Eleonora Gullone

• PhD
• Retired at Academic

This study investigates whether the augmentation of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) with fluoxetine improves outcomes in anxious school refusing adolescents (11–16.5 years). Sixty-two participants were randomly allocated to CBT alone, CBT + fluoxetine or CBT + placebo. All treatments were well tolerated; with one suicide-attempt in the CBT + place...

This article focuses on the animal cruelty, health, psychological and social consequences, as well as environmental consequences of an animal-based diet. Animals are intensively bred and raised in factory farms in the most inhumane ways. By far, the greatest numbers of animals reared and killed by humans every year is for human consumption. The num...

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of anger in the relationships between various internalising symptoms and direct and indirect aggression. A sample of 241 adolescents aged 12–17 years completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and the Buss–Warren Ag...

This study investigates whether the augmentation of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) with fluoxetine improves outcomes in anxious school refusing adolescents (11-16.5 years). Sixty-two participants were randomly allocated to CBT alone, CBT ? fluoxetine or CBT ? placebo. All treatments were well tolerated; with one suicide-attempt in the CBT ? place...

Whereas the majority of previous research conducted on animal abuse has been in environments where animal abuse is rarely evidenced, the current study investigated the ramifications of animal abuse in an environment wherein the national culture creates an ethos of the “social acceptability” of animal abuse in society. Two survey studies were conduc...

This study examined various psychometric properties of the items comprising the shame and guilt scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent (TOSCA-A) in a group children between 8 and 11 years of age. A total of 699 children (367 females and 332 males) completed these scales, and also measures of depression and empathy. Confirmatory fact...

This study examined various psychometric properties of the items comprising the shame and guilt scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect–Adolescent. A total of 563 adolescents (321 females and 242 males) completed these scales, and also measures of depression and empathy. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for an oblique two-factor mo...

Research shows that animal cruelty shares many of the aetiologial pathways and risk factors that have been shown for other aggressive behaviors. The shared aetiology not only aids understanding of the co-occurrence that has been documented between animal cruelty and other aggressive and antisocial crimes, it also highlights the dangers over and abo...

The incidence of major depression increases markedly during adolescence and early adulthood. There is therefore an increased need for effective emotion regulation (ER) capacities during this period. The present study explored the relative benefits of dispositional mindfulness compared to other commonly researched ER strategies, cognitive reappraisa...

The two dominant theories relating to animal cruelty are critically reviewed. These are (1) the violence graduation hypothesis and (2) the deviance generalization hypothesis. The outcomes indicate very high consistency with the broader antisocial behavior and aggression literature, which is large and very robust. This strongly supports the validity...

We examined the direct relationships between parent and child emotion regulation (ER) strategy use during the transitionary and understudied developmental periods of middle childhood through to adolescence. Three hundred and seventy-nine participants aged between 9 and 19 years, completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adoles...

a b s t r a c t Emotion Regulation (ER) is a fundamental aspect of healthy psychological functioning. A sample of 682 children and adolescents aged between 10 and 18 years, participated in this study, which examined the roles of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality and parental attachment in the use of the ER strat-egies of Reappraisal and Su...

We examined the direct relationships between parent and child emotion regulation (ER) strategy use during the transitionary and understudied developmental periods of middle childhood through to adolescence. Three hundred and seventy-nine participants aged between 9 and 19 years, completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adoles...

This Chapter concludes the book. It begins by examining two areas related to animal cruelty that have received little or no research attention. These are (i) the normative developmental patterns of animal cruelty, and (ii) cross-cultural comparisons of animal cruelty as defined herein. Following this section, focus turns to application of the vast...

As noted by Vaughn et al. (2009), research specifically examining the aetiology of animal cruelty is sparse. On the one hand, the development of animal cruelty has been researched by examining the developmental histories and experiences of children or adolescents who are cruel to animals (Currie, 2006; Duncan & Miller, 2002; Duncan, Thomas, & Mille...

Even though biological and individual difference variables such as temperament and personality play important roles in the development of aggressive and antisocial behaviours, there is evidence to suggest that environmental factors play just as important, if not a more important role. This claim is supported by the fact that recent marked increases...

It is generally accepted and understood that antisocial behaviours which include aggression and violence are disruptive, not only to the individual but also to communities and society as a whole (Dishion, French, & Patterson, 1995). Of note, antisocial behaviours are highly stable over time such that childhood antisocial behaviour is predictive of...

The belief that our treatment of animals is intimately associated with the way we treat human beings has a long history in philosophy as is documented in the works of classical writers including Pythagoras and Porphyry, medieval scholars including Thomas Aquinas, and early philosophers such as Montaigne (1533–1592) and John Locke (1632–1704) (Unti,...

Processes that are integral to normative and pathological development include emotion and cognition. Not surprisingly, therefore, much attention has been given to these processes in research examining the development of antisocial behaviour. This chapter will review this research beginning with emotion processes, giving particular attention to the...

At the time of writing, there exist predominantly separate theoretical and empirical literatures on antisocial behaviour (incorporating aggression and violence) on one hand, and animal cruelty on the other hand. The primary aim of this book is to extend an empirically supported argument that animal cruelty behaviours fit logically and comfortably i...

This chapter will review risk factors for the development of antisocial behaviour that can be classified as having a biological or heritable basis. This includes having a family history of Antisocial Personality Disorder, or whether one is born a female or male. It is relevant to note here the differences between sex and gender (see the insert belo...

Given the longer history and larger literature focussing specifically on aggressive behaviours as compared to individuals who behave aggressively, it is not surprising that major theories in this area relate specifically to aggressive behaviour. However, the change in focus from understanding aggressive behaviours to better understanding the develo...

Prior to proceeding to a review of research examining the development of antisocial behaviour from infancy through to adulthood, this chapter provides an overview of the key issues and considerations relating to the development of aggression, violence and antisocial behaviour. The final sections of this chapter focus on the documented prevalence an...

Simple Summary There is increasing acceptance of the links between animal abuse and aggressive or antisocial behaviours toward humans. Nevertheless, researchers and other professionals continue to call for methodologically sound empirical research amongst claims that current animal abuse research is methodologically limited. Below, I argue that cur...

Despite the recognized importance of emotion regulation (ER) for healthy psychological development, ER research has focused predominantly on the developmental periods of infancy, early childhood, and adulthood, while the middle childhood to adolescence years have been relatively neglected. An obstacle to ER research during these periods is the pauc...

Difficulties with emotion and its regulation are of central importance to the etiology and course of depression. The current study investigated these constructs in relation to childhood and adolescence by comparing the emotional functioning of 170 9- to 15-year-olds reporting high levels of depressive symptoms (HD) to a matched sample of 170 childr...

A considerable body of data is now available to suggest that subjective well-being (SWB) is not free to vary over the theoretical range offered by measurement scales. Rather, most people experience a moderately positive level of well-being, such that the population average is normally held at about 75 percent of maximum. This has led to the proposa...

Using a self-report questionnaire, we examined the perceptions of 616 primary and secondary school students of permissiveness and disciplinary strategies. Acceptability ratings formed the dependent variable. The most acceptable strategy was individual student-teacher discussion, followed by exclusionary time out, then physical punishment, and least...

This paper reviews current literature relating to parent and child emotional functioning, specifically their emotion regulatory skills and emotional expression. Included are considerations regarding theoretical, methodological, and sampling strengths and weaknesses of existing literature. On the basis of the review, several directions for future re...

This exploratory study on the transition to motherhood focused on screening a community sample of Australian women to identify those mothers at risk of having postnatal depression. Seventy-one first-time mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale approximately 6 weeks after childbirth. The results indicated that 35.2% of the first-t...

Difficulties with emotion and its regulation are of central importance to the etiology and course of depression. The current study investigated these constructs in relation to childhood and adolescence by comparing the emotional functioning of 170 9-to 15-year-olds reporting high levels of depressive symptoms (HD) to a matched sample of 170 childre...

The study investigated the moderating role of emotion regulation (ER) in relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology. A community sample of 533 boys and girls (11–20 years) completed measures assessing body image thoughts and feelings, domain-specific and general ER strategies, drive for thinness, and bulimic, depress...

a b s t r a c t This study aimed to examine parent emotion socialisation practices and their association with personal-ity and emotion regulation (ER). Mothers (n = 353) and fathers (n = 206) of children and adolescents (n = 372; 10–18 years) completed measures of the five factor model of personality, ER, responses to child negative emotions, and e...

There is increased recognition of the importance of children learning how to regulate emotions in a functional and adaptive manner for healthy psychological development. However, there is a paucity of tools for assessing emotion regulation during the middle childhood and adolescent years. This study reports on the psychometric evaluation of the 16-...

Discrepancies among informants on measures of internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents are common in the literature. One reason proposed for such discrepancies is that psychopathology may distort or bias third-party reports. In the present study, measures of adolescent internalizing symptom levels were completed by adolescents aged 13 to...

Previous investigations of the association between parent and adolescent internalizing problems have been largely restricted to the unidirectional effect of parent symptoms on their children. This study therefore aimed to investigate potential reciprocal relationships between parent and adolescent internalizing symptoms. One-hundred and seventy-sev...

In recent years, emotion regulation has re-emerged in the literature as a fundamental component of psychological functioning. The present study investigated the independent and interactive roles of temperamental dispositions and perceptions of parenting behaviors in the use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies in late childhood. A sample of 293 ch...

Emotion regulation involves intrinsic and extrinsic processes responsible for managing one's emotions toward goal accomplishment. Research on emotion regulation has predominantly focused on early developmental periods and the majority of emotion regulation research examining the pre-adult years has lacked a comprehensive theoretical framework. The...

The current study aimed to investigate emotion regulation (ER) strategy use in a sample of 21 clinic-referred children and adolescents (10-14 years old) pre-senting with school refusal, all of whom were diagnosed with at least one anxiety disorder. Being the first known study to examine ER and school refusal, hypotheses were guided by previous rese...

The literature on the fears and phobias of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities is reviewed. Initially, a differentiation between fears and phobias is made, it being emphasized that excessive fears can create serious obstacles to the integration of children with intellectual disabilities. Many of these excessive fears or phobias...

This review aims to integrate the constructs of mindfulness and emotion regulation. Research into both of these areas is relatively new, and while several reviews have emerged for each area independently, none has directly proposed a conceptual integration. The current review explores how key axioms and assumptions of traditional psychological mode...

Given that depression is a debilitating disorder, it is critical that we advance our understanding about the aetiology of this disorder. This study investigated both traditional (temperament and parenting) and novel (emotion regulation strategy) risk factors associated with adolescent depression. Forty-four adolescents (12-16 years; 64% females) wi...

This review aims to integrate the constructs of mindfulness and emotion regulation. Research into both of these areas is relatively new, and while several reviews have emerged for each area independently, none has directly proposed a conceptual integration. The current review explores how key axioms and assumptions of traditional psychological mode...

Children's abuse of animals may be predictive of aggression towards humans. This study assessed concurrent engagement in animal abuse and bullying behaviour in 241 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years. A total of 20.6% of youths reported abusing animals at least “sometimes” and 17.8% reported bullying others on at least one occasion in the past year. Mu...

The normal development of empathy has been proposed to be imperative to the healthy emotional and social functioning of youths. In contrast, compromised levels of empathy have been linked to an increased propensity to engage in antisocial behaviors, including animal cruelty. Previous findings have revealed parent attachment to be intrinsically link...

Several North American studies have found a connection between domestic violence and animal abuse. This article reports on the first Australian research to examine this connection. A group of 102 women recruited through 24 domestic violence services in the state of Victoria and a nondomestic violence comparison group (102 women) recruited from the...

Few longitudinal studies have examined the principal determinants of long-term persistent offending, and even fewer studies have examined this issue using qualitative data. This study explores characteristics of the psychosocial construct of primary group deficiency that refers to situations where social support is compromised; that is, when the qu...

Internalizing symptoms and disorders are relatively common during adolescence and impact considerably on social and emotional functioning. Using a family systems framework, this paper reviews the current literature examining the impact of internalizing symptoms and disorders on the functioning of the family system, the spouse subsystem and the pare...

The current study aimed to investigate emotion regulation (ER) strategy use in a sample of 21 clinic-referred children and adolescents (10-14 years old) presenting with school refusal, all of whom were diagnosed with at least one anxiety disorder. Being the first known study to examine ER and school refusal, hypotheses were guided by previous resea...

Several North American studies have found a connection between domestic violence and animal abuse. This article reports on the first Australian research to examine this connection. A group of 102 women recruited through 24 domestic violence services in the state of Victoria and a nondomestic violence comparison group (102 women) recruited from the...

The present school-based study investigated the nighttime fears of 511 children and adolescents, aged 8-16 years. Participants were assessed using a structured interview about the frequency, content, severity, harm expectations, coping strategies, and disclosure of nighttime fears. Results indicated that nighttime fears are a common experience, wit...

Using cross-sectional (N =910) and longitudinal (N =261) data from Gullone and King's (1993, 1997) studies of normal fear in children and adolescents aged 7 to 18 years, the normative developmental pattern of social evaluation fear and the continuity of individual differences were investigated. Participants' responses were analysed according to two...

Being teased about one’s physical appearance in childhood has been found to have a strong impact on the way in which adolescent and adult women perceive their bodies. Teasing is also strongly related to self-esteem in children. However, little is known about the impact of teasing on the development of body image in childhood. Through a quantitative...

This prospective study explored the psychosocial construct of primary group deficiency, which entails deficits in social attachment, social integration and psychological adjustment. Few studies in the realm of criminology have examined the consequences of this deficiency longitudinally. To explore the relationship over time between primary group de...

Children's nighttime fears are common and cause significant interference to the child's functioning as well as causing much distress for the child and family. Therefore, effective and cost-efficient interventions are urgently needed by mental health professionals and counsellors. The authors review 29 studies, which investigated the efficacy of psy...

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a heterogeneous and distressing problem for many children and youth. This review focuses on the etiology and maintenance of SAD, and examines research findings in several key areas of investigation: genetic or hereditary factors (twin and family studies), temperament characteristics (behavioural inhibition), and par...

Satisfying social relationships are vital for good mental and physical health. Accordingly, we recommend that the alleviation and prevention of social relationship deficits be a key focus of clinicians. In this review, we focus on loneliness as a crucial marker of social relationship deficits and contend that loneliness should command clinicians' a...

Research (Baldry, 2003; Flynn, 1999, 2000a; Henry, 2004) has linked witnessing abuse to nonhuman animals with the committal of such acts. This study reports frequency data based on adolescents' self-reported witnessing of animal abuse and involvement in animal-directed behaviors. The study investigates associations between witnessing abuse and enga...

We investigated the relationships among attachment representation, social withdrawal, and depressive symptomatology in childhood. A total of 326 children aged 8 to 10 years participated in the study. Children completed a family drawing procedure to assess attachment representation, the Children's Depression Inventory and the Social Withdrawal subsc...

Objective: This paper, composed by an interest group of clinicians and researchers based in Melbourne, presents some background to the practice of mindfulness-based therapies as relevant to the general professional reader. We address the empirical evidence for these therapies, the principles through which they might operate, some practical question...

We investigated the relationships among attachment representation, social withdrawal , and depressive symptomatology in childhood. A total of 326 children aged 8 to 10 years participated in the study. Children completed a family drawing procedure to assess attachment representation, the Children's Depression Inventory and the Social Withdrawal subs...

The specific phobias in children, such as night-time fears and animal phobias, should not be underestimated since they cause personal distress to the child and also much interference with daily activities. Intervention plans should be informed by multimethod assessment, using tools that are empirically sound and developmentally sensitive. This arti...

A survey of Australian veterinarians was undertaken to assess their amount of knowledge about, and their attitudes towards animal abuse, human violence and the link between the two. Results from the 185 respondents to a questionnaire that was either mailed out or hand delivered revealed a wide variety of definitions and attitudes towards abuse, wit...

Despite the importance of attachment theory in developmental research, there is an absence of valid and reliable tools with which to assess attachment beyond infancy and prior to late adolescence. To address this issue the present investigation reports on the revision and psychometric evaluation of the Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA...

Despite the importance of attachment theory in developmental research, there is an absence of valid and reliable tools with which to assess attachment beyond infancy and prior to late adolescence. To address this issue the present investigation reports on the revision and psychometric evaluation of the Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA...

This study addresses limitations of previous research by examining the prevalence of body image dissatisfaction within two developmental periods: childhood and adolescence. A sample of 448 boys and 508 girls completed self-report measures of global body image dissatisfaction. Weight and height of all participants were also determined. Our results i...

The Family Environment Scale has been used extensively in family research since first being published. However, despite its appeal both conceptually and empirically, doubts have been raised over the scale's reliability. This article presents normative and reliability data for the Family Environment Scale from a large, combined sample of adolescents...

The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Adolescent Risk-Taking Questionnaires (ARQ) (Gullone, Moore, Moss, & Boyd, 2000) with Cameroon adolescents, and to evaluate the measure as a screening device for those at risk of HIV/AIDS. Participants were 234 adolescents (79 boys, 155 girls) attending schools in Cameroon (mea...

While the importance of normative levels of empathy and prosocial behaviour is becoming increasingly recognised, it has been suggested that modern western industrialised society is not conducive to the promotion of empathy development in children. Related to this, it has been proposed that one method for contributing to the building of empathy is t...

Conduct disorder (CD) is among the most intractable mental health problems and has been found to be increasingly prevalent throughout childhood, and into adolescence. Although many of the behaviors that comprise CD have been researched, there has been limited focus on preventative interventions for childhood conduct problems. This article reviews r...