Our research explored the factor structure and the reliability of the Italian version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997), an instrument that has been widely adopted in studies using parents and/or teachers as informants. We carried out two studies evaluating the properties of the ERC - I when completed by parents and teachers, respectively. Study 1 participants were kindergarten and elementary school children for whom the ERC was completed by their mothers. Study 2 involved kindergarten and elementary school children for whom the ERC was completed by their teachers

Social cognition is the way in which people process, remember and use information in social contexts to explain and predict their own behaviour and that of others. Children’s social cognition may be influenced by multiple factors, both external and internal to the child. In the current study, two aspects of social cognition were examined: Theory of Mind (ToM) and Emotion Understanding (EU). The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of type of early care (0-3 years of age), maternal education, parents’ country of birth, and child’s language on the social cognition of 118 Italian preschoolers. To our knowledge, the joint effect of these variables on social cognition has not previously been investigated in the literature. The measures used to collect social cognition and linguistic data were not parent- or teacher-reports, but based on direct assessment of the children through two standardized tests, the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the ToM Storybooks. Relationships among the variables showed a complex pattern. Overall, maternal education and linguistic competence showed a systematic effect on social cognition; the linguistic competence mediated the effect of maternal education. In children who had experienced centre-base care in the first three years of life, the effect of maternal education disappeared, supporting the protective role of centre-base care for children with less educated mothers. The children with native and foreign parents did not significantly differed on the social cognition tasks. Limits of the study, possible educational outcomes and future research lines were discussed.

The goal of this research was to examine the measurement invariance of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) across two European nations. Participants were Italian and German undergraduate students. First, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test for the two-factor structure of the ERQ; subsequently, measurement invariance was analysed. The results showed acceptable fit indices for the German and Italian sample; however, results with regard to the Italian sample showed lower fit indices than results regarding the German one. Measurement invariance of the ERQ across Italy and Germany was confirmed. Despite the fact that we assumed measurement invariance of the ERQ, future research is needed to deal with the lower fit regarding the Italian version.

This study examined the relations between emotion regulation and defense mechanisms as assessed through self-report questionnaires. Participants were 314 undergraduate students at the University of Turin (Faculty of Agricultural Studies, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences and Faculty of Psychology). Correlational analysis identified several associations between emotion regulation strategies and defense mechanisms. A second-order factor model was tested in which each of the dimensions assessed by the defense mechanisms and emotion regulation instruments was assigned to either an adaptive or maladaptive latent dimension. The results suggested that the dimensions of adaptiveness and maladaptiveness may represent a key link between emotion regulation and defense mechanisms.