Publications by authors named "Ludovica Giani"

Background: There is evidence that the tendency to adopt a peculiar pattern of causal inference, known as attributional style, is likely related to specific patterns of psychopathology among youth.

Objective: This study aims to assess preliminary psychometric properties of the Italian Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (CASQ-R) and to explore the presence of any subgroups of children and early adolescents from the general population who might exhibit internally homogeneous and externally heterogeneous attributional styles through latent class analysis, delving into the potential sociodemographic, namely age and gender, and clinical differences among the identified classes of attributional styles.

Method: A sample of 337 children (11.

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This study aims to examine the relative contribution of anger cognitions and anger rumination in predicting externalizing and internalizing problems among 180 adolescents (aged 11-18 years) using correlational and linear regression analysis. Our findings showed that anger rumination predicted both externalizing (aggressive behaviors) and internalizing problems (anxious, depressive, and somatic symptoms). In contrast, biased anger cognitions did not appear to meaningfully predict either externalizing or internalizing symptoms, with the only exception of the hostile verbal labels and catastrophic cognitive attributions, a factor that was significantly associated with both rule-breaking behaviors (ß = .

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Deficits in theory of mind (ToM), known as the ability to understand the other's mind, have been associated with several psychopathological outcomes. The present systematic review aims to summarize the results of genetic studies that investigated gene polymorphisms associated with mentalization performance tasks in children and adults. The systematic review was carried out following PRISMA guidelines, and the literature search was conducted in PubMed and EBSCOhost using the following keywords: 'theory of mind, mentalizing, mindreading' and 'gene, genetic basis'.

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The COVID-19 emergency has fostered an increasing risk of experiencing distress and negative emotions in parents that turned into heightened stress for children. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effects of parental stress, children's resilience, and previous adversities on the development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children. A series of questionnaires were completed by 158 Italian parents (148 mothers, 10 fathers, mean age = 41 years) concerning them and their school-aged children (N = 158, 76 boys, mean age = 7.

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Article Synopsis
  • There was an increase in emotional and behavioral issues among youths during the pandemic, prompting a study on parent-adolescent conflict and its effects on psychological symptoms.
  • 195 adolescents participated in the study, which measured perceived conflict with parents and parenting styles at the beginning and after a year, linking these factors to reported psychological difficulties.
  • Results showed that conflicts with parents were associated with greater psychological symptoms, and while maternal care and overprotection did not mediate this relationship, paternal care was found to fully mediate it for both genders.
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Several changes in the behavioral phenotype arise with the growth of children affected by Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) and Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome (RSTS). However, previous research relied on a cross-sectional study design turning into age-related comparisons of different syndromic cohorts to explore age-dependent changes. We aim to outline the variating pathways of the neuropsychiatric functioning across the lifespan in CdLS and RSTS, through the setting up of a longitudinal study design.

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Parent-child conflict can have a series of negative consequences concerning youth emotional and behavioral development. The link between family conflict and children's externalizing symptoms is well established, whereas the association with internalizing symptoms is less explored. Within the school context, children are engaged in other meaningful relationships (i.

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Background And Aim: There is mounting evidence highlighting that Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) and Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome's (RSTS) behavioral phenotypes are not stable over individual developmental trajectories and that several psychiatric disorders might arise with age. Our study aims to examine the specific hallmarks of psychopathology and behavioral phenotypes in four different age ranges: infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, in both genetic syndromes.

Method: The sample included 44 patients with CdLS (48% boys, age = 6.

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Background: There is evidence that social impairments in Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) differ from those observed in idiopathic autism as they are characterized mainly by social anxiety. However, the knowledge of the fundamental features of social anxiety symptoms in this target population is limited. This brief systematic review aims to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and CdLS through multiple cross-sectional comparisons.

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The first Italian lockdown imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19 caused important disruptions in families' everyday lives. The main aim of this research was to investigate the predictors of psychopathology in children aged 5-10 years, immediately after the national 2-month lockdown. A total of 158 Italian parents (148 mothers, 10 fathers, mean age = 41 years) were recruited and asked to complete an online research concerning their 158 children (76 boys, mean age = 7.

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