The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatically changed our habits and routines. Uncertainty, insecurity, instability for the present and future, and reduced autonomy and self-directedness, are common feelings at the time of COVID-19. These aspects are very important during emerging adulthood. In spite of the fact that medical reports suggest that youth are less prone to experience COVID-19 infections, emerging adults might be at higher risk for their psychological adjustment. Emerging adults showed higher concerns about their role as a possible asymptomatic carrier than being positive with COVID-19 themselves. Both worries and concerns about COVID-19 and psychological maladjustment may be related to cultural factors. Individualism, collectivism, equality, and hierarchy seem to be meaningful perspectives to take into account. A total of 1183 Italian emerging adults were asked to fill out an online survey during the second week of the national lockdown in Italy. Results showed they reported an accurate perceived knowledge about COVID-19. At the same time, they showed higher worries and concerns about COVID-19 for their relatives, followed by more general/social worries. The lowest score included worries about COVID-19 related to themselves. State anxiety and stress levels were above the normal cutoff, confirming the challenges that emerging adults are facing during the pandemic. On one hand, emerging adults’ collectivistic orientation was related to higher perceived risks of infection; on the other hand, it predicted lower psychological maladjustment, controlling for socio-demographic variables. The study suggests that to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease levels of psychological maladjustment in emerging adulthood, individuals’ cultural orientation such as the wish of sharing common goals with others, interdependence, and sociability, have to be emphasized and promoted as protective factors.

The present study focuses on the multifaceted concept of self-disturbance in schizophrenia, adding knowledge about a not yet investigated aspect, which is the interoceptive accuracy. Starting from the assumption that interoceptive accuracy requires an intact sense of self, which otherwise was proved to be altered in schizophrenia, the aim of the present study was to explore interoceptive accuracy in a group of schizophrenia patients, compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the possible association between interoceptive accuracy and patients’ positive and negative symptomatology was assessed. To pursue these goals, a group of 23 schizophrenia patients and a group of 23 healthy controls performed a heartbeat perception task. Patients’ symptomatology was assessed by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results demonstrated significantly lower interoceptive accuracy in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. This difference was not accounted for participants’ age, BMI, anxiety levels, and heart rate. Furthermore, patients’ illness severity, attention and pharmacological treatment did not influence their interoceptive accuracy levels. Interestingly, a strong positive relation between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptoms severity, especially Grandiosity, was found. The present results demonstrate for the first time that interoceptive accuracy is altered in schizophrenia. Furthermore, they prove a specific association between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptomatology, suggesting that the symptom Grandiosity might be protective against an altered basic sense of self in patients characterized by higher sensibility to their inner bodily sensations.

The transition to parenthood is widely considered a period of increased vulnerability often accompanied by stress. Abidin conceived parenting stress as referring to specific difficulties in adjusting to the parenting role. Most studies of psychological distress arising from the demands of parenting have investigated the impact of stress on the development of dysfunctional parent–child relationships and on adult and child psychopathology. Studies have largely focused on mothers’ postnatal experience; less attention has been devoted to maternal prenatal characteristics associated with subsequent parental stress and studies of maternal prenatal predictors are few. Furthermore, no studies have examined that association exclusively with samples of first-time mothers. With an observational prospective study design with two time periods, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of mothers’ attachment style, maternal prenatal attachment to the fetus and dyadic adjustment during pregnancy (7th months of gestation) and their potential unique contribution to parenting stress 3 months after childbirth in a sample of nulliparous women. Results showed significant correlations between antenatal measures. Maternal attachment style (especially relationship anxiety) was negatively correlated with prenatal attachment and with dyadic adjustment; positive correlations resulted between prenatal attachment and dyadic adjustment. Each of the investigated variables was also good predictor of parenting stress 3 months after childbirth. Findings suggested how these dimensions could be considered as risk factors in the transition to motherhood and in the very beginning of the emergence of the caregiving system, especially with first-time mothers.

The COVID-19 pandemic is showing a strong impact on people in terms of uncertainty and instability it has caused in different areas of daily life. Uncertainty and instability are also emotions that characterize emerging adulthood (EA). They generate worries about the present and the future and are a source of anxiety that impacts negatively on personal and interpersonal functioning. Anxiety seems a central effect of the pandemic and recent studies have suggested that it is linked to COVID-19 risk perception. In the present study, a sample of 1045 Italian emerging adults was collected: (1) to assess anxiety severity and perceived risk related to COVID-19 and their association and (2) to compare general health and protective factors such as attitudes about security, relationships, self-esteem, and self-efficacy across anxiety severity and perceived risk categories. The findings of this study highlighted that anxiety severity categories were distributed homogeneously across the sample and that half of the participants referred to moderate-severe anxiety. A series of analysis of variances and post hoc comparisons showed that general health and all protective factors decreased according to anxiety severity. They were higher in participants with high perceived risk, with the exception of self-efficacy. Given the challenging features of the pandemic and EA, it is crucial to monitor anxiety severity in order to prevent last longing effects on mental and physical health, as well as keeping emerging adults informed about the risks related to the pandemic. Intervention and supportive programs based on improving self-esteem and self-efficacy, as well as confidence in relationships, should be offered to emerging adults over the long term, beyond the current outbreak.

Objective The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention to treat overweight/obese children and adolescents. The main outcome was cardiometabolic risk based on the waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) measurement. Secondary outcomes were (1) changes in body composition; (2) adherence to a Mediterranean diet; and (3) physical performance. Method The study involved 74 overweight/obese children or adolescents. The intervention was multidisciplinary including nutrition, exercise, and psychological aspects based on a family-based approach; it was delivered for six months for children and three months for adolescents. Before and after the intervention, several anthropometric measures (height, body weight, body mass index or BMI, waist circumference, and body composition), cardiometabolic risk index (waist-to-height ratio or WHTR), and nutrition habits of the participants and their families were evaluated. In addition, a set of functional motor fitness tests was performed to evaluate physical performance measures. Results After the intervention both children and adolescents showed a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, fat mass, and WHTR index and an improvement of fat-free mass, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and physical fitness performance. Conclusion A family-based multidisciplinary approach is effective in the short term in ameliorating the health status, the nutrition habits, and physical performance in children and adolescents.