Extrinsic Motivation-Introjected had a direct negative effect, whereas Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, Techno-Sociality, all Intrinsic Motivation dimensions, and Extrinsic Motivation-Identified had a direct protective role for students' psychological health. The significant indirect role of motivation dimensions in the associations between Technostress dimensions and Anxiety/Depression was fully supported., Discussion: Findings allow gaining further insight into the pathways of relationships between technostress, motivation, and psychological health, to be used in the current phase, featured by the complete restoration of face-to-face contacts, to inform the development of tailored research and interventions, which address lights and shadows of the technology use, and which take into account the necessity to enhance its potentials yet without impairing students' motivation and psychological health., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Vallone, Galvin, Cattaneo Della Volta, Akhtar, Chua, Ghio, Giovazolias, Kazakou, Kritikou, Koutra, Kovacevic, Lee-Treweek, Mašková, Mavritsaki, Nastic, Plassova, Stuchlíková and Zurlo.)

Introduction: Infertility literature suggests widespread recourse to long-term medical treatments despite evidence of high stress, costs, and adverse effects of repeated treatment failures. However, there is a lack of research comparing predictors of stress and psychological health outcomes between members of infertile couples who - after repeated failures - persist in pursuing medical treatments (PT) with those who opted for quitting treatments and adopting (QTA). Basing on a transactional and multidimensional approach to infertility-related stress and health, the present study aims at exploring individual (socio-demographics; coping strategies) and situational (infertility-related parameters; infertility-related stressors; couple's dyadic adjustment dimensions) predictors of state-anxiety and depression in male and female partners of PT-infertile couples and of QTA-infertile couples., Methods: Participants were both members of 176 couples with duration of infertility and a history of medical treatments for at least 3 years (76 PT-infertile couples, 100 QTA-infertile couples). The study variables were compared by study group across genders. Structural equation models (SEM) were used to test main and moderating effects of study variables on state-anxiety and depression by study group and across genders., Results: Members of infertile couples quitting treatments and adopting (QTA) reported significantly lower levels of state-anxiety and depression, higher stress related to need for parenthood and rejection of childfree-lifestyle and lower stress related to social and couple's relationship concerns than those who persist in pursuing medical treatments (PT). Members of infertile couples quitting treatments and adopting (QTA) recurred to a greater extent to active coping strategies (problem-solving/social-support) and to a lower extent to passive coping strategies (avoiding/turning-to-religion), and they reported higher levels of dyadic adjustment. Specificities in main and moderating factors related to state-anxiety and depression by study group and across genders were found., Conclusion: Findings should be addressed to provide a comprehensive assessment of both members of infertile couples facing repeated treatment failures to identify risks and resources and develop tailored evidence-based interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zurlo, Cattaneo Della Volta and Vallone.)

One of the main concepts of the psychoanalytic method postulated by Freud in 1912 is the fundamental rule, which involves asking the patient to say whatever comes to mind as the analyst follows the patient's speech with fluctuating attention. Despite different theoretical models, this concept has remained an invariant element that characterizes the psychoanalytic method. For this reason, the purpose of the current study is to present a new instrument that measures this process based on the clinician's assessment. The Free-Association Session Scale (FASS) has been designed according to the psychoanalytic framework. Study 1 presented the preliminary validation of the FASS factor structure. Experienced Italian psychoanalysts ( N = 281; 196 women) completed the FASS and sociodemographic questionnaire. The following two factors were identified using exploratory factor analysis: (1) Perturbing, and (2) Associativity. Study 2 cross-validated the two factors using an independent sample ( N = 259; 187 women) of experienced psychoanalysts and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The FASS has been tested for concurrent validity using the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) and Linguistic measures of the Referential process. The two-factor model achieved a close-fit test, and the FASS items were found to measure the corresponding factors with good reliability. The Perturbing factor is negatively associated with three SEQ factors (Depth, Smoothness, and Positivity) and negatively correlated with symbolization (IWRAD and IWRAD_IWRRL), confirming a more complex and unexpected session. The Associativity factor is positively associated with all four SEQ factors (Depth, Smoothness, Positivity, and Arousal). In conclusion, the FASS is a promising new questionnaire for assessing psychoanalytic session quality processes with satisfactory validity and reliability., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Mariani, Di Monte, Caricati, Bastianini, Ferruta, Christopher, Speranza, Guerrini degli Innocenti and Musetti.)

The number line estimation task (NLE) is often used as a predictor for broader measures of mathematical achievement. In spite of its popularity, it is still not clear whether the task is based on symbolic or non-symbolic numerical competence. In particular, there is only a very limited amount of studies investigating the relationship between NLE performance and symbolic vs. non-symbolic math skills in children who have not yet begun formal schooling. This study investigates the strength of the association between NLE performance and symbolic and non-symbolic tasks in young kindergarteners. Ninety two 5-year-old children completed the NLE task (range 0-100) and a battery of early numerical competence tests including symbolic-lexical tasks, symbolic semantic tasks, and non-symbolic semantic tasks. The relationship between symbolic and non-symbolic early numerical competence and NLE performance was analyzed using a regression model based on the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). Results show that only symbolic semantic tasks are significant predictors of NLE performance. These results suggest that symbolic numerical knowledge is involved in number line processing among young children, whilst non-symbolic knowledge is not. This finding brings new data to the debate on the relationship between non-symbolic numeral knowledge and symbolic number processing and supports the evidence of a primary role of symbolic number processing already in young kindergarteners., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Meloni, Delogu and Fanari.)

Objective: The Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) has increasingly become a primary therapeutic option for longer-waiting heart transplant lists. Although survival rates are growing, the device requires complex home care. Therefore, the presence of a caregiver trained in the LVAD management is important for the success of the therapy. The LVAD leads both patients and their caregivers to experience new challenges and adapt to new lifestyle changes and limitations - but their subjective beliefs before home management remained little explored., Design: This study identified, using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach, the main components of the LVAD experience of six patient-caregiver dyads interviewed during cardiac rehabilitation., Results: We identified 4 master themes: Being between life and death, Being human with a heart of steel, Sharing is caring (and a burden), and Being small and passive ., Conclusion: The knowledge from this study can be used as a guide for healthcare providers in counseling LVAD recipients and their caregivers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Rapelli, Giusti, Donato, Parise, Pagani, Pietrabissa, Bertoni and Castelnuovo.)

Employee wellbeing represents a profound management challenge for both leaders and HR professionals, and both transformational leadership (TL) and high performance work system (HPWS) are assumed to play important roles in tackling this challenge. However, we know little about their unique and relative importance in promoting wellbeing. To shed light on this methodologically, theoretically and practically important issue, we draw mainly on leadership substitutes theory. Based on a comprehensive mediation model we examine whether HPWS substitutes the assumed relationships between TL and employee emotional exhaustion. Our study answers to three important calls for research: to examine the joint effects of leadership and HPWS, to examine their health-related impact, and to pursue more theory contesting research in management studies. Based on data from 308 white collar employees working under 76 middle-managers in five Finnish organizations our study points to the incompleteness of previous siloed research on both TL and HPWS, sheds new light on their relationships with wellbeing, and suggests ways to develop both TL and HPWS theory, thus providing important guidance for future research on their effects., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ehrnrooth, Koveshnikov, Wechtler and Hauff.)

Introduction: There is overwhelming evidence that companies with women on their boards of directors have higher levels of Corporate Social Responsibility. The relation between professional women and collective or organisational responsibility has been widely studied. However, to date there has been little research into the individual attitudes of women towards social responsibility. The purpose of this study is to analyse the differences in attitudes towards social responsibility between men and women in their professional life., Methods: A study sample ( N = 524; 347 women; M edad = 37) was assembled using the LinkedIn social media platform and participants, after providing their informed consent, were asked to answer the Professional Social Responsibility Questionnaire., Results: The results showed significant differences in Professional Social Responsibility between men and women, with moderate effect ( t (522) = 2.078; p = 0.191), in favour of women. The women participants scored higher in the dimensions Discovery of Personal Values ( η 2 = 0.191), in favour of women. The women participants scored higher in the dimensions Discovery of Personal Values ( t (522) = 2.342; p = 0.020; η 2 = 0.216) and Social Awareness ( t (522) = 2.179; p = 0.030; η 2 = 0.201), both with representative effect sizes., Discussion: These results suggest that the greater commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility of companies with women on their boards of directors is due, in part, to the greater individual or personal social responsibility of women. Higher levels of Discovery of Personal Values and Social Awareness amongst women may also result in better decision-making, ultimately accruing to the benefit of the company in terms of its financial results and reputation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Reig-Aleixandre, García-Ramos and De la Calle-Maldonado.)

Patients with ATTR cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA) face rare disease that could negatively influence psychological well-being with consequences on the course of the disease and quality of life. However, to date, no study analyzed the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with ATTR-CA and which clinical and sociodemographic characteristics are linked with these psychopathological conditions. A total of 109 consecutive patients (83% males) aged 62-90 years with ATTR-CA were recruited. In order to better understand the prevalence of anxiety and depression in ATTR-CA, a control group composed by 33 individuals equaling gender, education, and age were recruited. The level of anxiety and depression was measured using the Italian version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Sociodemographic and clinic characteristics were registered. Almost half of patients (49%) reported a clinical level of depression or anxiety, or both. ATTR-CA patients reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than control group. Results showed that older patients with ATTR-CA, especially females, with more advanced disease could be more at risk to develop an anxious disorder. Furthermore, being a woman, and presenting with a greater severity of symptoms, would appear to be a risk factor for developing a depressive disorder. Overall, these results highlighted the high presence of anxiety and depression in ATTR-CA patients, suggesting to physicians to pay attention to the psychological well-being of ATTR-CA patients. In fact, a psychological support for patients with high level of psychopathological disease could reduce disease burden and improve quality of life in ATTR-CA population., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Smorti, Ponti, Soffio, Argirò, Perfetto, Zampieri, Mazzoni, Tomberli, Allinovi, Di Mario, Olivotto and Cappelli.)

Introduction: Social emotional competence is fundamental to the positive development of children and youth. Accurately understanding and assessing children's social emotional competencies, using psychometrically sound instruments, are essential to global efforts to support children's social emotional learning, academic achievements, and health. This study examined the psychometric properties of a teacher-reported measure of young children's social emotional competence, the Social Competence Scale - Teacher edition (SCS-T), in two samples of children growing up with varied economic resources/conditions, cultural norms, and educational experiences, namely Pakistan ( N  = 396) and Sweden ( N  = 309)., Methods: Participants were aged 4-6 years old. The study design was cross-sectional., Results and Discussion: Using structural equation modelling, bi-factor confirmatory factor analysis models implying shared variance, among all items and domain-specific shared variance, among the prosocial items, emotion regulation items, and academic skills items resulted in good fitting models in each respective sample. Invariance testing across samples revealed a subset of items from each factor structure with partial scalar invariance, whereby five items had equal thresholds and could be comparable across the two samples. Thus, results provided partial support for hypotheses 1, 2, and 3, in that the posited three factor model (H1) was not clearly supported and a bi-factor model evidenced the best fit, among tested models, for both samples. Further, partial scalar invariance (H3) was found for five items out of 25 items, concerning social competence and academic skills. In regards, to the posited research question, the results of Z-tests showed significant ( p  < 0.001) latent mean differences between the samples. Compared to the Swedish sample, the Pakistani sample was 1.80 units lower on social competence ( z  = -6.41, p  < 0.001) and 1.86 units lower on academic skills ( z  = -7.87, p  < 0.001). The implications of these findings in light of efforts to promote positive child development in diverse parts of the world are considered., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Thomas, Kågström, Eichas, Inam, Ferrer-Wreder and Eninger.)

This study investigates the interpersonal meanings expressed by English tag questions in the context of British university seminars from two dimensions: evidential modification of tags and conduciveness of responses. The data for the study derive from seminars in the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) Corpus, which is herein both quantitative and qualitative analyzed. The findings reveal that: (1) three-quarters of tag questions in the data are utilized by teachers, and the unmarked form of tag questions in university seminars are generally positive-negative forms, with a few examples of other varieties; (2) regarding evidential modification of tags, depending on the degree of epistemic certainty of the speakers on the proposition of the anchor, the default function of teachers' tag questions in the data is to convey emphasis, followed by confirmatory function, with only a few cases of informational function; and (3) regarding conduciveness of responses, over 70% of tag questions are followed by no verbal response, while less than 30% are followed by explicit responses. Accordingly, these findings raise the question of whether tag questions can really provide sufficient scope for interactions in classroom. It is hoped that this nuanced, corpus-based analysis of tag question utilization within the context of British university seminars would empirically reveal the interpersonal relations between teachers and students and thereby shed light on more efficient seminar discussions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wei, Leung and Sun.)