Mindfulness refers to the ability to be aware of and attentive to internal and external events, without becoming overwhelmed or feeling the need to react automatically. Recent studies indicate that this ability is associated with the following factors: mental health, psychological functioning, and stress reduction. Although questionnaires have been developed to measure mindfulness, so far these have not been adapted for use within the Italian population. Thus, the aim of our studies was to investigate the reliability and validity of an Italian version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al. 2006). The FFMQ is a self-report measure that is based on a five-facet model (i.e., Observe, Describe, Act with Awareness, Nonjudge, and Nonreact). In the first study, internal consistency, factor structure, and concurrent validity analyses were carried out on a sample of 559 volunteers. The second study entailed test-retest analyses on a different sample of 43 students. The results showed that the Italian FFMQ: (a) has a similar factor structure to the original English version; (b) has good to excellent internal consistency as a whole (alpha=.86) with sub-scale consistency ranging from .65 to .81, and test-retest stability for the total score being .71; (c) has good concurrent validity as demonstrated by significant correlations between the FFMQ scores and a number of self-report measures related to mindfulness. Our findings support both the adaptation of the FFMQ to the Italian context as well as the conceptualization of mindfulness in multi-faceted terms.

Abstract:Interpersonal competence is crucial to human life, and poor social functioning is a typical feature of various psychopathological conditions. Given the relevance of the construct, increasing attention has recently been paid to the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ; Buhrmester et al., 1988), a 40-item self-report measuring five domains of interpersonal competence. To provide additional data on the cross-cultural adaptability of the ICQ, we developed an Italian version and investigated its psychometric properties with two independent student samples. Respondents were mostly women (about three quarters), ranging in age from 18 to 57. Study 1 (n = 408) tested factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity. Study 2 (n = 59) investigated test-retest reliability. Taken together, the results of both these studies provided support for the cross-cultural applicability of the ICQ, and revealed interesting associations between interpersonal competence and constructs such as well-being, emotion dysregulation and empathy. Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems CorporationDear Dr. Iselin, Thank you or the opportunity to revise and resubmit our manuscript "Validity and Reliability of the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire: Empirical Evidence from an Italian Study" which had been JOBA-D-15-00032. We appreciate the input provided by you and the four reviewers and believe it has substantially enhanced the contribution our manuscript can make to the literature. Below we have copied your decision letter followed by the reviews and to each point made we provide a description of how we addressed the issue or a rationale for why we did not in the rare instance when that was applicable. Our comments to you and the reviewers are designated with "Reply:" at the start of the paragraph.Thank you and best wishes on behalf of all co-authors, (First Author)Dear Dr. XXXX:Thank you for your recent submission of the above referenced manuscript to the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. The review process on your manuscript is now complete. I was fortunate to receive the input of four reviewers who have expertise in this area of research, and I have reviewed the manuscript in detail.There are a number of strengths in your manuscript. It is well-written and contributes to our knowledge on interpersonal competence, which is of interest to our readership. We also had concerns about your manuscript which are outlined below. As you know, acceptance of a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment requires a favorable evaluation from all reviewers. Based upon the reviews, I regret that I cannot currently accept the manuscript for publication. I would, however, like to invite you to submit a revision that addresses our concerns. In that revision, please pay special attention to the following:• Address questions about whether the ICQ is measuring a general interpersonal construct rather than specific interpersonal skills.Re...

Psychological mindedness (PM) is an underinvestigated, but important construct in psychoanalytic psychotherapy research and practice. It refers to the interest in and ability for reflecting on one's thoughts and feelings, and it represents an important precondition for insight-oriented therapy to be successful. Notwithstanding, very few instruments are available to measure PM. The current investigation aimed at evaluating the validity and reliability of the Balanced Index of Psychological Mindedness (BIPM; Nyklíček & Denollet, 2009, Psychological Assessment, 21, 32 -44), a brief measure of PM. In a first study, factor structure, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of the BIPM were tested, along with the relationship between the BIPM and a continuous measure of general distress, using a sample of 298 Italian students. In a second study, test-retest stability analyses were completed using a new, different, Italian student sample (N ¼ 58). In a third study, the BIPM scores of a clinical sample with diagnosis of mood spectrum disorders (N ¼ 30) were compared to those of an age-, gender-, and education-matched nonclinical sample. Overall, results indicate that the BIPM is a psychometrically sound instrument that can be used in clinical practice to obtain rapid information about the client's mentalization skills and assess PM.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) has been used extensively to study intellectual abilities of special groups. Here, we report the results of an intellectually gifted group on the WAIS-IV. Gifted individuals are people who obtained scores equal to or greater than 2 standard deviations above the mean on an intelligence test. Hence, the current study aims first, to examine mean group performance data of gifted individuals on the WAIS-IV; second, to revalidate the pattern of performance identified in this special group in previous studies (i.e., verbal skills higher than all other abilities); third, to compare scatter measures across intellectual domains with a matched comparison group. A total of 130 gifted individuals (79 males) were administered the full battery and their performance was compared with a matched comparison group. Analyses revealed that gifted group displayed higher scores in all intellectual domains. Contrary to expectations, they showed the highest scores in perceptual reasoning tasks. A multivariate approach revealed that this ability was statistically different from all other domains within the gifted group. Moreover, gifted individuals showed higher discrepancies across intellectual domains than average-intelligence people. Findings have important practical implications to detect intellectual giftedness in adulthood.

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