Adopting a system justification perspective (Jost and Banaji 1994), we investigated the manner and extent to which gay men and lesbians might internalize a sense of inferiority when it comes to parenthood. In an Italian sample of gay and lesbian individuals, we found that gay men who scored high (versus low) on system justification and right-wing conservatism regarded same sex parents as less competent; these effects were mediated by internalized homophobia. Lesbian women, however, perceived lesbian parents as more competent than opposite sex parents, regardless of ideological orientations. For gay men the internalization of societal discrimination harms perceptions of parental competence, whereas for lesbians gender stereotypes about parenting trump the negative effects of bias related to sexual orientation. These findings suggest that men's and women's perceptions of their own bodies and capacities are strongly affected by sociocultural processes, including ideological processes.

Introduction Chronic pain (CP) is a complex multidimensional experience severely affecting individuals’ quality of life. Multiple cognitive, affective, emotional, and interpersonal factors play a major role in CP. Furthermore, the psychological, social, and physical circumstances leading to CP show high inter-individual variability, thus making it difficult to identify core syndrome characteristics. In a biopsychosocial perspective, we aim at identifying a pattern of psycho-physical impairments that can reliably discriminate between CP individuals and healthy controls (HC) with high accuracy and estimated generalizability using machine learning. Methods A total of 118 CP and 86 HC were recruited. All individuals were administered several scales assessing quality of life, physical and mental health, personal functioning, anxiety, depression, beliefs about medical treatments, and cognitive ability. These features were trained to separate CP from HC using support vector classification and repeated nested cross-validation. Results Our psycho-physical classifier was able to discriminate CP from HC with 86.5% balanced accuracy and significance ( p = 0.0001). The most reliable features characterizing CP were anxiety and depression scores, and belief of harm from prolonged pharmacological treatments; for HP, the most reliable features were physical and occupational functioning, and vitality levels. Conclusion Our findings suggest that, using psychological and physical assessments, it is possible to classify CP from HC with high reliability and estimated generalizability via (i) a pattern of psychological symptoms and cognitive beliefs characteristic of CP, and (ii) a pattern of intact physical functioning characteristic of HC. We think that our algorithm enables novel insights into potential individualized targets for CP-related early intervention programs.

Background Substance Use Disorder (SUD) causes a great deal of personal suffering for patients. Recent evidence highlights how defenses and emotion regulation may play a crucial part in the onset and development of this disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate potential differences in the defensive functioning between SUD patients and non-clinical controls. Secondly, we aimed at investigating the relationships between alexithymia and maladaptive/assimilation defenses. Methods The authors assessed defensive functioning (Response Evaluation Measure-71, REM-71), personality (MMPI-II), and alexithymia (TAS-20) of 171 SUD patients (17% female; mean age = 36.5), compared to 155 controls. Authors performed a series of ANOVAs to investigate the defensive array in SUD patients compared to that of non-clinical controls. Student t test for indipendent samples was used to compare clinical characteristics between the SUD group and the controls. To investigate the role of single defenses in explaining alexithimia’s subscores, stepwise multiple regression analysis were carried out on socio-demographic characteristics of participants (gender, age, and years of education), with REM-71 defenses as predictors. Results SUD patients presented a more maladaptive/assimilation (Factor 1) defensive array (p < .001). Among SUD sub-groups, Alcohol Use Disorder patients showed more disfuncional defenses. Factor 1 defenses were related to a worse psychological functioning. In addition, alexyhimia (particularly DIF) was strongly related to Factor 1 defenses, expecially Projection (38% of variance explained, β = .270, p < .001). Conclusion The REM-71 and the TAS-20 might be useful screening instruments among SUD patients.

Background Psycho-oncology literature pointed out that individual health outcomes may depend on patients’ propensity to adopt approach or, conversely, avoidant coping strategies. Nevertheless, coping factors associated with postoperative distress remain unclear, unfolding the lack of tailored procedures to help breast cancer patients manage the psychological burden of scheduled surgery. In view of this, the present study aimed at investigating: 1. pre-/post-surgery distress variations occurring among women diagnosed with breast cancer; 2. the predictivity of approach and avoidant coping strategies and factors in affecting post-surgery perceived distress. Methods N = 150 patients (mean age = 59.37; SD =  ± 13.23) scheduled for breast cancer surgery were administered a screening protocol consisting of the Distress Thermometer (DT) and the Brief-COPE. The DT was used to monitor patients’ distress levels before and after surgery (± 7 days), whereas the Brief-COPE was adopted only preoperatively to evaluate patients’ coping responses to the forthcoming surgical intervention. Non-parametric tests allowed for the detection of pre-/post-surgery variations in patients’ perceived distress. Factor analysis involved the extraction and rotation of principal components derived from the Brief-COPE strategies. The predictivity of such coping factors was investigated through multiple regression (Backward Elimination). Results The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test yielded a significant variation in DT mean scores (TW = -5,68 < -zα/2 = -1,96; p < .001) indicative of lower perceived distress following surgery. The four coping factors extracted and Varimax-rotated were, respectively: 1. cognitive processing (i.e., planning + acceptance + active coping + positive reframing); 2. support provision (i.e., instrumental + emotional support); 3. emotion-oriented detachment (i.e., self-blame + behavioral disengagement + humor + denial); 4. goal-oriented detachment (i.e., self-distraction). Among these factors, support provision (B = .458; β = − .174; t = − 2.03; p = .045), encompassing two approach coping strategies, and goal-oriented detachment (B = .446; β = − .176; t = − 2.06; p = .042), consisting of one avoidant strategy, were strongly related to post-surgery distress reduction. Conclusion The present investigation revealed that the pre-surgery adoption of supportive and goal-oriented strategies led to postoperative distress reduction among breast cancer patients. These findings highlight the importance of timely psychosocial screening and proactive interventions in order to improve patients’ recovery and prognosis.

A group of sex offenders (clinical group: n = 19) was compared to a nonclinical sample matched by age, years of education, and gender (control group A: n = 19) to verify a higher incidence of insecure attachment models among sex offenders. In addition, we tested whether sex offenders were characterized by specific childhood experiences, compared to control adults (control group B: n = 19) with the same secure/insecure attachment classification. Results showed significant differences between offenders and control adults on both the AAI continuous score and the distribution of the two-way attachment classifications. Furthermore, sex offenders reported more intense experiences of rejection by the father figure and abuse in the family context during early childhood compared to not offenders subjects with the same attachment classification.