Highlights During a sudden and unprecedented event, such as the current pandemic, healthcare workers may be inadequately prepared and supported to cope with stressors and this negatively affected working environment. For healthcare professionals, a positive attitude towards the stressful situation was the main protective factor, while female gender, seeking social support, avoidance strategies and working with COVIDCOVID-19 patients were risk factors. It is important to investigate the response of healthcare professionals to the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of perceived stress and coping strategies, in order to implement targeted prevention and intervention programs.

Emergency situations have been associated with negative psychological adjustment outcomes in healthcare professionals, although studies on the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic amongst Italian health workers are limited. The main aim of this study was to investigate the psychological adjustment of healthcare professionals during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating differences according to working or not with patients affected by COVID-19 and in areas with a more severe spread of this pandemic. Healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward psychological support were analyzed. The levels of anxiety, depression, psychological stress, and professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue) and attitudes toward psychological support were measured among 627 Italian healthcare workers (mean age = 40.55 years; SD = 11.49; range: 27–72). Significantly higher levels of stress, burnout, secondary trauma, anxiety, and depression were observed among professionals working with COVID-19 patients. Higher levels of stress and burnout and lower levels of compassion satisfaction were detected in professionals working in areas with higher rates of contagion. No interaction effects were found between working (or not) with patients affected by COVID-19 and working (or not) in areas with a more severe diffusion of this pandemic. Finally, in the group of professionals who worked with COVID-19 patients, the percentage of professionals who thought to ask for psychological support was twice that of the group that did not work with COVID-19 patients. The overall findings indicate that the mental health of frontline healthcare workers requires further consideration and that targeted prevention and intervention programs are necessary.

On March 10, 2020, Italy went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. The World Health Organization highlighted how the lockdown had negative consequences on psychological well-being, especially for children. The present study aimed to investigate parental correlates of children’s emotion regulation during the COVID-19 lockdown. Within the Social Cognitive Theory framework, a path model in which parenting self-efficacy and parental regulatory emotional self-efficacy mediated the relationship between parents’ psychological distress and both children’s emotional regulation, and children’s lability/negativity, was investigated. A total of 277 parents of children aged from 6 to 13 years completed an online survey that assessed their psychological distress, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and parenting self-efficacy. Parents reported also children’s emotional regulation and lability/negativity. A structural equation model (SEM) using MPLUS 8.3 was tested. Results showed that the hypothesized model exhibited excellent fit, chi-square (83) = 140.40, p < 0.01, RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96, SRMR = 0.04. The influences of parents’ psychological distress and parents’ regulatory emotional self-efficacy on children’s emotional regulation and lability/negativity were mediated by parenting self-efficacy. The mediation model was invariant across children’s biological sex and age, and geographical residence area (high risk vs. low risk for COVID-19). Results suggested how parents’ beliefs to be competent in managing parental tasks might be a protective factor for their children’s emotional well-being. Implications for intervention programs are discussed.

Aim: This paper aimed to explore psychological functioning and mental representations in mothers of preterm infants during the child's hospitalization in a Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).Methods: A sample including 62 mothers of premature infants (gestational age < 37 weeks) was recruited in a NICU. According to the gestational age at the time of delivery, we considered two groups: Group A included mothers whose children were born before 32 weeks of pregnancy; Group B included mothers whose children were born at or after 32 weeks of pregnancy.Within one week of childbirth, mothers were administered two self-report questionnaires: the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). When their infants' medical conditions became stable, the Clinical Interview for Parents of High-Risk Infants (CLIP) was administered to mothers.Results: The results showed high levels of depression and anxiety in both groups of mothers, with higher state anxiety scores in Group A than Group B. Besides, a series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with STAI, EPDS, and gestational age as predictors on the CLIP scores. Results indicated that EPDS scores predicted CLIP scores on parental self-image, support system, and readiness for discharge (p < 0.001); moreover, the interaction among depression, anxiety, and gestational age predicted the CLIP dimension of feeling of mutual recognition (p < 0.005).Conclusions: These findings suggested that a premature birth and the child's hospitalization might exert a negative effect on the mothers' emotional state, their perception of parental self-image and, consequently, the early bond with the child—independent from the infants' gestational age at the time of the preterm delivery. The data underlined the importance of involving NICU nurses and clinicians in order to optimize the care for mothers immediately after the preterm birth and during the infant's hospitalization, taking into account psychological needs of mothers of both very preterm and moderately preterm infants.

In this paper, we explore how maternal representations, and in particular their contents, are structured during pregnancy. Twenty‐three primiparous women were recruited for participation in a longitudinal study about mothers' thoughts and feelings about their infants. A semistructured interview was conducted with each of the subjects in the third trimester of pregnancy. During the interview, subjects were also given five adjective lists based on the semantic differential model. Results from this sample indicate similarities in the content‐free aspects of representations of self and baby, but differences in the content of these presentations. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to the construction of an internal representation of the child in the third trimester of pregnancy.