Francesca Cuzzocrea

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• Psychology
• Professor (Full) at Magna Graecia University

The influence of parental psychological control on children's development is a critical area of research. This systematic review explores the outcomes of parental psychological con-trol on children during childhood, within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). The review included 14 studies that used SDT to assess parental psychological...

The increasing usage of social media has sparked interest in identifying characteristics that contribute to problematic social media use (PSMU). Using the Interaction Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, the current study analyzes whether fear of missing out (FoMO) and dissociative experiences affect the link between trait emotional in...

Binge watching, which entails consecutively viewing numerous episodes of a TV series or a selection of movies over an extended timeframe, often without pause, is notably widespread among young adults skilled in digital media usage. Nevertheless, this escalating habit can lead to problematic and addictive behavior, with potential associations includ...

Attachment styles have been shown to significantly influence individuals’ social and emotional functioning. Furthermore, vulnerable narcissism and emotion dysregulation are both relevant factors to consider in understanding individuals’ social interactions and support networks. However, the mechanisms underlying such relationships are not fully und...

The literature has linked childhood emotional abuse (CEA) to severe negative outcomes such as the development of several maladaptive personality traits and coping mechanisms. Nonetheless, its concurrent connection with neuroticism, perfectionism, and workaholism has not been explored. For the above reasons, the present study sought to investigate w...

Understanding the variables that promote pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) can be useful for sustainable development. Research has shown that several factors, including emotions, can influence PEBs. Eco-empathy and helplessness beliefs toward the environment (HBTE) can facilitate or discourage PEBs. To understand the role of these factors, it may...

Childhood emotional abuse (CEA) has been linked to a range of unfavorable outcomes, including the development of unhealthy personality traits and maladaptive coping mechanisms and behaviors. In this study, our objective was to investigate whether neuroticism and perfectionism act as mediators in the relationship between CEA and workaholism, while a...

There is clear evidence linking trauma, mindfulness, dissociation and problematic internet use (PIU). Nonetheless, little is known about the role trait mindfulness and dissociative experiences may have in the relationship between childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and PIU, as well as the role that gender may have in such relationships. In the current...

Maintaining a balance between healthy technology use and happy relationships can be challenging. This explorative study aims to examine the association between problematic internet use and relationship satisfaction in couples using a dyadic approach. In a sample of 155 heterosexual couples, a DRSA was conducted to examine the association of both pa...

Background. The phenomenon of sexting consists of sending and sharing sexual images, videos, or messages using smartphones and social networks. Sexting is spreading dangerously among adolescents who share private and explicit sexual content, ignoring the negative and risky consequences associated with this behavior. According to recent literature,...

L’objectif de la présente étude est de tester chez les mères, les pères et les adolescents l’association des styles de résolution des conflits (engagement conflictuel négatif et résolution positive des problèmes) sur les symptômes d’anxiété et la satisfaction à l’égard de la vie, ainsi que la transmission des styles de résolution des conflits à tra...

The traditional family, today, is outclassed by the spread of dual-career families (Gahlawat et al., 2019), hence the need to seek a balance in the management of work and family and to pay attention to what can affect individual well-being. Through attention to the quality of contexts, it is possible to study those constructs considered fundamental...

Past findings highlighted the presence of distress symptoms and poor quality of life in people with endometriosis. Several studies showed that trait Emotional Intelligence (trait EI) is a key component of one’s wellbeing, whilst Illness Perceptions may play an important role in psychological distress and perceived quality of life. The current study...

COVID-19 is severely affecting individuals’ lives worldwide. Previous research warned that facial occlusion may impair facial emotion recognition, whilst other findings suggested that age-related differences may be relevant in emotion recognition in others’ faces. However, studies observing individuals’ ability to interpret others’ facial mimicry a...

Background Raising a child with developmental disorder is often related to higher stress levels for both mothers and fathers. The aim of the present study was to investigate relationships between resilience, family hardiness, life satisfaction and parental stress among parents of children with and without disabilities. Method Twenty-eight pairs of...

"Introduction: Endometriosis is a gynecological condition characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus. Several studies shown the importance of pain-related symptomatology in endometriosis, which has been linked to high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, consistent findings revealed that pain s...

Objective: Novel COVID-19 disease has become a major concern worldwide, and a recent line of research warned that the context of the COVID-19 pandemic may be a major risk factor for developing severe suicidal behaviors. A broad systematic review is needed to cover the studies that have already assessed the potential underlying factors for suicidal...

Researchers have become increasingly interested in deepening their understanding of the role of social environments in alexithymia—a difficulty in identifying one’s and others’ emotions—suggesting the importance of an in-depth study of the interplay with perceived parental practices. Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT) framework, the cur...

The current study was aimed at contributing to the understanding of the role of perceived parental monitoring, psychological control, and coping strategies on adolescents’ problem behaviors, in terms of anxiety and drinking behavior. Participants were 541 high school students, 17 to 19-year old (M = 17.09, SD = 0.80) high school students in Sicily...

The aim of the Wellbeing and Emotional Activities (WEA) project was to sustain families, to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and to create web meetings using Microsoft Teams during which children with muscular dystrophies could interact, have fun and learn. The goals of this study were to compare the perception of service users, both from the point of...

Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT) framework and the dualistic model of passion, the current study sought to test a model in which psychological basic needs differently predicted harmonious and obsessive passion, which in turn lead to problematic behaviours and flow experience across two different screen-based activities (gaming and soc...

This study aims to investigate the relationship between empathy, social self-efficacy, problematic Internet use (PIU), and problematic online gaming (POG) and to evaluate how such relationship varies according to the age of the participants. A sample of 1,585 Italian students, both genders, aged 12-20 years, were divided into three groups according...

During the pregnancy period, future parents differ substantially in their psychological adjustment, with some parents being more at risk for stress and depression than others. Grounded in self‐determination theory, the present study aimed to investigate the role of motivation to have a child and the social support perceived by both partners in pred...

Although technological addictions, similar to other behavioural addictions, share psychosocial risk factors with substance-related addictions, the studies on the interplay between contextual and personal variables in the prediction of technological addictions are still limited. For this reason, in accordance with Self-determination Theory (SDT), th...

This study aims to understand the mechanisms that link trait Emotional Intelligence (trait EI) and parenting in contributing to the development of body uneasiness in adolescents. Participants were 405 adolescents (152 males, 253 females), from 14 to 19 years old, who completed the Perceptions of Parents Scales, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Ques...

Although the broad research regarding parental psychological control, instruments to assess the multidimensionality of the construct are lacking. The aim of the present study was to de-velop multidimensional measure of parental psychological control. In the first study, item se-lection of the new Inventory of Parental Psychological Control (IPPC) w...

Self-determination theory has become a consolidated theoretical framework to deepen the psychological control construct. Numerous studies have widely investigated the consequences of the use of this parenting strategy during the life cycle. Although studies focused on the antecedents of parental psychological control are not so numerous, they provi...

This study examines the relationship between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI), support, and parental psychological control practices. Three hundred adolescents, between 11 and 13 years old, took part in the study (163 were males and 137 were females). Participants completed the Perceptions of Parents Scales for the parental support, the Depe...

Objective: Celiac disease is an immuno-mediated pathogenesis disease characterised by a malabsorption of nutrients that causes partial or total atrophy of intestinal villi and the alteration of the absorbing epithelium. Several studies have demonstrated the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms and poor quality of life in people with celiac d...

In the last years, the interest in Internet Gaming Disorder has grown considerably, which has necessitated the development of valid and reliable tools in different cultural contexts. Although, in the scientific literature, there are several measures that evaluate the Internet Gaming Disorder, the Game Addiction Scale has shown to be a valid questio...

In accordance with the Self‐determination Theory (SDT), six dimensions of parenting (autonomy support vs. psychological control, structure vs. chaos, warmth vs. rejection) could be defined in their relation to adolescents’ adjustment. However, the mechanisms of these relations need to be further deepened. In accordance with SDT, the aims of this st...

The Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) is a self-report instrument assessing the satisfaction and frustration of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness defined by self-determination theory. The aim of this study was to examine the dimensionality, the predictive validity, and th...

Introduction: Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) is a relevant construct that could promote positive development in adolescents and may predict a number of affect-related outcomes. However, studies focused on its antecedents are still scarce. The main aim of this study is to examine the intergenerational transmission of trait EI from parents...

Researchers have become increasingly interested in investigating the role of the psychological aspects related to the perception of cervical screening barriers. This study investigates the influence of trait EI on perceived cervical screening barriers. Furthermore, this study investigates the incremental validity of trait EI beyond the Big Five, as...

Research suggests that psychologically controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting can be described within the Self-Determination Theory’s (SDT) framework. Two studies were conducted to examine (a) the role of parental need frustration as a predictor of parental psychological control, (b) the role of parental need satisfaction as a predictor of p...

Eating disorders (EDs) are a set of pathologies, which have been increasing in prevalence in the recent years, suggesting the importance of studying symptoms and attitudes associated with EDs in depth. Several studies have showed that both psychological basic needs and trait emotion intelligence (trait EI) are relevant aspects of EDs, however these...

Conclusions: This study adds new encouraging data, further supporting the potential use of melatonin premedication in reducing anxiety and improving compliance to induction of anaesthesia in children undergoing surgery. Nevertheless, further larger controlled clinical trials are needed to confirm the real effectiveness of melatonin as a premedican...

Relatively few studies have examined the mediating role of basic psychological needs in the relationship between parenting and psychological outcomes using a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework. This study aimed to examine the role of need satisfaction and need frustration as mediators of the association between parental psychological control...

Background and aims The current study examined the mediating role of maladaptive perfectionism among parental psychological control, eating disorder symptoms, and exercise dependence symptoms by gender in habitual exercisers. Methods Participants were 348 Italian exercisers (n = 178 men and n = 170 women; M age = 20.57, SD = 1.13) who completed se...

Much research has been conducted to study the association between personality and eating disorders using clinical samples. However, less research has been done on personality variables in non-clinical cases of adolescents prone to binge eating. The purpose of this study is to compare a group of 53 adolescents without binge eating with a group of 28...

The aim of this research was to compare parental stress, coping strategies and social support perceived in families of children with low functioning autism (n = 8), high functioning autism (n = 10), Down syndrome (n = 12) and parents of typically developing children (n = 20). Specifically, the objective was to investigate which variables (coping st...

-Research on the relationship between parental alexithymia and parenting is relatively scarce. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between parental alexithymia and three styles of parenting (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) and the relationships between parental alexithymia and two domains of psychological co...

This study examined how self and parental ratings of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI), relate to self and parental ratings of internalizing and externalizing problems. A total of 263 adolescents between 13 and 17 years and their parents participated in the study, completing two forms of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue-...

This study aimed to verify whether psychologists and game activities could reduce preoperative anxiety and promote compliance in paediatric patients. More specifically, we sought to evaluate whether it would be better to propose contextualized games or just distracting activities. A total of 104 children undergoing surgery were assigned to the foll...

Objective: This research aimed to verify the differences between patients with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) treated with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) alone and those treated with CBT in combination with medication.

The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological control and trait Emotional Intelligence (trait EI), while also testing the mediating role of trait EI in the relationship between psychological control and behaviour problems. A total of 260 adolescents, between 13 and 17 years old, participated in the study. Particip...

Media use plays an important role in the social, emotional, and cognitive development of young individuals and accounts for a large portion of their time. For this reason it is important to under-stand the variables that contribute to improve the use of the Internet as a source of information and knowledge in formal and informal contexts. How is it...

Abundant research has shown that parental psychological control is related to internalizing problems across different life periods, including middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Relatively few studies, however, have addressed the mediating mechanisms that account for this relation. On the basis of selfdetermination theory, the aim o...

In this study we aimed to determine whether or not the siblings of children with disabilities have more emotional (stress levels) and relational (parental education levels, family functioning levels, relational and behavioral problems of children while at school), problems than do their peers. We selected 32 couples (16 with and 16 without children...

The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of parental psychological control on exercise dependence symptoms in young competitive athletes by gender. Participants were 262 athletes (M age = 20.93, SD = 1.90, 51 % male athletes) who completed self-report questionnaires assessing socio-demographic characteristics, parental psychological cont...

Many researchers have analyzed the relationship among self-esteem, decision-making, and interpersonal behavior in Italian adolescents. However, the purpose of those studies was to determine if adolescents with high or low academic performance present different levels of self-esteem, decision-making, and interpersonal behavior. One hundred students,...

In recent years focused studies have highlighted increasingly the importance to use new technologies during the planning of educational and didactic paths apt to develop skills and functions in disables patients. It deals with assistive technologies which represent real opportunities of e-participation to social life. They also work as scaffolding...

Objective: This research aimed to verify the differences between patients with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) treated with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) alone and those treated with CBT in combination with medication. Method: A selection of 30 subjects affected by BED was carried out on the basis of experimental outcomes that evidenced the effic...

Although exercise can have many advantages, there are still many people that tend to be less active. For this reason, an attempt was made to understand the factors related to physical activity and those related to encouraging exercise, which is an essential area of health promotion and a priority in preventing serious diseases. The aim of the study...

Objectives: The purpose of our study was to explore the prevalence, and the role of mood, exercise frequency, age, and gender differences of exercise dependence. Methods: Regular exercisers (N = 409) completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Exercise Dependence Scale, and the Profile of Mood States. For data analyses, the participants were s...

Aim. Physical activity can be motivated by a variety of reasons and the self-determination theory offers a suitable framework for studying exercise behaviour. The Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-2) is a useful tool for assessing sport motivation in regular exercisers from the point of view of the Self-determination Theory. A...

Learning a foreign language takes time and effort. In the last few years, too much emphasis has been placed on oral communication skills and English teachers make their students speak English without paying enough attention to grammatical accuracy. As a result, while students’ ability in terms of fluency has improved, they often cannot communicate...

In accord with the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation and the Global Focus Model, this study investigated family functioning, parental stress, and parenting style. Four aspects (energy, focus of attention, experiential modality, and regulation) of parent–child interactions were analyzed. The aim of the research was to exp...

Several researches have focused on association between personalities and eating disorders, however, only few studies have analyzed the gender role. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to describe the correlation for no clinical adolescent males and females in the association between eating behavior and personality. 324 male and 267 female...

The main objective of this paper is to examine the results of an observational study on the use of Facebook by adolescents in an informal context. The authors describe the preliminary results of the research and analyze the significant variables that contribute to improve the current, important debate about the social network as a source of informa...

The main objective of this paper is to carry out a parent training with parents from different cultural background with a dual purpose: a) providing basic educational skills that disregard the cultural differ- ences and b) verify the effectiveness of training and maintenance of skills learned. This research was de- signed both to verify whether a p...

The 21st century has seen an expansion in digital technology and the ways in which it affects everyday life. These technologies have become essential in the growth of social communication and mass media. Fostering 21st Century Digital Literacy and Technical Competency offers the latest in research on the technological advances on computer proficien...

To evaluate the effectiveness of a psychological preoperative program in reducing preoperative anxiety and in promoting compliance of pediatric participants with surgical procedures. Fifty children and their mothers were subjected to two conditions of treatment to investigate whether psychological preparation activities and psychologist's support d...

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in personality traits, exercise motivation and mood states, in weekend exercisers and non-weekend exercisers. A sample of 536 individuals was included in the study. The results have shown that weekend exercisers have higher scores in certain personality aspects, selfdetermined regulation and...

Bodybuilder rischiano lo sviluppo di disturbi del comportamento alimentare come gli atleti praticanti altri sport che enfatizzano peso e forme corporee e sono esposti alla dipendenza da esercizio fisico. Questo studio indaga le differenze tra atleti praticanti bodybuilding e attività di fitness rispetto a percezione corporea, motivazione all’eserci...

Several researches have focused on association between personalities and eating disorders, however, only few studies have analyzed the gender role. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to describe the correlation for no clinical adolescent males and females in the association between eating behaviour and personality. 324 male and 267 femal...

Background and aims: The purpose of this study was to verify the factorial structure, internal validity, reliability, and criterion validity of the 21-item Exercise Dependence Scale-Revised (EDS-R) in an Italian sample. Methods: Italian voluntary (N = 519) users of gyms who had a history of regular exercise for over a year completed the EDS-R and m...

Few studies have focused on the relationship between personality trait and eating behaviors in a normal sample of adolescents. The purpose of this research was to examine differences between male and female non-clinical adolescents in eating behaviors, personality traits and state and trait anxiety and to verify the relationship between personality...

The aim of this paper is to focus on adaptation processes that families of disabled children must realize for a correct beginning of the entire system. In particular, difficulties that parents must face in order to manage maladaptive and non compliant behaviours were analysed. A Behavioural Parent Training was proposed to parents of non compliance...

The aim of this research was to explore parent-child interaction processes. In particular, parent training was experimented in order: a) to modify parents’ misguided beliefs about mental retardation and children’s behavioural problems; b) to reduce parental stress and increase parenting skills. 28 couples of parents with mentally retarded children...

The aim of this special issue is to foster state-of-the-art research in this topic and to collect proposals for support for parents and teachers to people with difficulties that have been experimentally verified from first principles of research methodology and scientific basis of experimental pedagogy.

The aim of this research was to analyze the relevance of parents', teachers' and peers' opinions on vocational guidance and career planning in Italian students. A total of 634 participants were asked to fill in self-report questionnaires in order to investigate: (1) the correspondence between students' choice and parents' job and Self-Directed Sear...

Studies have highlighted the importance of using new technologies during the planning of educational and didactic paths to develop skills and functions in disabled patients (Bruschi, 2001). Assistive technologies represent real opportunities of e-participation to social life (Calvani, 2011; Chiappetta Caiola, 2009), which also works as scaffolding...

This study investigated the concept of family resilience in relation to parenting styles comparing four factors that enable parents to cope with a special-needs child: family functioning, couple satisfaction, parental stress and parenting style. Four aspects (Focus of Attention, Experiential Modality, Regulation and Energy) of parent-child interact...

The aim of this research is to explore whether there are any differences in couple satisfaction and couple attributions between families with disabled and non-disabled children and to understand if a relationship exists among the above-mentioned variables in parents of children with and without disability. Parents of children with Autism Spectrum D...

Il volume rappresenta la descrizione di un'esperienza di studio, ricerca e sperimentazione nell'ambito dell'orientamento universitario, realizzata all'interno di un ampio progetto strategico dell'Università di Messina, finanziato dal Fondo Sociale Europeo. Nel volume vengono riportate le procedure di validazione del "Test Icaro" in versione cartace...

This case study presents a tic disorder associated with an obsessive-compulsive disorder (DOC). The patient is a young man who is 26 years old. The following aspects are described: the case conceptualisation, formulated on the basis of the Sensory Premonitory Urge (PU) and the cognitive and behavioural therapy. Two types of treatment were adopted,...

La maggior parte degli studi relativi all’apprendimento della scrittura si focalizza essenzialmente sui processi cognitivi legati alla trasposizione fonema-grafema, soprattutto durante i primi anni di scolarizzazione. Poca attenzione è rivolta, invece, a tutti i processi metacognitivi sottostanti quello di scrittura. Obiettivo della ricerca è sensi...

The aim of this research is to explore whether there are any differences in couple satisfaction and couple attributions between families with disabled and non-disabled children and to understand if a relationship exists among the above-mentioned variables in parents of children with and without disability. Parents of children with Autism Spectrum D...

The object of the research is to verify, in families with a disabled child, the main factors which influence the family's functioning and how much they affect the psycho-social development of the «healthy» children. 32 couples each with 2 children aged between 8 and 10 were selected. In half of these one child was disabled. Besides the parents, sib...

Learning a foreign language takes time and effort. In the last few years, too much emphasis has been placed on oral communication skills and English teachers make their students speak English without paying enough attention to grammatical accuracy. As a result, while students’ ability in terms of fluency has improved, they often cannot communicate...

The general objective of this research was to analyse the relationship between Internet addiction, alexithymia coping strategies and assertive behaviour. 296 university students aged between 18-24 were divided into two groups based on the results obtained from the Internet Addiction Test. The first objective of this research was to compare the leve...

The main aim of this paper is to summarize the most significant factors that can influence the impact of a natural disaster on children and adolescents. First, the principal psychological approaches are synthesized. Literature offers four models to explain the impact of a natural disaster on individual functioning: (1) homeostatic model; (2) transa...

Introduzione. Alcune ricerche hanno riscontrato che i bambini autistici, pur essendo capaci di comprendere il significato delle azioni richiestive, di attribuire a se stessi e agli altri stati volizionali e, quindi, di cogliere il collegamento esistente tra desideri ed emozioni (Baron-Cohen, 1991b; Phillips 1993; Tan e Harris 1991), sembrano incapa...