Italy has been the first nation outside of Asia to face the COVID-19 outbreak. To limit viral transmission of infection, by March 10th, 2020, the Italian Government has ordered a national lockdown, which established home confinement, home ( smart ) working, and temporary closure of non-essential businesses and schools. The present study investigated how these restrictive measures impacted mothers and their pre-school children’s behavioral habits (i.e., sleep timing and quality, subjective time experience) and psychological well-being (i.e., emotion regulation, self-regulation capacity). An online survey was administered to 245 mothers with pre-school children (from 2 to 5 years). Mothers were asked to fill the survey thinking both on their habits, behaviors, and emotions and on those of their children during the quarantine, and retrospectively, before the national lockdown (i.e., in late February). A general worsening of sleep quality and distortion of time experience in both mothers and children, as well as increasing emotional symptoms and self-regulation difficulties in children, was observed. Moreover, even when the interplay between the behavioral and psychological factors was investigated, the factor that seems to mostly impact both mothers' and children's psychological well-being was their sleep quality. Overall, central institutions urgently need to implementing special programs for families, including not only psychological support to sustain families with working parents and ameliorating children's management. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00787-020-01631-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective On March 10, 2020, the Italian Government ordered a national lockdown to limit the viral transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 infections. This study investigated how these restrictive measures have impacted sleep quality, timing, and psychological difficulties in school-age children and their mothers during the lockdown. Methods In an online survey, 299 mothers reported their sleep habits, experience of time, and psychological difficulties as well as those of their children (6–10 years old) during and, retrospectively, before the lockdown. Results During the lockdown, children showed a marked delay in sleep timing—that is, later bedtime and rise time—and a mild worsening in sleep quality. They were less prone to respect daily routines or to keep track of the passage of time. They showed increased emotional, conduct, and hyperactive symptoms, and the increase in these psychological difficulties was predicted by the change in sleep quality, boredom, and mothers’ psychological difficulties. In addition, mothers showed a delayed sleep timing and worsening of sleep quality during the lockdown, in varying degrees depending on their working conditions. Mothers who kept working regularly outside their homes during lockdown reported more regular sleep patterns, whereas mothers who stopped working showed more emotional symptoms and relevant changes in their perception of time. Conclusions Overall, given the evidence of the adverse behavioral and psychological impact of home confinement and social restrictions, effective measures needed to be in place to mitigate long-term effects on children and their mothers, especially those who have had to stop working during lockdown.

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Background The COVID‐19 pandemic in Italy represents a unique threat in terms of psychological distress. This cross‐sectional study aims to investigate the psychological health of Italian healthcare professionals during the COVID‐19 outbreak. We assessed participants’ current psychological distress and coping strategies in the midst of the COVID outbreak (March–April 2020), and also asked them to retrospectively report how they remember feeling before the COVID‐19 outbreak (December 2019). We examined associations between psychological distress and coping strategies with mental health and infection perceptions. Methods Self‐administered questionnaires were distributed online to healthcare professionals ( N = 580) residing in different Italian regions from 26 March to 9 April 2020. The questionnaire measured changes in psychological states, coping strategies, and demographic variables testing variations in mental health and infection risk perception among Italian healthcare workers. Results Overall, approximately 33.5 per cent of healthcare professionals in our sample meet the threshold for psychiatric morbidity. Participants perceive their current psychological health to be worse during the COVID‐19 emergency outbreak as compared to before the outbreak, and this was especially true among women. Conclusions Both immediate and long‐term monitoring psychological assistance services for healthcare workers should be implemented by national institutions to re‐establish the psychological well‐being and enhance the self‐confidence and resilience of hospital personnel.

The current study investigated the relationship between parental attachment and depressive symptoms as well as the mediating effect of self-control in two different cultures. Samples were 1305 Chinese and 1327 Italian adolescents. They completed the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment, the Self-Restraint Subscale of the Adolescents' Self-Consciousness Scale, and the Children's Depression Inventory that assessed parental attachment, self-control, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Results showed that: (1) Few cultural differences in depressive symptom were observed. (2) Parental attachment and self-control were negatively related to depressive symptoms in both cultures. (3) Selfcontrol mediated the relations between parental attachment and depressive symptoms in both cultures. (4) The direct and indirect effects were invariant across cultures. In conclusion, parental attachment and self-control are important for adolescents' depressive symptoms in Chinese and Italian adolescents.