The 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) formally recognized gaming disorder as an addictive health disorder like gambling disorder. The ICD-11 assumes that excessive online gaming can lead to functional/clinical impairments and psychological distress among a minority of individuals. The present study investigated similarities and commonalities between internet gaming disorder (IGD) and gambling disorder among adolescents (N = 366 students, 13–19 years). Participants completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA), the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form (PID-5-BF), the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8), the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFC-14), and the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES). Regression analyses showed that the significant predictors of (i) gambling severity were being male, high scores on the PID-5-BF Disinhibition and Antagonism domains, and low scores on RFQ-Certainty and CFC-Future subscales, and (ii) gaming severity were being male, high scores on the PID-5-BF Detachment scale and the A-DES, and low scores on the RFQ-Certainty. Risk factors shared by both disorders were male gender and impaired mentalization. Specific interventions on mentalization abilities may be useful in reducing and preventing problematic involvement in both gaming and gambling among adolescents.

Background : Previous studies suggested that affective state could enhance stimulus salience and modulate attention allocation for mood-congruent information, but contrasting data have been reported on the effects of mood induction on attentional biases for threat (ABTs) in non-clinical individuals. Objective : We aimed to assess whether laboratory-induced negative mood can increase individuals’ tendency to allocate attention on threatening stimuli, thus determining a difficulty in attentional disengagement from threat. We also aimed at assessing whether level of trait anxiety could modulate the effect of mood induction on attentional biases. Methods : We used an autobiographical episode recall procedure for mood induction (fear, happiness and neutral episode recall), and an exogenous cueing task with threatening and non-threatening images to assess attentional biases in 120 undergraduate students. Results: Participants showed a significant difficulty in disengaging attention from threat after recalling fear-related episodes, independently from their trait anxiety level. Conclusions: These findings clarify that the ABTs are not exclusive to anxiety disorders or high trait anxiety individuals, and could also arise in non-clinical individuals in a fearful context.

The research aimed to assess the reliability, factor structure, and validity of the Italian adaptation of the Mentalization Scale (MentS), a 28-item self-report questionnaire that measures mentalization across three dimensions. The psychometric properties of the Italian version were examined in two studies with large samples of adults and adolescents. The first study (Study 1) aimed to evaluate, through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the construct validity of the Italian version of the MentS in adolescents (N = 618) and adults (N = 720). The second study (Study 2) was undertaken to test the convergent validity and temporal stability of the Italian version of the MentS. Specifically, the study assessed the relationship between the MentS and scores on the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8), one of the most widely used instruments to assess mentalization, in a large sample of high-school students (N = 472). Furthermore, the study evaluated the 4-week test-retest reliability of the instrument in a sample of undergraduates (N = 128). The questionnaire exhibited strong internal consistency across both adult and adolescent samples, with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.71 to 0.83. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses consistently identified three correlated underlying factors within both age groups, demonstrating the robust factor structure of the Italian version of the MentS. Furthermore, the tool demonstrated strong convergent validity with the RFQ-8 and acceptable test-retest reliability over a 4-week period. These findings provide compelling evidence supporting the Italian version of the MentS as a reliable and valid self-report measure for comprehensively assessing different facets of mentalization.