Search

Objective: A relevance of fear and concerns about vaccine development and its side effects are suggested to explain COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, evidence supporting the phobic origin hypothesis of hesitancy for COVID-19 and other vaccinations remains indirect and elusive., Method: We addressed this issue by investigating the existence of a relationship between fear conditioning, extinction, and the respective vaccination hesitancy and anxiety scores in a group of 25 individuals., Results: Overall, we show that the general mechanism of fear extinction learning is impaired in individuals with high vaccine hesitancy. State and trait anxiety scores do not account for this result., Conclusions: These findings suggest that attitudes against vaccination could be linked to an altered inhibitory learning process., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None., (© 2023 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.)

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to contribute to the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the IGD-20., Method: An online survey was completed by 392 Italian online gamers (M age = 29.2, SD = 11.3; 45.2% males). A battery of self-report questionnaires was administered to assess internet gaming disorder, internet addiction, loneliness, anxiety, depression, stress, social-interaction anxiety, self-esteem, and perceived social support. To test the factor structure of IGD-20, both traditional (i.e., EFA and CFA) and innovative (i.e., ESEM) techniques were applied. Convergent, concurrent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity were evaluated., Results: Our study revealed the outperforming 3-factor ESEM model (χ 2 =39.951, p = 0.0021; RMSEA = 0.056, 90% C.I. [0.032 - 0.079]; CFI = 0.986; TLI = 0.965; and SRMR = 0.017; ω = .76, .77, and .79, respectively) as a new short version (IGD-10SV) for the IGD-20. The validity of the IGD-10SV was supported by significant associations with theoretically related measures., Conclusions: The current findings support the adoption of the analytic ESEM approach for complex multidimensional measures and the use of the IGD-10SV for the assessment of internet gaming disorder., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None., (© 2023 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.)

Objective: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a psychosomatic gastrointestinal disorder involving the dysfunctional activation of specific brain regions crucial for interoception and disgust processing. Yet, no study has ever investigated the link between this socio-affective/visceral experience and IBS., Method: The present study investigated whether disgust sensitivity and disgust propensity, which can be socially relevant, relate with IBS symptoms in a nonclinical population.105 healthy participants were asked to complete the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (DPSS-R), the Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Quality of Life Measure (IBS-QOL), and the Chronic Urticaria Quality of Life Measure (CU-Q2OL), as control condition., Results: Results showed higher disgust sensitivity scores in individuals with high IBS-QOL score, compared to individuals with low IBS-QOL score. The correlation analysis corroborates this result by showing a positive relationship between disgust sensitivity and respective IBS-QOL scores., Conclusions: This research provides new insights into understanding the etiopathogenesis of IBS, suggesting the relevance of a socially relevant personality trait such as disgust sensitivity as a potential trigger and / or predisposition factor for this chronic inflammatory disease., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None., (© 2022 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.)

Objective: The main purpose of the current study is to examine the factorial structure of the Psychological Problems (PP) scale, which is an inventory used for assessing anxious and depressive symptoms. No previous studies were found in which the dimensionality of the measure has been examined., Method: In order to test the underlying factorial structure of the scale, we performed both exploratory principal axis factor analysis and maximum likelihood robust confirmatory factor-analytic analysis on a sample of 266 international students. Parallel analysis was also computed to identify the number of factors to take into account. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were performed to evaluate the factorial invariance of the scale across gender., Results: Our results yield a bifactorial structure. One item is removed due to its double-loading, resulting in a 14-item scale. Both of the subscales' alpha coefficients are good, with satisfying levels of adjusted item-scale correlations. Findings from the measurement invariance indicate adequate configural, metric, scalar and strict invariance across gender., Conclusion: We conceptualize the two scales emerged from our factor analysis studies in terms of affective and psychosomatic domains of psychological problems. Despite some limitations, our findings may add new theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed also providing directions for future research., (© 2021 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.)

Objective: Several studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between addiction and crimes, but little is known about the treatment of individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) with criminal records. This study aimed to assess the treatment progress of a group of individuals with SUD who underwent treatment within a residential community, and to analyze their personality profiles to identify drop-out predictors., Method: We evaluated 49 subjects using the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), the Psychological Treatment Inventory (PTI), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and carrying out various statistical analyses, including the t-test, Cohen's d, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and discriminant analysis., Results: Results are discussed within the context of previous studies on this topic. Our results showed that variables such impulsiveness, cold-heartedness, alexithymia, and psychopathic traits influenced the premature treatment abandonment of individuals with SUD and criminal records., Conclusions: This study provides a further piece for the understanding of subjects with SUD and criminal records, suggesting the importance of a psychodynamic integrated approach, and showing the impact of some psychopathological features on treatment drop-out., Competing Interests: Competing interests: No author or any immediate family member has current financial relationships with commercial organizations that might present the appearance of a potential conflict of interest with the material presented., (© 2020 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.)