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Internet Gaming Disorder, Internet Addiction, Problematic Internet Use and Compulsive Internet Use cause distress and significant impairment in important areas of a person's functioning, in particular among young people. The literature has indicated that males show higher levels of problematic internet use than females. People can use the internet to avoid or alleviate negative affects; in fact, problematic internet use is associated with alexithymia and dissociation. Few studies have focused on the different stages of adolescence, gender differences, and the relationships between the aforementioned variables. This research aims to fill this gap. Five hundred and ninety-four adolescents aged between 13 and 19 filled in the Compulsive Internet Use Scale, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Adolescents Dissociative Experiences Scale, and other ad hoc measures. Surprisingly, females reported higher compulsive internet use compared with males. Moreover, they referred more difficulties/symptoms and greater levels of alexithymia than males. No differences across the stages of adolescence were found. Different strengths in the relationships between variables were found according to gender. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that dissociation is an important mediator in the relation between alexithymia and Compulsive Internet Use only among females. This study shed new light on gender differences around problematic internet use and some related risk factors, in order to identify and develop prevention and treatment programs to face this topical and relevant issue.

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The Adult Attachment Scale-Revised (Collins and Read in J Person Soc Psychol 58(4):644, 1990. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.644) measures the dimensions of the attachment style of adults through the degree to which the individual feels comfortable in intimacy and closeness with the partner (Close), with dependence on the partner (Depend) and worrying about being rejected or unloved (Anxiety). Dimensions measured by the AAS can capture the core of the structure that determines adults' differences in attachment styles. This study aimed to evaluate the factorial structure of the AAS-R among a sample of Italian adults. The Italian translation of AAS-R was administered to the sample of 1546 Italian adults (M = 27.4; SD 9.35). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to examine the validity of the Italian version of the AAS-R measure. The present study showed that the Italian version of the AAS-R has a clear factorial structure and good psychometric properties. Clinical and research implications were discussed.

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Gender violence is the most important factor that leads women refugees and asylum seekers to leave their country and is one of the main risks to which the migration journey exposes them. To the multidimensional trauma of migration is added the complex trauma of gender violence making migrant women even more vulnerable. This study, aimed to investigate meanings of experience of the operators who deal with migrant women in Southern Italy. For the purpose of the study, we use the Focus Group, for data collection and the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyze the data. The study confirms the need to structure specific paths for the well-being of forced migrant women victims of violence that respect gender dynamics and cultural differences. In particular, in the context of the transcultural clinic, it will be demonstrated that focus groups are a useful resource and propose the construction of "métissée" spaces.

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INTRODUCTION: Health emergencies, such as epidemics, have detrimental and long-lasting consequences on people's mental health, which are higher during the implementation of strict lockdown measures. Despite several recent psychological researches on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighting that young adults represent a high risk category, no studies specifically focused on young adults' mental health status have been carried out yet. This study aimed to assess and monitor Italian young adults' mental health status during the first 4 weeks of lockdown through the use of a longitudinal panel design. METHODS: Participants (n = 97) provided self-reports in four time intervals (1-week intervals) in 1 month. The Syndromic Scales of Adult Self-Report 18-59 were used to assess the internalizing problems (anxiety/depression, withdrawn, and somatic complaints), externalizing problems (aggressive, rule-breaking, and intrusive behavior), and personal strengths. To determine the time-varying effects of prolonged quarantine, a growth curve modeling will be performed. RESULTS: The results showed an increase in anxiety/depression, withdrawal, somatic complaints, aggressive behavior, rule-breaking behavior, and internalizing and externalizing problems and a decrease in intrusive behavior and personal strengths from T1 to T4. CONCLUSIONS: The results contributed to the ongoing debate concerning the psychological impact of the COVID-19 emergency, helping to plan and develop efficient intervention projects able to take care of young adults' mental health in the long term.

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In psychological consultations with women who survive Intimate Partner Violence, it is essential to work on elaboration of the trauma as a complex trauma within the context of a relationship. We consider dreams to be a symbolic-representative process, which requires the right psychic, relational and contextual conditions to occur, and that is hindered when trauma is present. The objective of the present study is to investigate the meanings that psychologists working at anti-violence centers attribute to the clinical intervention with women victims of IPV, with a focus on the area of sleep and dreaming in a traumatic experience, and in the clinical work on the trauma. Twelve female psychologists were interviewed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. From the analysis of the interviews, three main themes emerged: (1) Day and night, neither awake nor asleep, (2) Anti Violence Centers: setting as a container of emotion? and (3) dreaming undreamt dreams. The study highlights the importance of dreams as an indicator not only of psychic and mental functioning but also of the psychological relationship within a specific context.

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The sense of agency is an ongoing process of semiotic construction of the action starting from the affective, cognitive, intersubjective and cultural matrix of experience. A person narratively constructs the sense of her agentive experience and in doing so does not refer exclusively to the "what", but also to the "how". There is always a specific "modus" to experience one's own action. We present the psychological notion of the Modal Articulation Process (MAP), namely the way through which a person orients and configures in a contextual frame the sense of her actions by means of modal operators of necessity, possibility, impossibility, contingency, but also knowledge, will, capability, constrain and opportunity. The notion of Modal Articulation Process is proposed as a semiotic, dynamic and recursive process that articulates narratively many aspects of the agency: the relational positionings and the way of experiencing them, the constraints and the resources present in the socio-symbolic context, the inherent temporality of every human phenomenon. Although the study of modal operators has an ancient and solid tradition of research in the fields of modal logics, analytical philosophy and narrative semiotic disciplines as well, yet in the field of the psychological sciences - except for a few authoritative isolated cases (Kurt Lewin, Rom Harrè, Jaan Valsiner) - there is not a great deal of attention on the relevance of these symbolic devices and their function in constructing the sense of action in a narrative way. Indeed modal articulation processes are at stake both during daily common routines and during exceptional turning point experiences that request a reconfiguration of the sense of one's own agency (e.g. the experiences of illness demand a new modal re-articulation). Our discussion is aimed at deepening and developing the notion of modal articulation, its functions and its specificities.

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Introduction: Within a wider international research project aimed at operationalize the psychodynamic construct of capacity to love (Kernberg, 2011), the Capacity to Love Inventory (CTL-I) is a 41-items self-report questionnaire assessing six dimensions: interest in the life project of the other, basic trust, gratitude, common ego ideal, permanence of sexual passion, loss, and mourning. Objectives: The study is aimed at validating the Italian version of the CTL-I. Method: A total sample of 736 Italian non-clinical adults was administered a checklist assessing socio-demographic variables, and the CTL-I. A Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the Italian version of the CTL-I. Only a part of the total sample (320 participants) was administered an additional series of concurrent measures in order to investigate the convergent validity of the CTL-I. Correlations with measures of socio-sexual orientation, quality of romance relations, and psychopathological questionnaires were examined through Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results: CFA results suggested that the Italian CTL-I fully replicated the six-factor structure of the original CTL-I. Cronbach's alpha index provided satisfactory results for all subscales and the correlations with concurrent measures were in expected direction. Conclusion: The results showed promising psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of CTL-I. Implications of the feasibility of the instrument in clinical and psychotherapeutic settings are discussed.

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In a global context where the percentage of women who are victim of violence is still high (World Health Organization, 2013), intimate partner violence (IPV) can be considered the most widespread form of violence against women: in such cases violent attacks are perpetuated or threatened by a partner or ex-partner within an intimate relationship, which makes its recognition more difficult. IPV requires specific tools and, although the literature has highlighted the specific role played by some emotions (such as shame, guilt, and fear) that keep women experiencing this violence in a state of passivity and confusion, to date too little attention has been given to the construction of sound instruments able to detect post-traumatic affectivity. Such instruments could facilitate women who have suffered from IPV in recognizing it and in making the responses of women's health services more sensitive and structured. This study illustrates a sequential item development process to elaborate a new self-report instrument (VITA Scale: Intimate Violence and Traumatic Affects Scale) for assessing the intensity of post-traumatic affect derived from IPV. Within a psychodynamic perspective, the scale is characterized by four affects: fear, as a state of alarm elicited by the avoidance of the danger; terror, as a paralyzing state that hinders an active process of reaction; shame as a strong exposure to the other that disarms the individual and the guilt as a defensive dimension aiming at the restoring of the link with the abusive partner. Trough specific methodological steps, a 28-item set was selected and administered to a sample of 302 Italian women who declared themselves as having suffered from IPV. Explorative and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as correlations with well-established concurrent tools were computed in order to investigate its psychometric property. A factorial structure composed of four factors, consistent with theoretical scales and a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas from 0.80 to 0.90) emerged. The VITA Scale could be a useful tool for clinicians and researchers to investigate the intensity of the affective state of the woman suffered from IPV. It could be useful to better address the clinical practice and therapeutic intervention planning.