Emotional awareness (EA) has been defined as the cognitive skill devoted to the identification and description of one's own and others' emotional experiences, an ability that has usually been ...conceptualized along with the development of cognitive intelligence. Despite this, EA has also been deemed a central constituent of Emotional Intelligence (EI), a construct that captures individual differences in how we perceive, communicate, regulate, and understand our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. The overlap between the cognitive and the emotional domain in the definition of the EA construct has created several difficulties in both its understanding and its usage, so much so that several questions regarding its nature and structure remain unanswered. The aim of the present work was to test in a unique model the explanatory role of both trait EI and fluid nonverbal intelligence on EA variability in children, controlling for the effect of age, a variable strictly related to cognitive development, as well as gender, which is highly associated with trait EI during childhood. Four hundred and eighty-eight pupils (258 females and 230 males) ranging from 8 to 12 years old completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire - Child Form, and a measure of pure non-verbal reasoning ability, the Raven's Progressive Matrices. The results of a structural equation model showed a positive explanatory power of both Raven and TEIQue scores on EA, revealing that both cognitive intelligence and trait EI significantly explained EA. The same model also showed an indirect effect of age,
intelligence scores, on EA, suggesting that the increase of EA with age could be partially imputed to the development of intelligence. Finally, a relation between gender and TEIQue scores confirmed higher trait EI scores in girls than in boys. The implications emerging from this model are discussed.
This study investigates on the relationship between affect-related psychological variables and Body Mass Index (BMI). We have utilized a novel method based on machine learning (ML) algorithms that ...forecast unobserved BMI values based on psychological variables, like depression, as predictors. We have employed various machine learning algorithms, including gradient boosting and random forest, with psychological variables relative to 221 subjects to predict both the BMI values and the BMI status (normal, overweight, and obese) of those subjects. We have found that the psychological variables in use allow one to predict both the BMI values (with a mean absolute error of 5.27-5.50) and the BMI status with an accuracy of over 80% (metric: F1-score). Further, our study has also confirmed the particular efficacy of psychological variables of negative type, such as depression for example, compared to positive ones, to achieve excellent predictive BMI values.
The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world in the year 2020 has put a strain on our ability to cope with events and revolutionized our daily habits. On 9 March, Italy was forced to lockdown to ...prevent the spread of the infection, with measures including the mandatory closure of schools and nonessential activities, travel restrictions, and the obligation to spend entire weeks in the same physical space. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures on quality of life (QoL) in a large Italian sample, in order to investigate possible differences in QoL levels related to both demographic and pandemic-specific variables. A total of 2251 Italian adults (1665 women, mainly young and middle adults) were recruited via a snowball sampling strategy. Participants were requested to answer to an online survey, which included demographic and COVID-related information items, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). The results showed statistically significant differences in QoL depending on a number of variables, including sex, area of residence in Italy, and being diagnosed with a medical/psychiatric condition. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess QoL during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, therefore the present findings can offer guidelines regarding which social groups are more vulnerable of a decline in QoL and would benefit of psychological interventions.
The recognition of emotional facial expressions is a central aspect for an effective interpersonal communication. This study aims to investigate whether changes occur in emotion recognition ability ...and in the affective reactions (self-assessed by participants through valence and arousal ratings) associated with the viewing of basic facial expressions during preadolescence (
= 396, 206 girls, aged 11-14 years, Mage = 12.73,
= 0.91). Our results confirmed that happiness is the best recognized emotion during preadolescence. However, a significant decrease in recognition accuracy across age emerged for fear expressions. Moreover, participants' affective reactions elicited by the vision of happy facial expressions resulted to be the most pleasant and arousing compared to the other emotional expressions. On the contrary, the viewing of sadness was associated with the most negative affective reactions. Our results also revealed a developmental change in participants' affective reactions to the stimuli. Implications are discussed by taking into account the role of emotion recognition as one of the main factors involved in emotional development.
The study aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers' work-related stress during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. The main objective is to investigate the existence of a ...positive correlation between hopelessness and burnout, assuming that burnout may be a risk factor for the development of hopelessness, and to analyze the role that trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) and changes in workload could have in this relationship. Furthermore, evaluate any significant differences in burnout and hopelessness levels in the function of some demographic variables, such as gender, professional profiles, and different working zones of Italy, to better understand how the diverse diffusion of pandemic had affected Italian healthcare workers.
An online survey was used to collect data between April and June, 2020, with 562 responses among nurses (52.1%) and physicians (47.9%). Demographics and changes in workload and work conditions were collected through an
questionnaire. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF), The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and the Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ) were used to assess Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI), hopelessness, and burnout, respectively.
Correlation analysis showed a significant positive relationship between hopelessness and each burnout dimension. TEI showed negative correlations both with burnout dimensions and hopelessness. Significant differences in burnout and hopelessness levels emerged as a function of some demographic variables such as gender, professional profiles (nurses or physicians), and different working zone of Italy (northern or southern). Results showed that TEI partially mediated the relationship between hopelessness and every burnout dimension, while the interaction of changes in workload was non-significant.
The mediating role of TEI in the burnout-hopelessness relationship partly explains the protective role that individual factors had on healthcare workers' mental health. Our findings support the need to integrate considerations on both psychological risk and protective factors into COVID-19 care, including the monitoring of psychological symptoms and social needs, especially among healthcare workers.
In the last decades, many studies have emphasized emotion's role in psycho-educational processes during childhood, such as scholastic integration. Emotional variables in childhood can be assessed ...through projective graphic techniques, as they allow children to use kinetic components of the draws to communicate emotions.
1.757 couple of draws were collected, from primary school children (
= 1.270;
= 643 50.6%; Age = 8.6; SD = 1.31) and secondary school children (
= 487;
= 220 45.2%; Age = 11.72; SD = 0.70) and from eight schools in Sicily and over 60 different classrooms. The Drawn Stories Technique and the Classroom Draw were used to assess children's current emotional state and scholastic integration.
Pearson's correlation showed significant relationships between the Drawn Stories Technique and both sex and age. In contrast, Classroom Drawing total score showed a significant relationship with the female sex but no significant relationship with age. Linear regression analysis, including sex and age as independent variables, showed that sex is a significant predictor of Negative Outcomes of the Drawn Stories Technique, while no effect of age was detected.
These findings showed that adequate attention is needed to the learners' emotional-affective world that influences their relationships and their vision within the class group. Although the drawing techniques alone seem to be not as such sufficient to explain children's individual differences in the classroom on the whole, they could be helpful for the teacher to facilitate dialogues with children, modulate didactical materials, and detect and prevent some problems in group class functioning.
Background: Eating Disorders (EDs) often co-occur with substance use contributing to increasing concern about the individual’s health; both the conditions share several core features such as the ...tendency to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. The present study investigated associations between trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), alexithymia and EDs, namely dieting, bulimia and oral control, in a nonclinical sample of adults. Moreover, the relationships with substance use frequencies were also examined with the aim of exploring the links between personality emotional competence traits (trait EI and alexithymia) and different addictive risk behaviours (EDs and substance use) in adulthood. Methods: Data were collected from a convenience sample composed of 394 (312 women; between ages 18 and 65; mean age = 32.34; SD = 11.97) participants, through online administration of questionnaires assessing trait emotional intelligence (TEIQue-SF), eating problems (EAT-26), alexithymia (TAS-20) and frequency of substance use (in the last year). Results: The group that exceeds the cut-off for EDs (n = 58; 14.7 %) has significantly lower trait EI scores (in all dimensions) and higher alexithymia scores than the other group. Some differences between the two groups were found on frequencies of nicotine and diuretics use. Age and all trait EI factors were negatively associated with eating disorders and alexithymia. Weak inverse correlations have emerged between EI and frequencies of substance use (namely cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol and tobacco). Female gender, well-being and self-control factors of EI emerged as significant predictors of EDs in adulthood. Conclusions: Our results suggest the importance of targeting emotion dysregulation for EDs and substance use behaviours. Interventions aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles could benefit from trait EI enhancement efforts. Practitioners and health educators need to recognize the potential efficacy of including trait EI within gender specific interventions planned to address ED symptoms and addictive behaviours in general.
The increased risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children has been observed in the presence of maternal psychopathology. This study aimed to investigate a potential pathway involving ...the quality of early interactions between mothers and their children. A sample of 150 mother-child dyads underwent assessment when the children were 3 years old and around the age of 10. Video recordings of feeding exchanges between mothers and children were analyzed to evaluate the quality of mother-child interactions. Maternal psychopathology and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were measured through self-report and report-form measures completed by mothers. The quality of mother-child feeding interactions at three years of age significantly differentiated (
< 0.001), eight years later, between mothers at high and low psychopathological risk and between children exhibiting clinical and subclinical internalizing symptoms. Clinically relevant child symptoms were notably more prevalent when the mother-child interaction quality at three years of age was maladaptive, particularly in the context of concurrent high maternal psychopathological risk. The study findings underscore the importance of focusing on the early quality of mother-child feeding interactions to identify potential situations of maternal and child clinical risk for the development of psychopathological symptoms and to guide preemptive measures and policies.
Aim of this study was to investigate whether parental mental representations during pregnancy and after delivery differed between parents who conceived after Assisted Reproductive Treatments (ART) ...and spontaneous conceiving (SC) parents. Effects of specific ART variables (previous ART attempts, treatment type and cause of infertility) were also taken into account. Seventeen ART couples and 25 SC couples were recruited at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital (Reggio Emilia, Italy). At both 32 weeks of gestation (T1) and 3 months postpartum (T2) participants completed the Semantic Differential of the IRMAG, a self-report tool which measures specific domains of mental representations pertaining either individual (Child, Self-as-woman/man, and Partner) or parental (Self-as-parent, Own parent) characteristics. Results showed that ART parents had significantly more positive representations of the child compared to SC parents, while the scores at Partner dimension improved from T1 to T2 for SC parents only. With regards to ART history, scores at the Self-as-woman/man dimension were significantly less positive for ICSI than IVF parents and improved substantially from T1 to T2 only in case of mothers with previous ART attempts and of fathers at the first ART cycle. The representation of own parents increased from T1 to T2 in case of infertility diagnosis due to male factors, while a decrease emerged when infertility was due to female factors. Findings suggest the need to investigate parental mental representations after ART, in order to improve the understanding on the transition to parenthood of infertile couples and to target more specific intervention for parenting support.
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