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Background: COVID-19 forced healthcare workers to work in unprecedented and critical circumstances, exacerbating already-problematic and stressful working conditions. The “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project aimed at identifying psychological and personal factors, influencing individuals’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: 291 healthcare workers took part in the project by answering an online questionnaire twice (after the first wave of COVID-19 and during the second wave) and completing questions on socio-demographic and work-related information, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Brief Cope. Results: Higher levels of worry, worse working conditions, a previous history of psychiatric illness, being a nurse, older age, and avoidant and emotion-focused coping strategies seem to be risk factors for healthcare workers’ mental health. High levels of perceived social support, the attendance of emergency training, and problem-focused coping strategies play a protective role. Conclusions: An innovative, and more flexible, data mining statistical approach (i.e., a regression trees approach for repeated measures data) allowed us to identify risk factors and derive classification rules that could be helpful to implement targeted interventions for healthcare workers.

Although previous studies have shown that rejection sensitivity (RS) is related to aggressive, prosocial, and withdrawal behaviors, little is known on the underlying mechanisms. This contribution aims to fill this gap by showing the usefulness of differentiating between the cognitive (expectation) and emotional (anxiety, anger) components of RS and testing the potential mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation (ER) strategies for predicting aggressive, prosocial, and withdrawal tendencies. Results from data collected in a sample of young adults (N = 445) showed that rejection expectation was only negatively linked to prosociality and that 2 functional ER strategies (i.e., positive reappraisal and putting into perspective) negatively mediate this relation. Conversely, dysfunctional ER strategies positively mediated the positive links between anger about rejection and aggression (i.e., catastrophizing and other blaming) as well as withdrawal (i.e., catastrophizing) and between anxiety about rejection and withdrawal (i.e., self-blame and rumination). We discussed the implications of the results for the comprehension of the role of ER strategies in behaviors linked to RS.

Background: the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought disruptive changes in everyone's everyday life, among which pervasive anxiety about the risk of infection, the fear of worsening physical symptoms, and the experience of isolation and loneliness due to lockdowns and other strict governments' rules. These kinds of repercussions of pandemic situations impact individuals' psychological wellbeing resulting in heightened perceived stress, anxiety, and depression. "Italia Ti Ascolto" (ITA) has been developed as an internet-based intervention to offer an online solution for psychological support needs. Methods: ITA is an app available on iOS and Android systems. Users complete a baseline assessment on emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), psychological stress, anxiety, depression, and perceived social support. Participants select between several one-hour long clinical groups held by expert psychotherapists. After every session, people are asked to complete a quick users' satisfaction survey. Discussion: Our contribution presents ITA's intervention protocol and discusses preliminary data on psychological variables collected at baseline. Data showed significant associations between emotion regulation strategies and depressive, anxious symptoms, and level of stress. Moreover, the role of perceived psychological support is considered. Future developments and implications for clinical practice and treatment are discussed.

The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted individuals' psychological wellbeing resulting in heightened perceived stress, anxiety, and depression. However, a significant issue in accessing psychological care during a lockdown is the lack of access to in-person interventions. In this regard, research has shown the efficacy and utility of psychological app-based interventions. 'Italia Ti Ascolto' (ITA) has been developed as a population tailored internet-based intervention to offer an online professional solution for psychological support needs. The ITA app is available on iOS and Android systems. Users completed a baseline assessment on emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), psychological stress, anxiety, depression, and perceived social support. Participants could select among several one-hour long clinical groups held by expert psychotherapists. After every session, people were asked to complete a quick users' satisfaction survey. Our contribution presents ITA's intervention protocol and discusses preliminary data on psychological variables collected at baseline. Data showed significant associations between emotion regulation strategies, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and level of stress. Moreover, the role of perceived social support is considered. Future developments and implications for clinical practice and treatment are discussed.

During the last year, the COVID-19 outbreak put all the healthcare workers around the world at risk of physical and psychological sequelae. The general purpose of the present study was to assess the mental health of Italian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak and to identify high-risk groups. Here, we present results from the baseline assessment of the “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project on a sample of 1055 healthcare workers. Participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Healthcare workers who worked in COVID wards reported higher levels of anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress, anger, and burnout, compared to those reported by the healthcare workers who worked in non-COVID wards. Moreover, nurses, both in COVID and non-COVID wards, were at higher risk of experiencing psychological distress compared to other groups of healthcare workers. These findings highlight the importance of implementing targeted psychological interventions for healthcare workers operating in COVID wards and nurses, who seem to be the most vulnerable categories.

COVID-19 pandemic involved several psychosocial consequences. We aimed at monitoring the mental health of Italian adults during the lockdown imposed by the government. We present here results from the baseline assessment of the “EmotionalThermometer [TermometroEmotivo] project on a sample of 1548 Italian adults. We assessed the socio-demographic conditions of participants, individuals’ perception of the COVID-19-situation, psychological distress, emotion regulation strategies, and perceived social support. Having a worse representation of COVID-19 and consulting news more frequently, with higher anxiety and less credibility of different sources of information, were positively associated with psychological distress and post-traumatic responses. Being female, younger age, living in high-risk regions, having symptoms of COVID-19, and having relatives/friends with such symptoms represented risk factors for a worse perception of COVID-19 and distress. Social support and cognitive reappraisal represented protective factors for mental health.

Il presente contributo propone un modello euristico per lo studio della fiducia interpersonale. Sulla base di precedenti concettualizzazioni sul tema della fiducia consideriamo la fiducia interpersonale un processo interattivo, circolare e che prevede più fasi. Di conseguenza, sottolineiamo l'importanza di considerare le espressioni comportamentali di fiducia come l'esito di un processo dinamico in continua evoluzione piuttosto che come una disposizione personale statica. Nella presente tesi, miriamo ad approfondire i processi che sottostanno una minore predisposizione a fidarsi del prossimo da parte dei soggetti con tratti di personalità borderline (il così detto, untrustworthiness bias). Lungo l'intero elaborato di tesi esemplifichiamo un utilizzo del modello proposto per esplorare l'untrustworthiness bias in soggetti con tratti di personalità borderline. Nel primo Capitolo, forniamo una presentazione dettagliata del modello già menzionato in precedenza e una revisione sistematica della letteratura precedente in merito a difficoltà a fidarsi del prossimo in soggetti con Disturbo Borderline di Personalità. Nei capitolo successivi presentiamo cinque studi empirici che approfondiscono alcune fasi specifiche suggerite nel modello. Nei capitoli 2, 3 e 4 esploriamo l'influenza di alcune differenze individuali sull'untrustworthiness bias di soggetti con tratti di personalità borderline. Più di preciso, un questi capitoli ci occupiamo di esplorare rispettivamente la sensibilità all'esclusione sociale, all'ingiustizia e la sospettosità. In questi capitoli dimostriamo empiricamente come diverse disposizioni individuali possono influenzare diversamente la disposizione individuale a fidarsi del prossimo in soggetti con tratti borderline di personalità. Nel Capitolo 5, invece, esploriamo l'effetto che diversi indizi di fiducia (indizi diretti e indiretti) possono avere sull'untrustworthiness bias di soggetti con tratti borderline di personalità. I nostri risultati, The present work proposes a novel heuristic model for studying Interpersonal Trust. Building upon previous conceptualizations of trust, we recommend considering trust as an iterative, circular, and multi-step process. Hence, we stress the importance of considering trust expressions as a dynamic process in continuous evolution rather than a static personality disposition. In the present work, our main aim is to shed light on the processes underlying the lower propensity of individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder features to trust others (i.e., untrustworthiness bias). Throughout the thesis, we exemplify the use of the proposed model for exploring the well-established untrustworthiness bias of individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) features. Chapter 1 provides a detailed illustration of the model mentioned above and a systematic review of the previous literature on trust impairments among individuals with BPD. In the following chapters, we present five empirical studies that elucidate the peculiar functioning of individuals with BPD features in some of the stages suggested by the model. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, we investigate the influence of some individual differences on BPD’s untrustworthiness bias. We respectively focus on the exploration of Rejection Sensitivity, Justice Sensitivity, and Suspiciousness. In these chapters, we empirically prove that different trust-related personal dispositions have a typical influence on the interpersonal trust dispositions of individuals with BPD features. In Chapter 5, we explore the effects of diverse (i.e., direct or indirect) cues on the untrustworthiness bias of individuals with BPD features. Our findings remarkably suggest that the association between BPD features and untrustworthiness bias is not stable rather variable. Finally, in Chapter 6, we focus on the influence of Covid-19 circumstances on the interpersonal trust dispositions of individuals with BPD features. Surprisingly, we found similar i

Purpose of Review We aim to provide quantitative evidence on the psychological impact of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19, ebola, and influenza A) on healthcare workers (HCWs). Recent Findings Forty-four studies are included in this review. Between 11 and 73.4% of HCWs, mainly including physicians, nurses, and auxiliary staff, reported post-traumatic stress symptoms during outbreaks, with symptoms lasting after 1-3 years in 10-40%. Depressive symptoms are reported in 27.5-50.7%, insomnia symptoms in 34-36.1%, and severe anxiety symptoms in 45%. General psychiatric symptoms during outbreaks have a range comprised between 17.3 and 75.3%; high levels of stress related to working are reported in 18.1 to 80.1%. Several individual and work-related features can be considered risk or protective factors, such as personality characteristics, the level of exposure to affected patients, and organizational support. Empirical evidence underlines the need to address the detrimental effects of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks on HCWs' mental health. Recommendations should include the assessment and promotion of coping strategies and resilience, special attention to frontline HCWs, provision of adequate protective supplies, and organization of online support services.

Smartphones are changing lives in a number of ways. However, the psychological literature has primarily focused on smartphone overuse, neglecting the impacts that are not strictly related to problematic use. The present research was aimed to develop a comprehensive self-report scale that accounts for the cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral impacts of smartphones in everyday life—the Smartphone Impact Scale (SIS). Study 1 (N = 407) yielded a preliminary version of the scale, which was refined in Study 2 (N = 601). The SIS is a 26-item scale that measures seven dimensions of smartphone impact. Results revealed meaningful associations between its subscales, psychosocial constructs, and daily usage of smartphones and apps. The SIS broadens the view of human–smartphone interaction by extending the concept of problematic smartphone use to further dimensions (e.g., emotion regulation) and introducing a proper measurement of underinvestigated smartphone impacts (e.g., tasks support). The implications of each SIS subscale are discussed.