Attachment styles, mental health, and trauma during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in an Italian adult population.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted adults' mental health around the world. Various studies highlighted the role of sociodemographic risk factors, including age, gender, and level of education, in increasing this impact. Although insecure attachment styles are considered a vulnerability factor for psychopathology and difficulties in coping with stressful situations, few studies have examined the role of attachment styles in relation to psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mind-mindedness and styles of interaction of young fathers with their infants at three months: a pilot study.

Background: Fatherhood at a young age can be characterized by a multiproblematic background with several risk factors that can negatively affect father-child relationships, the father's well-being and child's social-emotional development.

Methods: This pilot study evaluated paternal interaction styles and mentalization in a sample of 22 young fathers and their 3-month-old infants and compared these variables with those of 22 adolescent and young mothers (the fathers' partners). Parent-infant interaction were codified with Care-Index to evaluate styles of interaction and with Mind-Mindedness system to evaluate mentalization.

Hope and life satisfaction in Palestinian children victim of military violence: The predictive role of agency, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms of trauma.

Background: Children exposed political violence deploy resources to maintain functioning, hope and life satisfaction.

Objective: We sought to explore whether or not children promote hope and life satisfaction trough agency, psychological difficulties, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms in Palestine.

Participants And Setting: 965 children (494 males and 471 females) in multiple geographical contexts, and areas were involved.

Understanding psychoanalytic work online and back to the couch in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: an investigation among Italian psychoanalysts.

Background: Worldwide, psychotherapists' clinical experience went through rapid developments with transition to teletherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Literature on the use of remote psychoanalysis was not conclusive, leaving the issue of the consequences of the necessary setting alternation open. This study aimed to investigate the psychoanalysts' experiences of shifting to remote work and then returning to in-person setting, considering the effect of the patients' attachment styles and personality configurations.

Parental embodied mentalizing: Associations with maternal depression, anxiety, verbal mentalizing, and maternal styles of interaction.

Background: Maternal depression and anxiety in the perinatal period affect the quality of maternal sensitivity and mentalizing abilities. Few studies analyzed implicit mentalizing in relation to maternal distress. The aims of the study were: to examine the relation between nonverbal mentalizing - parental embodied mentalizing (PEM) - and maternal depression and anxiety, verbal mentalizing, and maternal styles of interaction; and to test PEM as a mediator of the effect of maternal distress on styles of interaction.

Psychopathological and Psychosocial Risk Profile, Styles of Interaction and Mentalization of Adolescent and Young Mother-Infant Dyads.

This study examined the psychopathological and psychosocial risk profile and the quality of mother-infant interaction in 98 adolescent and young mother-infant dyads. At their infant's age of 3 months, mothers filled in a socio-demographic form and completed a test battery: EPDS for depression, STAY-I for anxiety, PSI-SF for parenting stress, MPSS for social support, AAI for maternal attachment and reflective functioning, CECA for adverse childhood experiences, Care-Index and Mind-mindedness coding system for mother-infant interaction. Results showed that motherhood in adolescence was associated with several psychosocial risk factors.

Effectiveness of an online versus face-to-face psychodynamic counselling intervention for university students before and during the COVID-19 period.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased online counselling interventions, including those aimed at university students. The principal aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the online counselling intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic, also with regards to the effectiveness of the face-to-face intervention.

Methods: 34 students (Mean age = 23.

Short-term psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of the first wave of an ecological daily study in the Italian population.

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.

Psychological distress and attachment styles in emerging adult students attending and not attending a university counselling service.

Emerging adulthood is a turning point in the life cycle with regard mental health. To assess psychological distress and attachment styles 688 university students of which 370 requested a counselling support responded to Symptom Checklist 90 Revised and Attachment Style Questionnaire. Counselling attending students (vs counselling non-attending students) have a higher psychological risk profile, with more psychological distress and insecure attachment.

Effectiveness of a university counseling intervention based on a psychodynamic approach.

The study examined the effectiveness of a brief psychodynamic counseling intervention on psychological distress and general life satisfaction in a sample of 124 students by comparing pre- and posttreatment data. The authors also tested the moderating role of pretreatment attachment styles. Results showed that most participants (57%) can be classified as a nonclinical population, whereas only a minority of participants belong to a clinical population (17%) and a subclinical population (26%) according to the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R).

Early styles of interaction in mother-twin infant dyads and maternal mental health.

Transition to parenthood is considered a critical process for mothers of twins. There are, however, few studies on the subject. This study aims to evaluate the differences between mother-twin infant dyads and mother-singleton infant dyads with regard to maternal depression, anxiety, parenting stress, and the quality of mother-infant interaction.

Childhood experiences of maltreatment, reflective functioning and attachment in adolescent and young adult mothers: Effects on mother-infant interaction and emotion regulation.

Background: Maternal childhood experiences of maltreatment affect parenting and have consequences for a child's social-emotional development. Adolescent mothers have a higher frequency of a history of maltreatment than adult mothers. However few studies have analyzed the interactions between adolescent mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment and their infants.

Maternal and paternal depression and anxiety: their relationship with mother-infant interactions at 3 months.

While there have been studies on the effects of maternal depression and anxiety on mother-infant styles of interaction in infancy, there have been no studies on the effects of paternal depression and anxiety or on the joint effects of maternal and paternal depression and anxiety on mother-infant styles of interaction. The aims of the study were to examine the associations between maternal depression and anxiety and paternal depression and anxiety and to examine the relationship between maternal and paternal depression and anxiety and mother-infant styles of interaction at infant 3 months. Seventy mother and father couples were administered the EPDS for depression and the STAI-Y for anxiety and mother-infant interactions were video-recorded and coded with the CARE-INDEX.

Reflective functioning, maternal attachment, mind-mindedness, and emotional availability in adolescent and adult mothers at infant 3 months.

The study evaluated reflective functioning (RF), maternal attachment, mind-mindedness, and emotional availability among 44 adolescent mother-infant dyads and 41 adult mother-infant dyads. At infant age 3 months, mother-infant interaction was coded with the mind-mindedness coding system and Emotional Availability Scales; mother attachment and RF were evaluated with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Adolescent mothers (vs.

Parenting Stress, Mental Health, Dyadic Adjustment: A Structural Equation Model.

In the 1st year of the post-partum period, parenting stress, mental health, and dyadic adjustment are important for the wellbeing of both parents and the child. However, there are few studies that analyze the relationship among these three dimensions. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between parenting stress, mental health (depressive and anxiety symptoms), and dyadic adjustment among first-time parents.

Mother-Infant Emotion Regulation at Three Months: The Role of Maternal Anxiety, Depression and Parenting Stress.

Background: While the association between anxiety and postpartum depression is well known, few studies have investigated the relationship between these two states and parenting stress. Furthermore, a number of studies have found that postpartum depression affects mother-infant emotion regulation, but there has been only one study on anxiety and emotion regulation and no studies at all on parenting stress and emotion regulation. Therefore, the primary aim of our study is to identify, in a community sample of 71 mothers, the relationship between maternal depression, anxiety, and parenting stress.

Effectiveness of an Attachment-Based Intervention Program in Promoting Emotion Regulation and Attachment in Adolescent Mothers and their Infants: A Pilot Study.

This pilot study examined the effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention program, PRERAYMI, based on video technique, psychological counseling and developmental guidance in improving the style of interaction and emotion regulation of adolescent mothers and their infants after 3 and 6 months of intervention. Analyses revealed that adolescent mothers who participated in the intervention (vs. control group adolescent mothers) increased their Sensitivity and reduced their Controlling style after both 3 and 6 months of treatment.

Motherhood in adolescent mothers: maternal attachment, mother-infant styles of interaction and emotion regulation at three months.

Early motherhood is considered a risk factor for an adequate relationship between mother and infant and for the subsequent development of the infant. The principal aim of the study is to analyze micro-analytically the effect of motherhood in adolescence on the quality of mother-infant interaction and emotion regulation at three months, considering at the same time the effect of maternal attachment on these variables. Participants were 30 adolescent mother-infant dyads compared to 30 adult mother-infant dyads.

Maternal attachment influences mother-infant styles of regulation and play with objects at nine months.

We examined the association between the quality of maternal representations of attachment evaluated by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and mother styles of regulating attention and emotion during free play with objects in 41 mother dyads when infants were nine months old. The secure mother dyads showed a greater duration of engagement matches, with more positive matches, and a greater capacity to move from non-matched to matched states. Secure mother dyads demonstrated greater involvement in play with objects than insecure mother dyads.

Attachment patterns and emotion regulation strategies in the second year.

With the aim of studying the relationship between methods of emotion regulation and quality of attachment we examined 39 infants with different patterns of attachment, of whom 20 were classified as secure (B), 12 as avoidant (A) and 7 as resistant (C), assessing the regulatory strategies adopted by them during the Strange Situation at 13 months. Secure infants used strategies of positive social engagement more than insecure avoidant infants, while resistant infants displayed greater negative social engagement and less object orientation than the other two groups. Avoidant infants adopted positive and negative hetero-regulatory strategies less than the other groups, also differing from resistant infants in their greater use of object regulatory strategies.