The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatically changed our habits and routines. Uncertainty, insecurity, instability for the present and future, and reduced autonomy and self-directedness, are common feelings at the time of COVID-19. These aspects are very important during emerging adulthood. In spite of the fact that medical reports suggest that youth are less prone to experience COVID-19 infections, emerging adults might be at higher risk for their psychological adjustment. Emerging adults showed higher concerns about their role as a possible asymptomatic carrier than being positive with COVID-19 themselves. Both worries and concerns about COVID-19 and psychological maladjustment may be related to cultural factors. Individualism, collectivism, equality, and hierarchy seem to be meaningful perspectives to take into account. A total of 1183 Italian emerging adults were asked to fill out an online survey during the second week of the national lockdown in Italy. Results showed they reported an accurate perceived knowledge about COVID-19. At the same time, they showed higher worries and concerns about COVID-19 for their relatives, followed by more general/social worries. The lowest score included worries about COVID-19 related to themselves. State anxiety and stress levels were above the normal cutoff, confirming the challenges that emerging adults are facing during the pandemic. On one hand, emerging adults’ collectivistic orientation was related to higher perceived risks of infection; on the other hand, it predicted lower psychological maladjustment, controlling for socio-demographic variables. The study suggests that to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease levels of psychological maladjustment in emerging adulthood, individuals’ cultural orientation such as the wish of sharing common goals with others, interdependence, and sociability, have to be emphasized and promoted as protective factors.

The present study focuses on the multifaceted concept of self-disturbance in schizophrenia, adding knowledge about a not yet investigated aspect, which is the interoceptive accuracy. Starting from the assumption that interoceptive accuracy requires an intact sense of self, which otherwise was proved to be altered in schizophrenia, the aim of the present study was to explore interoceptive accuracy in a group of schizophrenia patients, compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the possible association between interoceptive accuracy and patients’ positive and negative symptomatology was assessed. To pursue these goals, a group of 23 schizophrenia patients and a group of 23 healthy controls performed a heartbeat perception task. Patients’ symptomatology was assessed by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results demonstrated significantly lower interoceptive accuracy in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. This difference was not accounted for participants’ age, BMI, anxiety levels and heart rate. Furthermore, patients’ illness severity, attention and pharmacological treatment did not influence their interoceptive accuracy levels. Interestingly, a strong positive relation between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptoms severity, especially Grandiosity, was found. The present results demonstrate for the first time that interoceptive accuracy is altered in schizophrenia. Furthermore, they prove a specific association between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptomatology, suggesting that the symptom Grandiosity might be protective against an altered basic sense of self in patients characterized by higher sensibility to their inner bodily sensations.

The transition to parenthood is widely considered a period of increased vulnerability often accompanied by stress. Abidin conceived parenting stress as referring to specific difficulties in adjusting to the parenting role. Most studies of psychological distress arising from the demands of parenting have investigated the impact of stress on the development of dysfunctional parent-child relationships and on adult and child psychopathology. Studies have largely focused on mothers’ postnatal experience; less attention has been devoted to maternal prenatal characteristics associated with the subsequent parental stress and studies of maternal prenatal predictors are few. Furthermore, no studies have examined that association exclusively with samples of first-time mothers. With an observational prospective study design with two time periods, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of mothers’ attachment style, maternal prenatal attachment to the fetus and dyadic adjustment during pregnancy (7th month of gestation) and their potential unique contribution to parenting stress three months after childbirth in a sample of nulliparous women. Results showed significant correlations between antenatal measures. Maternal attachment style (especially relationship anxiety) was negatively correlated with prenatal attachment and with dyadic adjustment; positive correlations resulted between prenatal attachment and dyadic adjustment. Each of the investigated variables was also good predictor of parenting stress three months after childbirth. Findings suggested how these dimensions could be considered as risk factors in the transition to motherhood and in the very beginning of the emergence of the caregiving system, especially with first-time mothers

This study investigated the role of co-parenting alliance in mediating the influence of parents’ trait anxiety on family system maladjustment and parenting stress. A sample of 1606 Italian parents (803 mothers and 803 fathers) of children aged one to thirteen years completed measures of trait anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory - Y), co-parenting alliance (Parenting Alliance Measure), family system maladjustment (Family Assessment Measure - III), and parenting stress (Parenting Stress Inventory - Short Form). These variables were investigated together comparing two structural equations model-fitting including both partners. A model for both mothers and fathers was empirically devised as a series of associations between parent trait anxiety (independent variable), family system maladjustment and parenting stress (dependent variables), mediated by co-parenting alliance, with the insertion of cross predictions between mothers and fathers and correlations between dependent variables for both parents. Results indicated that the relation between mothers and fathers’ trait anxiety, family system maladjustment and parenting stress was mediated by the level of co-parenting alliance. Understanding the role of couples’ co-parenting alliance could be useful during the family assessment and/or treatment, since it is an efficient and effective tool to improve the family system maladjustment and stress.