Cristina Sechi

Università degli studi di Cagliari | UNICA · Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy

Background: Many studies have shown the influence of maternal perinatal depression on a child’s emotional and behavioral regulation ability; yet there is scarce research on the impact of the father’s perinatal depression on the caregiver–infant relationship and the child’s development. Methods: Through a longitudinal study, we investigated maternal...

The quality of the early parent–infant relationship is crucial for the child’s optimal development, and parental sensitivity plays a key role in early interactions. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence of maternal perinatal depression and anxiety symptoms on dyadic sensitivity at three months post-partum, also considering a large...

Introduction: The paper investigates the impact of the use of metaphors in reasoning tasks concerning vaccination, especially for defeasible reasoning cases. We assumed that both metaphor and defeasible reasoning can be relevant to let people understand vaccination as an important collective health phenomenon, by anticipating possible defeating con...

Stress is measured through the use of tools that allow detection in large samples, and the search effort is directed to validating tools to ensure that they are predictable. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the three most commonly used tools to measure perceived stress. The three versions of the PSS have never been evaluated for use with...

Background Sexual objectification can assume various forms, from interpersonal to cultural and environmental ones. Previous research has highlighted how working in sexually objectifying environments (SOEs) can lead female workers to experience negative feelings (i.e. anxiety, job dissatisfaction). The study’s main aim was to investigate the relatio...

This study examines the differences in anxiety, self-esteem, and aggression levels between players of violent and non-violent video game and its connection to gender and age. This survey-based research utilizes survey data from 851 video gamers. The study included 61% men and 39% women. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 45. Participant...

Introduction: In the literature, no integrated definition of sexual harassment (SH) occurs but there is clear unanimity about SH being offensive, humiliating, and intimidating behavior. Within academic settings, SH has severe negative effects on students’ physical or emotional well-being as well as on their ability to succeed academically. Methods:...

This study explores gender and age differences in forgivingness using the crosscultural and stress-and-coping perspective. Polish and Italian versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) were used. The sample consisted of 1957 individuals aged 18-80 (61% females and 39% males). A 3-way between groups ANOVA was used to examine the main effects...

This study explores gender and age differences in forgivingness using the crosscultural and stress-and-coping perspective. Polish and Italian versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) were used. The sample consisted of 1957 individuals aged 18–80 (61% females and 39% males). A 3-way between groups ANOVA was used to examine the main effects...

This study explores the relationship between the propensity to forgive and self-esteem in Italian (Christian tradition) and Turkish (Islamic tradition) samples. Italian and Turkish versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) were used. The sample consisted of 837 university students aged 18-35 (49% women...

Background An insecure attachment style is an important risk factor for psychological problems. The aim of this study was to use Bartholomew and Horowitz’s model (Bartholomew and Horowitz in J Pers Soc Psychol 61(2): 226, 2019) to test a sample of Italian individuals to determine the mediation role of loneliness and COVID-19-related anxiety symptom...

Background Research within the Italian context on the determinants of attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women is relatively poor compared with the large number of investigations carried out in other countries. Our goal is to examine Italians’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women, as well as the factors that encourage these perspectives. We...

Personality factors can make individuals more susceptible to society’s beauty ideals and can explain the differences between people who do and do not develop eating disorders and concerns about their body shape. This study has two main aims. First, we investigated the degree to which self-objectification mediated the associations between trait anxi...

Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms have shown to be linked to higher internalizing and externalizing problems in their children. The dysfunctional affective communication that characterizes depressed parenting has also been analyzed as a potential traumatic cumulative phenomenon that may, consequently, yield to dissociation. In this research...

The quality of father-infant/toddler interactions has become a focal point in studies of early child development. However, studies targeting early father-infant/toddler interactions may be hampered due to the lack of specific and validated measures; indeed, most of the applied observational instruments were originally designed to evaluate mother-ch...

Background: This paper aimed to explore the associations between maternal representations of attachment evaluated during pregnancy, pre and postnatal maternal depression, parenting stress and child's attachment at 15 months after childbirth. Methods: Mothers (n = 71), and their infants participated in a longitudinal study of maternal attachment,...

Surgery for benign gynecologic conditions may lead to infertility complications. In a cross-sectional study we investigated depressive and anxiety symptoms, Quality of Life (QoL), and coping strategies in women with benign gynecologic conditions undergoing surgical treatment (G1, N = 45) compared with women that did not need surgery (G2, N = 43), t...

Internet addiction in adolescence is a social issue which is being increasingly discussed worldwide. Hence, deepening the knowledge of its development is necessary to prevent shortand long-term negative outcomes. This study involving 266 adolescents (mean age = 16.1 years, SD = 1.4) aimed at analyzing the relationship between quality of parental ca...

Objective The present work aimed to evaluate the differences between fathers' and mothers' prenatal parental representations, the differences between pre- and postnatal perceptions of couple adjustment, and whether the quality of prenatal parental representations is associated with the perception of couple adjustment and with the perception of infa...

Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine: the pooled prevalence of symptomatic behaviours and mental health deterioration amongst individuals with eating disorders (EDs) and obesity during the COVID-19 confinement. Moreover, we examined changes in EDs and distress before and during the confinement, and the association bet...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sexual objectification on the attribution processes of the guilt of a defendant – and also on the level of guilt. It was also hypothesized that legal expertise could be a protective factor in countering the influence of sexual objectification. Design/methodology/approach Sexual...

Stress is measured through the use of tools that allow detection in large samples, and the search effort is directed to validating tools to ensure that they are predictable. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the three most commonly used tools to measure perceived stress. The three versions of the PSS have never been evaluated for use with...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

Background: Women with fibromyalgia (FM) commonly suffer from depression, pervasive fatigue, and pain. The attachment style has been hypothesized to be an important factor for understanding the experience of these symptoms. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study is aimed at investigating the effect of attachment styles in women with a diagno...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey-an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavir...

Internet is essential part of everyday life and certainly facilitate it on several levels. It is a helpful information tool, and knowledge, but its unlimited range often is risky for users. The behaviors and outcomes of internet abuse have already been well‐documented in the literature; less is known about the role of personal factors that reinforc...

Objective Trait Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been associated with psychological outcomes in many conditions; however, it has received little attention in the field of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). We explored the relationship between trait EI, mood states, and future orientation in a sample of Italian women victims of IPV. Method We recruite...

The present study aimed to investigate whether a mother’s anxiety, depression, prenatal perception of childbirth, and experience with delivery, assessed from pregnancy to three months postpartum, were associated with her perception of her infant’s negative affectivity (NA). The participant sample was composed of 76 primiparous mothers and their hea...

Objective Most studies investigating the role of parenting behaviors on a child’s development are directed to mothers. However, recent analyses show that mothers and fathers have a different influence on a child’s functioning, specifically her/his temperament. The present study explored the developmental change of parents’ perception of their daugh...

The current research aims to study the mediating role of alexithymia on the relationship between attachment to parents and peers and mental health problems in a sample of 242 non-referred adolescents. Participants completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the Symptom Check List-90-R. Mediation analysi...

Objective Our study aimed to investigate the effects of a reflective parenting home visiting program in first time-mothers at risk for depression, anxiety, and parenting stress, from three to 12 months after their child's birth. Study design The sample was composed by 77 first-time mothers and their healthy babies (53% boys and 47% girls). Mothers...

Recently, the research on pain-related disability has increasingly paid attention to the psychological and social factors that may influence the biological condition. In the current study, we aimed to explore attachment styles, self-esteem, and quality of life in individuals with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Participants were 371 diagnosed women, w...

Objective Infant temperament is biologically determined. However, there is increasing proof that environmental factors may also have a relevant influence. The present study focuses on the role of parental reflective function (RF; Fonagy et al., 1998), that is, the psychological basis of emotion regulation. Methods RF was assessed in 40 low-risk fi...

This study examines the differences in anxiety, self-esteem, and aggression levels between players of violent and non-violent video game and its connection to gender and age. This survey-based research utilizes survey data from 851 video gamers. The study included 61% men and 39% women. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 45. Participant...

The aim of the present study was to analysis the factor structure of the Italian version of the Forgiveness Scale (FS) among 663 adolescent students in Italy. The FS involves of 15 items measuring forgiveness toward the wrongdoer. This scale comprises two subscales, Absence of Negative (AN) and Presence of Positive (PP). These subscales evaluate th...

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Italian version of a French scale to detect attitudes toward same-sex parenting. The Italian sample was split into two subsamples. On one, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to detect the factor structure of the Italian scale, and on the other, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA...

Aim: To evaluate different types and degrees of malnutrition over time in a sample of children diagnosed with Infantile Anorexia (IA), based on the DC:0-3R criteria, and recently defined by DSM-5 as the first subtype of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and to investigate the relationship between children’s severity of malnutrition...

Domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) represent a widespread phenomenon. Several studies that focus on students and their attitudes toward DV and IPV indicate that changes in attitudes may depend on gender. The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of violence against women among 4,200 undergraduate Italian studen...

Sexual objectification can be defined as an imprecise cognitive process which produces inaccurate evaluations according to gender. Moreover, sexual objectification restricts evaluation to a single aspect of people: appearance (Langton in Future Philos 285–303, 2004; Langton in Sexual solipsism: philosophical essays on pornography and objectificatio...

2. AIMS The purpose of this study was to explore the impacts of sexual objectification and gender in the domain of education. We hypothesised that teachers ascribed more behaviour that precluded learning and less behaviour that promoted learning to students who were sexually objectified. We expected this effect to depend on students' gender.

The Parent-Child Play Scale was developed as a scale that complements the Parent-Child Feeding Scale, created by I. Chatoor et al. (1997), to evaluate mother–infant/toddler interactions in two different caregiving contexts of a young child's everyday life, specifically play and feeding. This Play Scale can be used with infants and toddlers ranging...

Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, neurological, and cognitive transformations, as well as shifts in relationships through the development of new roles across social domains. As an outcome of such transformations, adolescents may become vulnerable to mental-health problems during this period. Therefore, it is important to focus on predictors...

Objectives: In the scientific literature on aging, a recent core issue has been the role of individuals' internal and external resources, which are considered intrinsically connected, in contributing synergistically to physical and psychological quality of life (QoL). The current study investigates the way in which psychological factors—such as, lo...

The current study investigated the factor structure, factorial invariance, and reliability of the Italian version of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale (FLS) among 604 adolescents in Italy (217 boys and 387 girls) with a mean age of 16.6 years (SD = 1.3). The FLS is a 10-item Likert-type scale created to assess the predisposition to forgive across si...

Objective: In the 1st year of the post-partum period, parenting stress, mental health, and dyadic adjustment are important for the wellbeing of both parents and the child. However, there are few studies that analyze the relationship among these three dimensions. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between parenting stress, men...

Background The prevalence of fear of childbirth in pregnant women is described to be about 20–25%, while 6–10% of expectant mothers report a severe fear that impairs their daily activities as well as their ability to cope with labour and childbirth. Research on fear of childbirth risk factors has produced heterogeneous results while being mostly do...

Objective: The transition to parenthood, from pregnancy to postpartum period, is a critical process, particularly for couples expecting twins. There is very little literature regarding the links between anxiety, depression, dyadic adjustment, parental stress, and infant temperament spanning from pregnancy to postpartum. This study has two aims: fir...

Objective: Although there is an established link between parenting stress, postnatal depression, and anxiety, no study has yet investigated this link in first-time parental couples. The specific aims of this study were 1) to investigate whether there were any differences between first-time fathers’ and mothers’ postnatal parenting stress, anxiety,...

Objective: The main aims of this perspective study were to investigate the co-occurrence of anxiety and depression during pregnancy, and to explore the existing link between prenatal depression and anxiety and the subsequent quality of feeding interaction shown by the dyad at three months of age of the baby. Methods: The data were collected in two...

Objectives: to evaluate first-time mothers’ and fathers’ anxiety/depression from pregnancy to 3 months postpartum, and to examine whether mother’s or father’s anxiety/depression, or both are associated with difficult infant’s temperament and distress in her/his role as parent. Methods: The sample is composed of 96 first-time mothers (MAge = 35.3, S...

Introduction: DC:0-3R identifies Infantile Anorexia (IA) by the child’s food refusal, lack of interest in eating and food, and growth deficiency. DSM-5 Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) recognized IA under Apparent lack of interest in eating or food subtype. ARFID replaced Feeding Disorders of Infancy or Early Childhood in DSM-IV, e...

The Theory of Didactic Situations in Mathematics (TDSM) has been proposed as a systemic theoretical model, designed to describe teaching and learning phenomena. This theory aims to become an experimental and application-oriented paradigm grounding the research activity within this domain. This contribution deals with an investigation about the occu...

Instruments and chances available via Web 2.0 allow to the e-learning to use them to propose user centered environments in which this latter becomes the main actor in the building his/her vocational training. The user don’t found his/her training ways on pre-established paths, but founds on informal building paths of sense that arise from web inter...

Per "orientamento spaziale" si intende la capacità di determinare la propria posizione nello spazio, sia in termini assoluti che in relazione a riferimenti significativi (Arthur & Passini, 1992). Tale capacità è basata su un processo statico, che permette alla persona di determinare la sua posizione in base all a mappa cognitiva che si è formata de...

The classical theories about communication have different views on the relevance of the requirement of the intentionality of the communicative agent. The composition of these views seems to be problematic since it leads to incompatible outcomes when we try to classify communicative behaviors. Some approaches, in order to build a synthesis, shift on...

Visual recognition of faces is an essential behavior of humans: we have optimal performance in everyday life and just such a performance makes us able to establish the continuity of actors in our social life and to quickly identify and categorize people. This remarkable ability justifies the general interest in face recognition of researchers belon...

With in traditional theories of communication the silence is often devoid of any communicative value. When the latter is taken into consideration, it is viewed as depending on the intentionality of the agent producing the communicative act. Unfortunately there are diverging opinions about the role to be attributed to intentionality. Moreover, its d...