Emerging adults facing the COVID-19 pandemic: emotion dysregulation, mentalizing, and psychological symptoms

Mora, Simone Charpentier; Bastianoni, Chiara; Cavanna, Donatella; Bizzi, Fabiola

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03322-5

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The utilization of clinical measures of Anxiety, Depression, and BPD enabled us to investigate differences in RFQ-31 scores, as well as differences in ET, ER, AttS, and PM scores, across groups formed according to cut-off scores. Consistent with relevant literature [ 6 – 14 ], our results highlight the significant influence of excessive certainty, interest/curiosity, and uncertainty/confusion in distinguishing between BPD groups, and underscore the crucial role of uncertainty/confusion across all three clinical measures. Aligning with previous findings [ 28 ], our study underscores the inability of trust as a construct to differentiate groups across conditions of anxiety, depression, and BPD.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The validity of the RFQ-31 is substantiated further by its associations with measures of Epistemic Trust, Attachment styles, Emotion Regulation, and Psychological Mindedness, further strengthened by the validation of all the aforementioned instruments in our Greek sample. Consistent with the existing literature, the uncertainty/confusion dimension demonstrates significant and strong correlations with the variables examined in this study [ 4 – 6 , 20 , 21 , 28 , 92 ]. Perhaps less surprisingly, excessive certainty does not correlate with mistrust and suppression, potentially due to a lack of well-modulated doubt about the minds of oneself and others.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…On the other hand, insecure attachment relationships, likely interplaying with genetic and environmental vulnerabilities, have been linked with impaired mentalizing [ 4 , 5 ]. Impairments in mentalizing have been associated with a broad spectrum of mental disorder symptoms, including but not limited to borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression, and anxiety [ 6 – 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Karagiannopoulou,

Milienos,

Desatnik

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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This study aims to validate the Greek version of the 54-item Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), a measure designed to assess an individual’s capacity for understanding themselves and others based on internal mental states. This capacity, also known as Reflective Functioning (RF) or mentalizing, is believed to play a significant role in both typical and atypical development. The validation process examined the factor structure of the RFQ and its relationship with a variety of psychosocial and clinical constructs that have theoretical and empirical links to RF. Additionally, this research investigated the factor structure’s invariance across gender and age groups to determine the robustness of the instrument. A unique contribution of this work lies in examining the application of the RFQ to attachment classifications through the use of cluster analysis. The sample consisted of 875 Greek adults from the general community with a mean age of 28.5 and a median age of 22. Participants completed the Greek RFQ along with a series of self-report questionnaires assessing psychosocial constructs, including attachment, epistemic trust, emotion regulation, and psychological mindedness, as well as clinical variables such as anxiety, depression, and borderline personality traits. Our findings suggest that a shorter, 31-item version of the questionnaire provides a robust three-factor structure across a non-clinical Greek adult population. The three identified subscales are (a) excessive certainty, (b) interest/curiosity, and (c) uncertainty/confusion, all demonstrating satisfactory reliability and construct validity. The uncertainty subscale was found to be associated with insecure attachment styles, epistemic mistrust and credulity, emotional suppression, and low psychological mindedness. In contrast, the certainty and curiosity subscales were linked to secure attachment, epistemic trust, emotion reappraisal, and psychological mindedness. Uncertainty was further shown to differ significantly across probable clinical and non-clinical groups, as distinguished by cut-off scores for anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the certainty and interest/curiosity subscales only varied between the two BPD groups. Our results provide the first evidence supporting the use of a 31-item version of the RFQ with three validated subscales to reliably assess reflective functioning in the Greek population, demonstrating stronger psychometric properties compared to other RFQ versions reported in previous studies. Findings suggest that impaired mentalizing capacity, as measured by the RFQ, is linked to insecure attachment, epistemic mistrust and credulity, poor emotion regulation, and low psychological mindedness, and potentially plays a role in adult mental health symptoms.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Karagiannopoulou,

Milienos,

Desatnik

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Häusliche Gewalt und ihre psychischen Folgen während der COVID-19-Pandemie – Zentrale Befunde aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum

Lotzin

Flechsenhar

Garthus-Niegel

et al. 2023

Bundesgesundheitsbl

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ZusammenfassungDie Auswirkungen traumatischer Erfahrungen auf die psychische Gesundheit während der COVID-19-Pandemie sind im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher unzureichend diskutiert worden. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde im Auftrag der Deutschsprachigen Gesellschaft für Psychotraumatologie (DeGPT) eine Arbeitsgruppe aus wissenschaftlich und praktisch tätigen Fachkolleginnen und -kollegen gebildet. Ziel der Arbeitsgruppe war es, zentrale Forschungsbefunde zur Prävalenz von häuslicher Gewalt und damit einhergehende psychische Belastungen während der COVID-19-Pandemie im deutschsprachigen Raum zusammenzufassen und deren Implikationen zu diskutieren. Darüber hinaus sollten Zusammenhänge zwischen vorbestehenden Kindheitstraumata und psychischen Belastungen während der Pandemie beleuchtet werden. Hierzu wurde die vorliegende narrative Übersichtsarbeit erstellt.Die Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Studien weisen auf hohe Prävalenzen häuslicher Gewalt während der COVID-19-Pandemie hin, die jedoch überwiegend den Prävalenzen vor der Pandemie entsprechen. Erwachsene, die während der Pandemie oder bereits in ihrer Kindheit oder Jugend interpersonaler Gewalt ausgesetzt waren, wiesen während der Pandemie eine erhöhte psychische Belastung im Vergleich zu Erwachsenen ohne Gewalterfahrungen auf. Eine Reihe an Faktoren (z. B. weibliches Geschlecht, geringe Sozialkontakte) erhöhten das Risiko für psychische Belastung und Symptome einer posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung während der Pandemie. Nach diesen Ergebnissen stellen Menschen mit aktuellen, aber auch zurückliegenden Gewalterfahrungen eine vulnerable Gruppe dar, die während einer Pandemie besondere Unterstützungsbedarfe aufweist.

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Family functioning and mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a two-cohort comparison of emerging adults

del Carmen García-Mendoza,

de la Fuente,

Sánchez-Queija

et al. 2024

Curr Psychol

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The aim of the present study was to analyze how family relationships changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine whether the health crisis modified the association between family dimensions and emerging adult children’s mental health. A large sample of 1732 emerging adults was recruited at two different moments. In 2015, 755 emerging adults were recruited, 201 from campus A (sample 1) and 554 from campus B (sample 2). In 2020, a new sample was recruited and 977 emerging adults completed the questionnaire, 198 from campus A (sample 1 / “Pre-pandemic sample”, recruited before the lockdown) and 779 from campus B (sample 2 / “COVID-19 sample” / recruited after the lockdown. The results reveal that the COVID-19 sample of emerging adults perceived poorer parent-child relationships (lower parental involvement and warmth) and reported poorer mental health (lower flourishing and higher psychological distress) than their counterparts in Cohort 1. For their part, the Pre-pandemic sample reported higher levels of psychological distress than their counterparts in Cohort 1. In all samples (Cohort 1 and Cohort 2, both Pre-pandemic and COVID-19), parenting functions were positively associated with children’s flourishing and negatively associated with their psychological distress. However, these associations were stronger in Cohort 2 than in Cohort 1, both when assessed before and when assessed during the pandemic. The results of the study support the increasingly important role played by the family as a protective factor for mental health, even in stressful situations when family relationships tend to deteriorate. Study limitations include the use of a sample composed mainly of young emerging adult university students. Future studies should strive to include more emerging adults from the entire age range encompassed by emerging adulthood, as well as members of the non-university-going emerging adult population. Investing in public programs focused on family functions during emerging adulthood is an essential strategy for protecting and improving young adults’ mental health and promoting positive family relationships in stressful situations.

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Emerging adults facing the COVID-19 pandemic: emotion dysregulation, mentalizing, and psychological symptoms

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Häusliche Gewalt und ihre psychischen Folgen während der COVID-19-Pandemie – Zentrale Befunde aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum

Family functioning and mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a two-cohort comparison of emerging adults

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