Insecure attachment and the personality dimensions of self-criticism and dependency have been proposed as risk factors for suicide in adolescents. The present study examines whether self-criticism and dependency mediate the relationship between insecure attachment styles and suicidality. A sample of 340 high-school students (73.2% female), ranging in age from 13 to 20 years (M = 16.47, SD = 1.52), completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire for Adolescents (DEQ-A), the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), and the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). The results partially support the expected mediation effects. Self-criticism, but not dependency, mediates the link between insecure attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and suicide-related behaviors. Implications for suicide risk assessment and management are discussed.

In this paper, we describe the advantages of an experiential training group, specifically conceived for psychology students, in which the goal was to activate reflection on the internalized social representations of professional identity. Our study showed the results of a pre-post comparison of a one-group intervention. It was aimed to demonstrate that group experiential learning is particularly useful in changing the basis of social representations and may contribute to the construction of a realistic image of both the profession and the professional identity. The research involved 88 students enrolled in a graduate program in clinical psychology. Before and after the experiential groups, students were asked to write a text starting from the prompt “becoming a psychologist.” These 176 texts provided the data used for this study. We carried out a text analysis using automatized software that provided hierarchical classification and factorial analysis of correspondences. The changes in the students’ representations of psychologists underline how participation in group experiential learning has allowed students to build a more realistic, less stereotypical and idealized vision of their future profession and created greater awareness of the limits of a training program based solely on the acquisition of theoretical notions. The data suggest the possibility of usefully practicing such learning activities in order to help students to reflect on their professional representations.

Adverse childhood experiences are significant risk factors in the development of adolescent borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPDs). Theorists have posited that two personality vulnerabilities factors, self-criticism and dependency, may inform our understanding of this relationship. However, no research has examined the associations between early negative experiences, personality vulnerabilities, and adolescent BPDs. The current study aimed to identify profiles of dependency and self-criticism to examine the associations of these profiles with cumulative forms of childhood maltreatment (CM) and BPDs as well as to explore the mediating and moderating role of vulnerable personality profiles in the relationship between cumulative CM and BPDs. Two hundred and forty-one nonclinical and clinical adolescents participated in the study (M_age= 16.37,SD= 1.84). The findings indicated three different profiles: average dependent profile, dependent and self-critical profile, and self-critical profile. Individuals in the average dependent profile presented lower levels of CM and BPDs. Mediation analyses showed that relative to the average dependent profile, a higher cumulative CM history predicted a higher probability of belonging in the dependent and self-critical profile or the self-critical profile and, in turn, this was associated with higher levels of BPDs. No moderating effects of profiles of dependency and self-criticism were found.

Purpose: Orthorexia nervosa (OrNe) is a potentially pathological condition characterized by a fixation on healthy diet. An increasing number of studies have been conducted on this mental preoccupation, but the validity and reliability of some of the psychometric instruments employed in its assessment are still under debate. Among these measures, the Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS) seems to be promising, given that it allows to differentiate between OrNe and other non-problematic forms of interest with healthy eating, named as healthy orthorexia (HeOr). The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the TOS, by testing its factorial structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and validity. Method: Through an online survey, we recruited 782 participants from different regions of Italy, asking them to complete the following self-report instruments: TOS, EHQ, EDI-3, OCI-R, and BSI-18. From the initial sample, 144 participants agreed to complete a second TOS administration 2 weeks later. Results: Data confirmed the validity of the 2-correlated factors structure of the TOS. The questionnaire also showed good reliability, both in terms of internal consistency and temporal stability. With regard to the TOS validity, results showed that OrNe was significantly and positively associated with measures of psychopathology and psychological distress, while HeOr showed no correlations or negative associations with the above-mentioned measures. Conclusion: Based on these results, the TOS can be considered a promising measure for the assessment of both pathological and non-problematic forms of orthorexic eating behavior also in Italian population. Level of evidence: Level V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

The aim of this study was to investigate sexual communication as a mechanism involved in the link between emotion regulation and sexual functioning in a sample of adult women, also testing the moderating role of relationship status and age in this association. 1344 sexually active cisgender women (aged 18–57, M = 27.34; SD= 6.484) were recruited from March 30, 2021, to April 12, 2021, through an online survey. From the initial sample, 1280 women were retained and included in the analysis. Participants were asked to respond to three self-report questionnaires: the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Communication subscale of the Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women (SSS-W), and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). We found that sexual communication mediated the link between emotion regulation abilities and female sexual functioning. Moreover, we found that age, but not relationship status, moderated the association between emotion regulation and sexual communication, so that older women with difficulties in emotion regulation processes showed worse sexual communication abilities as compared to younger women. According to this study's results, clinicians and sexual therapists should carefully consider emotion regulation abilities and sexual communication as crucial factors in promoting women's sexual well-being.

Childhood emotional maltreatment (abuse and neglect) may contribute to the development of internalizing problems in adolescence. However, the mechanisms explaining this association should be examined further. This study explored the mediating role of insecure anxious attachment style in the relationship between emotional maltreatment and internalizing symptoms in a non-clinical sample of adolescents. Analyses were also conducted to determine whether gender moderated the direct and indirect pathways between emotional maltreatment and internalizing problems. We recruited 449 adolescents aged between 14 and 18 years old [(Mage)=16.46, standard deviation (SD)=1.38]. 60.8% of adolescents were female (Mage=16.51, SD=1.43), whereas 39.2% identified as male (Mage=16.39, SD=1.28). Participants completed a survey including socio-demographic information and three selfreport questionnaires: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, the Attachment Style Questionnaire, and the Youth Self- Report for ages 11-18. Results showed that emotional abuse and neglect were related to internalizing problems both directly and indirectly through anxious attachment style. Girls who experienced higher levels of emotional abuse and who had an anxious attachment style reported more internalizing problems than boys, whereas higher levels of emotional neglect were associated with increasing levels of internalizing problems only for boys. This study expanded our knowledge of the role of anxious attachment in the onset of internalizing problems among adolescents with experiences of childhood emotional maltreatment.