No abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants (n = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed.

SCORE-15 (Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation) is a 15-item questionnaire for completion by family members aged 12 years and older to assess outcomes in systemic therapy. This study aimed to investigate (a) the psychometric properties and the internal consistency reliability of the Italian version of SCORE-15, (b) clinical responsiveness, and (c) normative (Italian) criteria. Furthermore, (d) the study sought to evaluate the participants' representation of both their family and their problems, analyzing open-ended questions included in the SCORE-15. Data were collected from two clinical centers for 208 families (n = 507). Results confirmed the three-factor structure (i.e., strengths, difficulties, and communication), a good internal consistency reliability, and indicated a cutoff threshold for the Italian version. Furthermore, results showed that SCORE-15 is a good instrument for clinical responsiveness and that it can be used to explore the way in which family members describe their families and problems. Overall, SCORE-15 is a brief, psychometrically robust family assessment instrument that may be used for both researchers and practitioners in several domains of clinical and social psychology.

Objective: The study aims to provide a preliminary examination of the psychometric properties of the Italian version of Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse (MMEA) and aims to investigate consequences of emotional abuse for the relationship, help-seeking and disclosure behaviors, among a sample of lesbian women. Methods and participants: One hundred and sixty-five lesbian volunteers filled in a self-report questionnaire including a measure of emotional abuse (MMEA) investigating the consequences of the abuse for the relationship and their disclosure and help-seeking behaviors. Results: Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed the four-factor structure of the MMEA among the sample, and indicated MMEA as a valid tool to measure the phenomenon among Italian lesbian women. As for the consequences of the emotional abuse, most of the participants continued their relationship after the abuse and chose not to talk about the episodes to anyone. When opening up about the abuse, participants mainly reported it to close friends and psychologists and/or psychotherapists. These results have important clinical and policy implications as they provide some indications to be taken into account by mental health professionals and policymakers working with abused lesbian clients.

Well-functioning communities provide a range of material and psychological resources that enhance well-being. The degree to which individuals see themselves as part of the local social group, or local social identity, i.e., the social identification with the community of the place where people are living, may play an important role in enhancing happiness and well-being, as well as relationships of people with their own living environment, i.e., place attachment. We hypothesized that local social identity influences well-being via specific components of place attachment to the residential city/town, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources (which is the opposite of place dependence). We measured local social identity, individual well-being, interdependent happiness, and place attachment in a sample of N = 375 participants. We tested our hypotheses by conducting a series of mediation analyses with local social identity as an independent variable, individual well-being and interdependent happiness as dependent variables, and place attachment subfactors, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources, as mediators. Results showed that the relation between local social identity and both individual well-being and interdependent happiness was positively mediated by place identity and social relations, while the lack of resources emerged as a negative mediator only in the relation between local social identity and individual well-being (not for interdependent happiness). Practical implications and future developments are discussed.