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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. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Additional co-authors: Ivan Ropovik, Balazs Aczel, Lena F. Aeschbach, Luca Andrighetto, Jack D. Arnal, Holly Arrow, Peter Babincak, Bence E. Bakos, Gabriel Banik, Ernest Baskin, Radomir Belopavlovic, Michael H. Bernstein, Michal Bialek, Nicholas G. Bloxsom, Bojana Bodroža, Diane B. V. Bonfiglio, Leanne Boucher, Florian Bruhlmann, Claudia C. Brumbaugh, Erica Casini, Yiling Chen, Carlo Chiorri, William J. Chopik, Oliver Christ, Antonia M. Ciunci, Heather M. Claypool, Sean Coary, Marija V. Cˇolic, W. Matthew Collins, Paul G. Curran, Chris R. Day, Anna Dreber, John E. Edlund, Filipe Falcao, Anna Fedor, Lily Feinberg, Ian R. Ferguson, Maire Ford, Michael C. Frank, Emily Fryberger, Alexander Garinther, Katarzyna Gawryluk, Kayla Ashbaugh, Mauro Giacomantonio, Steffen R. Giessner, Jon E. Grahe, Rosanna E. Guadagno, Ewa Halasa, Rias A. Hilliard, Joachim Huffmeier, Sean Hughes, Katarzyna Idzikowska, Michael Inzlicht, Alan Jern, William Jimenez-Leal, Magnus Johannesson, Jennifer A. Joy-Gaba, Mathias Kauff, Danielle J. Kellier, Grecia Kessinger, Mallory C. Kidwell, Amanda M. Kimbrough, Josiah P. J. King, Vanessa S. Kolb, Sabina Kolodziej, Marton Kovacs, Karolina Krasuska, Sue Kraus, Lacy E. Krueger, Katarzyna Kuchno, Caio Ambrosio Lage, Eleanor V. Langford, Carmel A. Levitan, Tiago Jesse Souza de Lima, Hause Lin, Samuel Lins, Jia E. Loy, Dylan Manfredi, Łukasz Markiewicz, Madhavi Menon, Brett Mercier, Mitchell Metzger, Venus Meyet, Jeremy K. Miller, Andres Montealegre, Don A. Moore, Rafal Muda, Gideon Nave, Austin Lee Nichols, Sarah A. Novak, Christian Nunnally, Ana Orlic, Anna Palinkas, Angelo Panno, Kimberly P. Parks, Ivana Pedovic, Emilian Pekala, Matthew R. Penner, Sebastiaan Pessers, Boban Petrovic, Thomas Pfeiffer, Damian Pienkosz, Emanuele Preti, Danka Puric, Tiago Ramos, Jonathan Ravid, Timothy S. Razza, Katrin Rentzsch, Juliette Richetin, Sean C. Rife, Anna Dalla Rosa, Kaylis Hase Rudy, Janos Salamon, Blair Saunders, Przemyslaw Sawicki, Kathleen Schmidt, Kurt Schuepfer, Thomas Schultze, Stefan Schulz-Hardt, Astrid Schutz, Ani N. Shabazian, Rachel L. Shubella, Adam Siegel, Ruben Silva, Barbara Sioma, Lauren Skorb, Luana Elayne Cunha de Souza, Sara Steegen, L. A. R. Stein, R. Weylin Sternglanz, Darko Stojilovic, Daniel Storage, Gavin Brent Sullivan, Barnabas Szaszi, Peter Szecsi, Orsolya Szoke, Attila Szuts, Manuela Thomae, Natasha D. Tidwell, Carly Tocco, Ann-Kathrin Torka, Francis Tuerlinckx, Wolf Vanpaemel, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Michelangelo Vianello, Domenico Viganola, Maria Vlachou, Ryan J. Walker, Sophia C. Weissgerber, Aaron L. Wichman, Bradford J. Wiggins, Daniel Wolf, Michael J. Wood, David Zealley, Iris Žeželj, Mark Zrubka, and Brian A. Nosek

Objective Assuming personality to be a system of intra-individual processes emerging over time in interaction with the environment, we propose an idiographic approach to investigate potential changes of intra-individual dynamics in the perception of situations and emotions of individuals varying in personality traits. We compared the semiparametric time-varying autoregressive model (TV-AR) that takes into account the non-stationarity of psychological processes at the individual level, with the standard AR model. Method We conducted analyses of individual time series to assess intra-individual changes in mean levels and inertia on data from two adolescents who completed measures of personality and indicated their situation perceptions and emotions five times a day for 19 days. Results For the less honest, emotional, extraverted, and more agreeable adolescent, the TV-AR model detected reliable changes in the intra-individual dynamics of situation perceptions and emotions whereas, for the other individual, the standard AR model was more preferred, given the lack of changes in the intra-individual dynamics. Conclusions Psychological processes dynamics in situation perception and emotions may vary from person to person depending on their personality. This work constitutes a first step in demonstrating that an idiographic approach has advantages in identifying changes in individuals' perceptions and reactions to situations.

A previous study showed that about 80% of Italian adolescents reported isolated symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress during the first lockdown in Italy. We proposed a new questionnaire to investigate the presence of symptoms related to anxiety, panic, depression, eating disorders, sleep disorders, social withdrawal, stress disorders, psychotic symptoms, anti-conservative thoughts, and self-harming acts aggravated by COVID-19 restrictions and possible differences between males and females. 500 adolescents (12–18 years) completed an online survey created using validated scales. 41% of the respondents felt more stress than during the first lockdown. 1.85% showed suprathreshold symptoms for post-traumatic stress disorder and 21% showed isolated symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress due to the pandemic. In addition, we found psychotic symptoms (16%), panic (25% suprathreshold), anxiety (46.8% suprathreshold), depression (18.7% suprathreshold), eating-related symptoms (51%), sleep difficulties (57%), a tendency to social withdrawal after the pandemic (15%), suicidal ideation (30%), and self-harming behavior (9%). Furthermore, girls showed a more severe level of distress. The results show a high prevalence of symptoms because of the COVID-19 pandemic and confirm the need for easy access to support and treatment service to help contain the bio-psycho-social risk factors prompted by the current pandemic and promptly and effectively manage the consequences.

Networks have been recently proposed for modeling dynamics in several kinds of psychological phenomena, such as personality and psychopathology. In this work, we introduce techniques that allow disentangling between-subject networks, which encode dynamics that involve stable individual differences, from within-subject networks, which encode dynamics that involve momentary levels of certain individual characteristics. Furthermore, we show how networks can be simultaneously estimated in separate groups of individuals, using a technique called the Fused Graphical Lasso. This technique allows also performing meaningful comparisons among groups. The unique properties of each kind of network are discussed. A tutorial to implement these techniques in the “R” statistical software is presented, together with an example of application.

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct particularly relevant for understanding a wide variety of behaviors, especially risky behaviors. A recent conceptualization of impulsivity identifies three impulsivity factors—pervasive influence of feelings, feelings trigger action, and lack of follow-through—that have been shown to predict different behaviors. In this contribution, we examine the psychometric properties of an Italian version of such a three-factor model on a relatively large sample (N = 845). Moreover, on a subsample (n = 766) we determined whether specific dimensions of impulsivity are related to a series of risky behaviors, assessed 3 weeks later, by testing the predictive validity of the multidimensional inventory also in comparison with a standard measure of personality (HEXACO). An exploratory structural equation model confirmed the original 3-dimension structure and showed that the Italian adaptation has satisfactory psychometric properties. Convergent validity with the HEXACO dimensions was established. Furthermore, only the factors feelings trigger action and lack of follow-through, not pervasive influence of feelings, predicted risky behaviors. Findings provide a clear support to the 3-factor model of impulsivity and demonstrate its usefulness for a better comprehension of risky behaviors.

In this contribution, we will present some findings from the “Emotional Thermometer [Termometro Emotivo]” project. The project aims at investigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on mental health in Italian adults. In this contribution, we present findings on short-term psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Study 1) and real-time emotional and psychological responses (Study 2) to this exceptional situation. The first study includes a large sample of participants taken from the general population (N = 1548), who completed measures of psychological distress, emotion regulation strategies, perceived social support, and subjective perceptions of the situation. The second study includes a subsample of 823 participants who completed daily measures of emotional and psychological states for 21 days. Results from Study 1 suggest increased levels of psychological distress and post-traumatic responses to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in participants. They also demonstrate the protective role of social support and coping strategies on individuals’ mental health. Furthermore, results from Study 2 show that participants experienced higher levels of daily negative psychological states during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and inflexibility of negative emotional states. Overall, our findings stress the psychological cost of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in community people. As a consequence, our contribution aims at suggesting the need of paying clinical attention to potential pathological or maladaptive conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in community people.

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.

To rule out an alternative explanation to their structural fit hypothesis, Payne, Burkley, and Stokes (2008) demonstrated that correlations between implicit and explicit race attitudes were weaker when participants were put under high pressure to respond without bias compared to when they were placed under low pressure. This effect, although smaller in size, was replicated in Italy by Vianello (2015). The current investigation sought to examine the possible moderating role of sample source for this effect. Teams from eight universities, four in the United States and four in Italy, replicated the original study (N = 1,103). Although we did detect moderation by sample source, it was due to a reversal of the original effect in the United States and a lack of the original effect in the Italian samples. We discuss this curious finding and possible explanations.

In this chapter, we introduce the current state-of-the-art of network analysis in personality psychology, and we present networks from both a theoretical and a methodological perspective. We focus on the within-person contemporaneous network, which allows exploring the interplay of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors across situations. We illustrate how to estimate and compare networks describing different groups of persons, how to compute centrality indices, and how to evaluate their stability. We provide a detailed tutorial in the R statistical language showing how these methods can be applied to Ecological Momentary Assessment data. Finally, we show how the results can be used to shed light on the dynamics of the HEXACO personality traits in interpersonal situations.

This study investigated the association between narcissism and shame, considering different measures of narcissism, different levels of analysis, and different situational conditions. Nonclinical participants (N = 196) completed baseline measures, followed by daily questionnaires for 28 days. Multilevel models indicated that trait and daily vulnerable narcissism, as well as trait neuroticism, were positively associated with daily shame. When controlling for vulnerable narcissism, trait grandiose narcissism was unrelated to shame, and daily grandiose narcissism was mostly negatively related to it. As for situations, social stress and workload were related to increased shame, especially in those high in trait neuroticism, or narcissism scales with neurotic content. Results highlight the key role of shame in pathological narcissistic functioning.

Replications in psychological science sometimes fail to reproduce prior findings. If replications use methods that are unfaithful to the original study or ineffective in eliciting the phenomenon of interest, then a failure to replicate may be a failure of the protocol rather than a challenge to the original finding. Formal pre-data collection peer review by experts may address shortcomings and increase replicability rates. We selected 10 replications from the Reproducibility Project: Psychology (RP:P; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) in which the original authors had expressed concerns about the replication designs before data collection and only one of which was “statistically significant” (p < .05). Commenters suggested that lack of adherence to expert review and low-powered tests were the reasons that most of these RP:P studies failed to replicate (Gilbert et al., 2016). We revised the replication protocols and received formal peer review prior to conducting new replications. We administered the RP:P and Revised protocols in multiple laboratories (Median number of laboratories per original study = 6.5; Range 3 to 9; Median total sample = 1279.5; Range 276 to 3512) for high-powered tests of each original finding with both protocols. Overall, Revised protocols produced similar effect sizes as RP:P protocols following the preregistered analysis plan (Δr = .002 or .014, depending on analytic approach). The median effect size for Revised protocols (r = .05) was similar to RP:P protocols (r = .04) and the original RP:P replications (r = .11), and smaller than the original studies (r = .37). The cumulative evidence of original study and three replication attempts suggests that effect sizes for all 10 (median r = .07; range .00 to .15) are 78% smaller on average than original findings (median r = .37; range .19 to .50), with very precisely estimated effects.

In this article, we focus on rejection sensitivity (RS) in adolescents. Although the RS model distinguishes clearly between the emotional (i.e., anger and anxiety) and the cognitive (i.e., expectation of rejection) components, research has rarely examined their unique connection with psychological problems. We argue that considering the three components separately would provide additional insights regarding the relationship between RS and psychological problems. We aimed to test the goodness of fit of a three-factor solution and to investigate the validity of the three components separately in predicting self- and interpersonal functioning in adolescents. Indeed, 720 adolescents completed the Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, self-reports of self- and interpersonal functioning (self-esteem and interpersonal reactivity), and peer ratings of preference and bothersomeness. The three-factor solution showed fit indexes comparable to the two alternative one-factor solutions underlying the traditional approach of the composite scores. More importantly, we found specific contributions of each of the three RS components in predicting different features of self- and interpersonal functioning. Thus, depending on the psychological problems under consideration, the role of the three RS components varies. We discuss the implications of these findings.

Maternal sensitivity has been considered an indicator of mother-infant quality interaction, however little is known about the perception processes associated to this parental behavior style. Here we aimed to explore the relationship between maternal sensitivity during a face-to-face interaction with their infants and maternal ability in perceiving infants' body and face. Thirty-six 6 month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped during a mother-infant interaction to identify those with high and low sensitivity. Then, mothers were tested using an inversion effect paradigm requiring the visual discrimination of upright and inverted pictures of whole bodies and faces of their own and unfamiliar infants; this allowed estimation of their configural perceptual processing abilities. Results showed that high-sensitivity mothers showed reduced body configural processing for others' infants as compared to configural processing of their own infant, whereas low-sensitivity mothers were engaged in comparable body configural processing independently from infant identity. Infants' face configural processing did not distinguish between high- and low-sensitivity mothers. Our findings suggest that high-sensitivity mothers have refined their use of configural processing of body postures to be selective for their own infants, suggesting that this visuo-perceptual strategy makes much more efficient the mothers' ability in detecting, discriminating and recognizing own infant's cues.

Background Very preterm infants are exposed to adverse stressful experiences, which may result in long-term behavioural outcomes. The developmental care practices, including pain management and environmental support, can minimize the effects of stress exposure. However, developmental care quality levels may vary among Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and little is known about how differences in developmental care quality affect long-term behavioural outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between quality levels NICUs developmental care and behaviour problems at 18 months corrected age in preterm children. Methods The behaviour of 134 preterm children from 22 NICUs and 123 full-term controls was examined using the questionnaire Child Behaviour Checklist 1½–5. We compared the behavioural profile of children by splitting NICUs into units with high- and low quality of developmental care according to two main care factors: (1) infant centered care (ICC) index, and (2) infant pain management (IPM) index. Results Preterm children from low-care units in IPM group reported higher scores in Internalizing Problems, compared to children from high-care units. No differences were found between preterm children from high-care in IPM and full-term children. No significant IPM effect was found for externalizing problems. No significant ICC effect emerged both for internalizing and externalizing problems. Conclusions Findings suggest that higher quality of developmental care related to infant pain management can mitigate behavioural problems at 18 months in children born preterm, to such an extent that preterm children exhibit a behavioural profile similar to that displayed by full-term children.

Introduction: Emerging personality organization may play an important role in the psychological adjustment of early adolescents, but research in this area is still limited. The current study evaluated if personality organization moderates the association between rejection sensitivity and adverse psychological outcomes in early adolescence. Methods: Three-hundred eighty-six early adolescents (age range 13–15 years; 51% Female) attending junior high schools in Italy completed the semi-structured Interview of Personality Organization Processes in Adolescence (IPOP-A), the Children's Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (CRSQ), and the Youth Self Report/11–18 (YSR). Results: Disruption in the emerging personality organization was associated with increasing symptom problems in early adolescence. Conversely, the successful development of personality organization buffered the relation between rejection sensitivity and negative psychological outcomes (i.e., conduct and affective problems). Conclusion: These findings encourage to accurately evaluate personality organization in adolescence, in order to take into account difficulties but also strengths in personality organization when treating early adolescents. © 2018 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

Infants' social stress regulation (i.e., reactivity and recovery) might be affected by mother-infant dyadic functioning and infants' vagal tone (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA). This study investigated the role of a specific dyadic functioning feature (i.e., dyadic reparation) and individual differences in vagal tone regulation (i.e., RSA suppression vs. non-suppression) in relation to social stress regulation in 4-month-old infants. A total of 65 mother-infant dyads participated in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Social stress reactivity and recovery were measured as negative emotionality during Still-Face and Reunion episodes, respectively. RSA was measured during Play, Still-Face, and Reunion episodes. Suppressors had higher dyadic reparation during Play and higher recovery from social stress compared with non-suppressors. Higher reparation during Play was associated with lower reactivity and higher recovery only for suppressors. Findings suggest a joint role of infants' RSA individual differences and dyadic reparation in affecting infants' social stress regulation at 4 months of age.

Cluster analysis was used to create patterns of individual differences reflecting infant behaviors during the initial interaction episode of the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm. The clusters were used as the basic unit of analysis for studying infant and maternal behavior and dyadic coordination (i.e., matching and reparation) across FFSF. Seventy-five 4-month-old infants participated with their mothers. Cluster analysis identified three patterns: a Socially Engaged cluster (33%) exhibited high levels of social engagement with their mothers; a Disengaged cluster (60%) showed a tendency to be low in social interaction and a Negatively Engaged cluster (7%) showed high negative emotionality. During the Still-Face episode, the Socially Engaged cluster reacted by reducing focus on their mother and shifting their attention elsewhere, while infants in the Disengaged cluster reduced focus on the environment. Although both the Socially Engaged and Disengaged clusters increased in negative emotionality during the Still-Face, the Socially Engaged group largely recovered during the Reunion, whereas the Disengaged group displayed more negative emotion. The Negatively Engaged cluster demonstrated high levels of negative affect throughout the entire procedure. Mothers of Negatively Engaged infants showed less positive engagement and more social monitoring than mothers in other clusters during all episodes. Dyadic interaction differed between groups, with greater levels of matching and reparations in the engaged group, less in the Disengaged group, and very little coordination in the Negatively Engaged cluster. Findings highlight the role of distinctive patterns of infants’ individual differences in determining early dyadic functioning.

Suicide is a global cause of death, a chronic disability, and a significant public health problem. Recent works emphasize the importance of differentiating people with suicide ideation (SI) and people with suicidal attempts (SA), so we conducted a clinical cross-sectional study to better characterize the features most associated with SA. We enrolled 88 adolescents (77 females) from 12 to 18 years of age (