Social phobia and addictive behaviours in adolescents

Adolescence is the age of discordance: abandonment of ideas and feelings, perpetual becoming, eternal change, everything presupposes contradiction. It is the age of speeds and disappointments. Pessimism alternates with enthusiasm for a new idea or for a noble cause, hence the affective ambivalence. This paper aims to identify some behavioural aspects and personality traits of adolescents of two categories, adolescents from two-parent families and those from single-parent families. To verify the work hypothesis, we applied the Scale for assessing adolescent disorders - short form, the sample population includes 90 adolescents who are part of single-parent and two-parent families, 45 male subjects and 45 female subjects. Based on the results there is a significant difference between adolescents from biparental families and adolescents from monoparental families, in terms of generalized anxiety, substance addiction and eating disorder. People with high levels of anxiety are often convinced that they will act in the wrong way or that someone else will judge them. Keywords: social phobia, addictive behaviors, adolescents, abandonment, feelings

Attitudinal ambivalence towards the Romanian Roma: A comparison between Italian and French students

Recent migrations of East European Roma have exacerbated the currently widespread phenomenon of antiziganism in Europe, but there are cultural, social, political, and historical factors in the various European countries that may affect reactions to Roma in diverse ways. This study aims to compare the attitudes of two groups of 198 young Italian and French people towards Romanian Roma. Stereotypical representations, affective reactions, and levels of cognitive and affective ambivalence were assessed. The results showed a univalent prejudice even if the attitudes of the Italian participants were more unfavourable than those expressed by their French peers. The data showed a similar stereotypical image of the outgroup but different intensities in the affective variables assessed. Italian and French participants were cognitively but not affectively ambivalent towards the Romanian Roma, and the difference between the two levels of cognitive ambivalence was not statistically significant. Potential social factors, such as the history of migration or the political agenda setting, are hypothesized as the origin of the differences in the intensities of Italian and French participants’ feelings towards the Romanian Roma.

Predicting Postpartum Depressive Symptoms from Pregnancy Biopsychosocial Factors: A Longitudinal Investigation Using Structural Equation Modeling

The prediction of postpartum depression (PPD) should be conceptualized from a biopsychosocial perspective. This study aims at exploring the longitudinal contribution of a set of biopsychosocial factors for PPD in perinatal women. A longitudinal study was conducted, assessment was made with a website and included biopsychosocial factors that were measured during pregnancy (n = 266, weeks 16–36), including age, affective ambivalence, personality characteristics, social support and depression. Depression was measured again at postpartum (n = 101, weeks 2–4). The analyses included bivariate associations and structural equation modeling (SEM). Age, affective ambivalence, neuroticism, positive, and negative affect at pregnancy were associated with concurrent depression during pregnancy (all p < 0.01). Age, affective ambivalence, positive affect, and depression at pregnancy correlated with PPD (all p < 0.05). Affective ambivalence (β = 1.97; p = 0.003) and positive (β = −0.29; p < 0.001) and negative affect (β = 0.22; p = 0.024) at pregnancy remained significant predictors of concurrent depression in the SEM, whereas only age (β = 0.27; p = 0.010) and depression (β = 0.37; p = 0.002) at pregnancy predicted PPD. Biopsychosocial factors are clearly associated with concurrent depression at pregnancy, but the stability of depression across time limits the prospective contribution of biopsychosocial factors. Depression should be screened early during pregnancy, as this is likely to persist after birth. The use of technology, as in the present investigation, might be a cost-effective option for this purpose.

Aesthetic Conflict in the Couple

At the basis of the union between two partners is the aesthetic turmoil that derives from the manifest beauty of the object, which is unknowable internally, and which arouses both love and hate simultaneously. The tension between love, hate, and knowledge stems from their apparent incompatibility. It is almost impossible to sustain this constellation of intense and contradictory emotional ties with the object; attempting to do so can prove unbearable. This is what Meltzer calls the aesthetic conflict, highlighting that the tragedy of the aesthetic experience lies not in its transience, but in the object's enigmatic quality. The inability to assimilate sufficiently the resulting affective ambivalence means exposing oneself to potentially overwhelming emotions. Trying to erase these emotions deprives one of the vital knowledge and motivation they bring. If, however, the ambiguity of the object is tolerated, the dread of uncertainty of the partner's intentions stimulates psychic growth and creativity, transforming it into compassion for the frailty of human life and all things. I believe that the experience of being in an intimate relationship can be the stage on which these aspects of the aesthetic conflict are played out—crucial aspects for the development of both the couple relationship and the individual. This paper examines and develops aspects of the aesthetic conflict within a couple relationship.