Laura Rosa Midolo’s research while affiliated with Università degli Studi di Enna Kore and other places

Background: Research has found that parental failures of care during childhood and insecure attachment styles are positively associated with problematic gaming. From a developmental framework, it is possible to hypothesize that attachment styles mediate the relationship between parental bonding and problematic gaming. Methods: This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 598 videogame players (410 males, 68.56%) aged between 18 and 61 years old (M = 26.68, SD = 7.23). Participants were recruited through an online survey. Self-report instruments were administered to assess problematic gaming, parental bonding, and adult attachment styles. Results: Positive paternal care was a direct and negative predictor of problematic gaming, whereas maternal overprotection indirectly predicted problematic gaming through preoccupied attachment. Conclusions: These findings suggest that positive paternal care represents a protective factor for problematic gaming; in contrast, maternal overprotection might foster a negative view of the self in the child, which increases the risk to excessively use videogames, perhaps as a maladaptive coping strategy to regulate negative feelings. Prevention programs might be aimed to improve the responsiveness of parents towards the child’s emotional needs, to prevent the development of problematic gaming. Also, clinical intervention with problematic gamers might foster their feelings of security toward relationships, to promote both a healthier use of videogames and a better quality of life.

Insecure attachment is linked to mentalizing difficulties and psychopathology. The current study aimed to examine if failures in mentalization, as observed in the form of uncertainty about mental states, mediated the relationship between attachment styles and global psychopathology in a group of 812 adults (66.5% females) from the community. Participants completed measures on attachment styles, uncertainty about mental states, and clinical symptoms. The authors found that uncertainty about mental states was a partial mediator of the associations between attachment styles and psychopathology. Furthermore, the findings supported the role of secure attachment in protecting from mentalization failures and psychopathology; on the contrary, increased scores on attachment styles involving a negative view of the self (preoccupied and fearful attachment styles) predicted high levels of uncertainty about mental states and psychopathology. Accordingly, clinicians may wish to promote mentalizing abilities in individuals who display a negative view of the self embedded in their attachment styles.

Maladaptive daydreaming describes excessive fantasy activity that interferes with an individual's life. Surprisingly, the precursors of maladaptive daydreaming and its role in excessive involvement in virtual worlds have been scarcely investigated. In the current study, we examined the relationships among attachment styles, maladaptive daydreaming, and problematic social media use (PSMU) in a sample of community-dwelling adults. Eight hundred seventy-seven participants between 18 and 68 years old were recruited via an online survey and asked to fill out self-reported measures on attachment styles, maladaptive daydreaming, and PSMU. Mediation analyses showed that maladaptive daydreaming is a significant mediator in the relationships between preoccupied and fearful attachment styles and PMSU, suggesting that maladaptive daydreaming partly explains the established link between insecure attachment styles and excessive use of social media. Individuals with PSMU fostered by maladaptive daydreaming may benefit from clinical interventions that promote the use of adaptive regulatory strategies to develop feelings of security and self-confidence that may serve to reduce the excessive involvement in social media.

Consistent evidence supports the view that childhood trauma is linked with insecure attachment styles and psychopathology. However, it is a matter of debate how different forms of child maltreatment may relate with dimensions of anxiety and avoidance in attachment relationships and may foster specific configurations of clinical symptoms. Accordingly, examining the associations between childhood trauma, insecure attachment and psychopathology from a correlation network perspective may serve to fill a relevant gap in the literature. Three-hundred fifty-two adults aged between 18 and 73 years old (M= 32.70; SD = 11.72) completed measures on child maltreatment, attachment styles and psychopathology. A regularized partial correlation network was estimated to examine the relationships between the three constructs. The network showed 101 out of 190 nonzero correlations linking childhood traumatic experiences, anxious and avoidant attachment dimensions, and clinical symptoms. The analysis of the network showed that being exposed to emotional abuse and emotional neglect increased the risk of being exposed to other types of childhood trauma, such as physical abuse. Anxious attachment was more strongly linked to child maltreatment and psychopathology than avoidant attachment. Suicidal ideation and maladaptive personality functioning were the clinical symptoms most strongly connected with the other variables in the network. These findings might be relevant for the assessment and treatment of individuals who display clinical problems related to insecure attachment and early relational trauma.

Introduction: Since it was proposed by DSM-5, several research were conducted on Internet Gaming Disorder. Findings suggest that specific configurations of personality traits, dissociation experiences, insecure attachment style and alexithymia are linked to IGD. The purpose of this research is to include, in exploration of these configurations, the "overt" narcissistic trait as a possible predictor of the IGD. Method: The sample was recruited in online forums of gamers and consisted of 246 player; it is mostly composed of men (n=148, 60.2%) with age ranged from 18 to 97 years (M=29.61; SD= 11.51). Gamers completed a socioanagraphic form and questionnaires on Internet Gaming Disorder, alexithymia, attachment style, dissociative experiences and narcissistic traits. A linear regression analysis was conducted to identify predictive factors of internet gaming disorder scores. Results: In our sample, findings showed that avoidant attachment style, difficulties identifying feelings, externally oriented thinking and the narcissistic traits of superiority, entitlement and authority predict internet gaming disorder scores [F(5.225)=5.82; p<001; Adj R-square=.28]. Conclusions: Online gaming can be used to compensate the narcissistic vulnerabilities of the subject through the avoidance of emotional states that cannot be managed in interpersonal relationships. Therefore, in internet gamers the tendency to avoid unidentifiable feelings is linked to experimentation a sense of grandiosity in online envirorment, which can increase the probability of developing internet gaming disorder.

Objective: Symptoms of problematic Internet use (PIU) may be increased in people who display an excessive involvement in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Notably, impulsivity and alexithymia have not been investigated together in the literature addressing the predictors of PIU among gamers, despite evidence that these personality traits may play a pivotal role in the development of problematic gaming patterns. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between facets of alexithymia and impulsivity and PIU scores among MMORPG players. Method: In the current study, 364 World of Warcraft (WoW) players (272 males, 74.7%) aged 18 to 48 years old provided socio-demographic information and completed questionnaires on PIU, time spent online playing WoW, alexithymia, and impulsivity. Results: PIU scores were negatively associated with age and positively associated with alexithymia scores, impulsivity scores, and time spent online playing WoW. A linear regression analysis showed that PIU scores were predicted by time spent online playing WoW, the alexithymic features concerning difficulties identifying and describing feelings, and attentional impulsivity. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MMORPG players with difficulties concerning affect awareness and a tendency to be distracted by novel stimuli may spend an excessive amount of time playing video games and may also show prominent symptoms of PIU.

Introduzione E’ riconosciuto come la diagnosi di neoplasia possa avere un impatto destrutturante sugli individui, compromettendone il funzionamento cognitivo, emotivo e relazionale. L’obiettivo di questo studio è stato quello di esplorare il rapporto tra l’esposizione a eventi traumatici, i tratti disadattivi di personalità, l’alessitimia, i meccanismi di difesa e i sintomi psicopatologici in soggetti con prima diagnosi di tumore. Metodo: Lo studio è stato condotto su 86 pazienti (46,5% maschi, 53,5% femmine) di età compresa tra i 20 e gli 80 anni (M=56.41, DS=15.27) con prima diagnosi di tumore, reclutati consecutivamente da settembre 2018 a gennaio 2019 presso un Ospedale di Palermo. Il protocollo di somministrazione ha previsto una scheda socio-anagrafica e una batteria di test atti a valutare la psicopatologia generale (DSM-5 Level-1), gli affetti positivi e negativi di stato (PANAS), le esperienze traumatiche (TEC), i meccanismi di difesa (REM-71), i tratti disadattivi di personalità (PID-5-BF) e l’alessitimia (TAS-20). Risultati: Analisi di regressione lineare hanno mostrato come gli affetti negativi, le difese immature, le esperienze traumatiche e i tratti disadattivi di personalità siano predittori di più elevati livelli di psicopatologia nei pazienti con diagnosi di neoplasia. Conclusioni: I risultati dello studio sottolineano il ruolo delle difficoltà emotive e dei pattern difensivi disfunzionali nell’adattamento psicologico dei pazienti con prima diagnosi di tumore, suggerendo che tali elementi potrebbero essere potenziali bersagli di intervento clinico, in particolare per quei soggetti con minori capacità di simbolizzazione dell’evento.

Introduzione E’ riconosciuto come la diagnosi di neoplasia possa avere un impatto destrutturante sugli individui, compromettendone il funzionamento cognitivo, emotivo e relazionale. L’obiettivo di questo studio è stato quello di esplorare il rapporto tra l’esposizione a eventi traumatici, i tratti disadattivi di personalità, l’alessitimia, i meccanismi di difesa e i sintomi psicopatologici in soggetti con prima diagnosi di tumore. Metodo: Lo studio è stato condotto su 86 pazienti (46,5% maschi, 53,5% femmine) di età compresa tra i 20 e gli 80 anni (M=56.41, DS=15.27) con prima diagnosi di tumore, reclutati consecutivamente da settembre 2018 a gennaio 2019 presso un Ospedale di Palermo. Il protocollo di somministrazione ha previsto una scheda socio-anagrafica e una batteria di test atti a valutare la psicopatologia generale (DSM-5 Level-1), gli affetti positivi e negativi di stato (PANAS), le esperienze traumatiche (TEC), i meccanismi di difesa (REM-71), i tratti disadattivi di personalità (PID-5-BF) e l’alessitimia (TAS-20). Risultati: Analisi di regressione lineare hanno mostrato come gli affetti negativi, le difese immature, le esperienze traumatiche e i tratti disadattivi di personalità siano predittori di più elevati livelli di psicopatologia nei pazienti con diagnosi di neoplasia. Conclusioni: I risultati dello studio sottolineano il ruolo delle difficoltà emotive e dei pattern difensivi disfunzionali nell’adattamento psicologico dei pazienti con prima diagnosi di tumore, suggerendo che tali elementi potrebbero essere potenziali bersagli di intervento clinico, in particolare per quei soggetti con minori capacità di simbolizzazione dell’evento.