Development and Validation of the Ethnic Moral Disengagement Scale

Research has underlined that moral disengagement processes, by which people switch off their moral values and act aggressively without experiencing guilt, are highly connected with contextual factors. However, research on situational variations in moral disengagement is limited, especially considering the associations with characteristics such as the ethnic origin of potential victims. The general aim of the present study was to develop a brief, specific measure of ethnic moral disengagement able to catch individual justification used in the case of ethnic bullying and cyberbullying, and test its validity and reliability. An eight items scale was developed and administered in study 1, in a sample of 961students attending several Italian high schools (53.5% female; Mage 15 years). Considering the results of the CFA, we modified one of the items and the scale was administered again, in a second sample of 1,229 students (49.9% female; Mage 15.62 years) in study 2. A one-factor model of ethnic moral disengagement fit the data well and internal consistency showed to be good. As an additional step, we found that the model was invariant across Italian adolescents and youths with a different ethnic or culture of origin (having at least one parent born abroad) strengthened our confidence regarding the factorial integrity of the scale. Last, the scale showed to be positively associated with ethnic bullying and cyberbullying. Generally, findings suggested that the Ethnic Moral Disengagement scale can be a useful tool for those interested in measuring moral disengagement and evaluating how it impacts bullying and cyberbullying of minority groups.

Mental Well-Being: 2010–2018 Trends among Italian Adolescents

(1) Aims: To explore temporal trends 2010–2018 of well-being among Italian adolescents and to evaluate potential explanatory factors. (2) Methods: Italian nationality representative samples of students aged 11, 13, and 15 years were recruited in 2010, 2014, and 2018; Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), for an overall number of 165,000 teenagers. Multivariable logistic regression models were performed to fit the trends over time of life satisfaction (LS), psychological (PSY-HC) and somatic health complaints (SOM-HC) considering the contextual factors: school work pressure, social support (family, school, peers), socioeconomic status, geographic area, and immigration background; (3) Results: From 2010 to 2018 while LS was steady, health complaints increased, mainly for PSY-HC, in all age and gender groups. Trend of PSY-HC affected mainly 15-yrs-olds: rates among boys varied from 29.6% to 35.9% (OR: 1.13, 95%CI: 1.02–1.25); among girls from 49.1% to 63.3% (OR: 1.56, 95%CI: 1.42–1.72). High school work pressure and poor social support play a central role in worsening well-being outcomes; (4) Conclusions: Our findings pictured a remarkable worsening trend of teenagers’ well-being, especially among 15-year-old girls. Further research will be required to investigate this breaking up of the connection between psychophysical symptomatology and cognitive perception of life satisfaction.

Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents and Reactive–Proactive Aggression: The Mediating Role of Alexithymia

Aggressive behaviors can serve different functions, which might be understood by distinguishing between reactive (RA) and proactive (PA) aggression. Few studies were conducted on adolescents’ family precursors and emotional processes associated with RA or PA. Accordingly, the current study compared RA and PA by evaluating their association with adolescents’ attachment to parents and alexithymia. N = 453 Italian adolescents aged 15–19 years (Mage = 16.48; SD = 0.69; 33.6% males) participated in the study filling in self-report measures. Results showed that PA and RA are significantly associated and that PA was higher among males. Moreover, four mediational models were performed to assess the influence of adolescents’ attachment to mothers vs. fathers on RA or PA, considering the mediating role of alexithymia. Gender was included as a covariate. Mediational models’ results showed a direct and indirect effect, through lower alexithymia, of adolescents’ attachment to mothers and fathers on RA. Differently, only attachment to mothers showed a direct effect on PA, while attachment to fathers only an indirect effect, mediated by lower alexithymia, on PA was shown. Findings support the greater relevance of emotional processes for RA while highlighting the differential contribution of adolescents’ attachment to mothers vs. fathers upon PA. Implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Changes in Weight, Body Image Perception and Self-Efficacy: A Study on Italian Adolescents during the Pandemic Period

The lockdown period in Italy, due to Covid-19 government restrictions, caused sedentary behavior and a reduction in physical activity, with an increase in body weight and a change in body perception. Body image includes beliefs about one’s appearance. Women tend to exhibit poor body image compared to men; if we consider adolescence, this difference tends to be greater. In addition, only a small percentage of adolescents believe their body image to be adequate. Given that adolescence represents one of the periods with the highest level of physical change, including changes in weight, height, and body shape, we wanted to study how self-efficacy can be affected by body image. Studies have shown that self-efficacious students tend to be more persistent in the face of unexpected difficulties, particularly important in the current pandemic conditions. In our study, we analyze the relationship between the variation of perceived weight after two months of lockdown, and Self-efficacy, mediated by body image perception in a sample of Italian adolescents. Simple mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS 3.5 for SPSS 27. Two-hundred and fifty high school students from northern Italy took part in the study (82% female, with a mean age of 16 years ±1,43). The data confirmed a partial mediation effect of body image perception. These results highlight how body image assumes significance for one of the most relevant developmental tasks for adolescents related to evaluation and self-perception affecting their self-efficacy, which is also a predictor of their academic achievement. We hope that studies like these can support the importance of interventions aimed at promoting well-being among adolescents, specifically regarding aspects of physical and motivational self-evaluation.

Forgiveness in the Modulation of Responsibility in a Sample of Italian Adolescents with a Tendency towards Conduct or Obsessive–Compulsive Problems

Although obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and the conduct disorders (CD) express a contrasting symptomatology, they could represent different answers to a common matrix about morality. In the literature, some theoretical models describe people with OCD as individuals who experience high levels of responsibility and guilt. On the other hand, adolescents with a CD are described as if they do not feel guilty at all or consider anti-social purposes as more important than existing moral purposes. The aims of this study were to investigate the role of forgiveness in responsibility and guilt levels and to test whether this putative relation was influenced by tendencies towards obsessive–compulsive problems (OCP) or conduct problems (CP). In total, 231 adolescents aged between 16 and 18 years were self-assessed using a Youth Self-Report, Child Responsibility Attitudes Questionnaire, Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and Test Of Self-Conscious Affect. The results show that self-forgiveness predicted responsibility levels, while guilt was predicted by self-forgiveness and situation-forgiveness. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that the effects of OCP on responsibility and guilt were mediated by self-forgiveness and situation-forgiveness. Regarding CP, no mediated effects were found. In conclusion, lower proneness to forgive increases responsibility and guilt, and this is particularly evident in subjects with higher levels of OCP.

A confirmatory composite analysis for the Italian validation of the interactions anxiousness scale: a higher-order version

This study examined the factor structure and model specifications of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) with confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with a sample of Italian adolescents ($$n = 764$$ n = 764 ). The CCA and PLS-SEM results identified the reflective nature of the IAS sub-scale scores, supporting an alternative measurement model of the IAS scores as a second-order reflective–reflective model.

The Road from Pathological Narcissism to Suicidality in Adolescence: An Empirical Study

Background: Clinical and empirical research evidenced a complex link between pathological narcissism and the suicidal process in adulthood. Given the relevance of suicidality and the peculiar narcissistic vicissitudes of adolescence, the proposed research investigated the relationship between pathological narcissism analyzed from the multi-dimensional perspective of the Diagnostic Interview for Narcissism (DIN) and suicidal ideation conducted in a sample of Italian Adolescents. Methods: One hundred and three Italian male and female adolescents between 12 and 18 were administered the DIN, SCIDII, CSSRS, and Kiddie-SADS with six months follow-up. Results: The correlation, t-test, multiple regression analyses evidenced the association of narcissistic affective states and mood with both suicidal ideation and lethality of conduct. The increase in the dimension of grandiosity is associated with the passage to potentially highly lethal suicidal gestures. Conclusions: Suicidal ideation and conduct seem to serve the function of restoring a sense of control and self-esteem in narcissistic individuals experiencing a state of affective dysregulation. Narcissistic pathological functioning seems to play an important role in the adolescent suicidal process, quite like adulthood. Assessing an adolescent’s narcissistic functioning may provide useful clinical information in understanding and managing the suicidal risk in this phase of life.

Dreaming during the COVID-19 lockdown: a comparison of Italian adolescents and adults

Based on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, we have studied the effects of lockdown measures on Italian adolescents’ and adults’ dreams during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A sample of 475 subjects (73.9% women; 48.4% adolescents; ages 12-70 years, M=25.10, SD=12.2) was recruited via the Internet between April 17, 2020 and May 18, 2020. Participants were asked to provide socio-demographic data, as well as to report their Most Recent Dream. Results indicated that adults’ dreams were the longest, as well as characterized by higher emotional intensity, predominantly negative emotions, and a higher presence of sensory impressions. Furthermore, results indicated that the participants, especially adolescents, who were most directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic reported the strongest effects on their dreams. Results also indicated that women recall dreams more often than men, in addition to reporting higher emotional intensity, predominantly negative emotions, and a higher presence of sensory impressions. Finally, results of the Thematic Analysis of Elementary Contexts showed that adults’ dreams seem to be centered, above all, on both pleasant memories linked to experiences that are now forbidden (i.e., traveling, meeting friends) as well as on nightmares, while adolescents’ dreams focused on relationships with others. Finally, both adults and adolescents reported dreams related to the experience of home confinement, which they described in terms of the negative emotions they experienced. In sum, the findings of this study indicate that the COVID-19 lockdown measures, understood as a contextual and traumatic event, significantly affect people’s oneiric lives, regardless of age.