How Were Healthcare Workers after Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination? A Study of the Emotional Side Effects of Vaccination.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines appear to be the only escape from the COVID-19 pandemic. As healthcare workers were among the first in society to be vaccinated, understanding their emotional status post-vaccination is fundamental to the promotion of COVID-19 vaccines among the rest of society. The aims of this study were to investigate the predictors of positive and negative emotions experienced by healthcare workers after being vaccinated and to understand whether those emotions were related to the modalities of vaccine promotion within the community. A cohort of 5790 Italian healthcare workers completed an original online survey regarding their experience with anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and reported on a series of personal and environmental factors. The data obtained show that increased risk perception of COVID-19, vaccine confidence and receipt of greater quantities of information regarding vaccines are predictors of a more positive emotional state post-vaccination. Predictors of a more negative emotional state are older age, lower education, lower confidence and receipt of smaller quantities of information, in addition to neurotic personality traits and high risk perception of COVID-19. Importantly, vaccination promotion may be favoured by a happy emotional status after vaccination. This study can serve as a source of guidelines for the promotion of COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare workers and laypeople.

Protective and risk activities for emotional and behavioural well-being of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown.

BACKGROUND: The lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic brought deep changes in the daily life of Italian children and adolescents, increasing the time spent at home. This study aims to explore how activities that children and adolescents carried out at home during the lockdown were related to their emotional and behavioural well-being. METHOD: Parents completed an anonymous online survey on how much time their children and adolescents dedicated to social networks, solitary screen time, play time and to a series of parent-child dyadic activities. They also reported on their offspring's emotional difficulties and behavioural problems. RESULTS: The use of social networks had a negative impact on children's emotional difficulties, while it promoted well-being in adolescents. Pertaining to solitary screen activities, these were associated with more behavioural problems in both children and adolescents. Regarding parent-child dyadic activities, get along with the parent was associated with less emotional difficulties and behavioural problems in children and with less behavioural problems in adolescents. Furthermore, for adolescents, the more they talked with the parent, the less behavioural problems they evidenced. CONCLUSION: The current study may help to identify activities that could be promoted and those that should be limited to effectively menage home time, in order to ultimately safeguard the emotional and behavioural well-being of children and adolescents.

The interplay between parenting and environmental sensitivity in the prediction of children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors during COVID-19.

The interplay of parenting and environmental sensitivity on children's behavioral adjustment during, and immediately after, the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions was investigated in two longitudinal studies involving Italian preschoolers (Study 1, N = 72; 43% girls, Myears = 3.82(1.38)) and primary school children (Study 2, N = 94; 55% girls, Myears = 9.08(0.56)). Data were collected before and during the first-wave lockdown (Studies 1 and 2) and one month later (Study 1). Parental stress and parent-child closeness were measured. Markers of environmental sensitivity in children were temperamental fearfulness and Sensory Processing Sensitivity. Results showed little change in externalizing and internalizing behaviors over time, but differences emerged when considering parenting and children's environmental sensitivity. In preschoolers, greater parenting stress was related to a stronger increase in internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with children high in fearful temperament showing a more marked decrease in externalizing behaviors when parenting stress was low. In school-aged children, parent-child closeness emerged as a protective factor for internalizing and externalizing behaviors during COVID-19, with children high in Sensory Processing Sensitivity showing a marked decrease in internalizing behaviors when closeness was high. Implications for developmental theory and practice in times of pandemic are discussed.

Risk and protective factors of quality of life for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families during the COVID-19 lockdown. An Italian study.

BACKGROUND: The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult period for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and their families. AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of the quality of life (QoL) of children with ASD and their parents throughout the first lockdown, providing a snapshot of the impact of the pandemic on these families life. METHOD AND PROCEDURES: A cohort of 243 parents of children with ASD (2-15 years old) completed an original online survey regarding the modification of ASD cores symptoms during lockdown, the type of interventions they had done before and during lockdown and the activities performed by the child. Respondents filled the PedsQL for themselves and their children. OUTCOME AND RESULTS: The data obtained show a worsening of specific ASD core symptoms during lockdown and their role in predicting parents and children's QoL. Furthermore, protective factors for a better children's QoL as the Telehealth intervention, and some activities done at home during the lockdown as physical activity and play with parents are identified. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies the QoL's risk and protective factors for children with ASD and their families. Furthermore, reveals the fundamental role of the parents as children's QoL protective factor, suggesting a higher collaboration between families and health care providers, whilst potentially improving families and children's QoL.

Parenting Stress During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Socioeconomic and Environmental Risk Factors and Implications for Children Emotion Regulation.

The COVID-19 outbreak imposed to Italian families many changes in their daily life increasing the risk of developing psychological problems. The present study explored risk factors associated with parenting stress and implications for children's emotion regulation in families with different socioeconomic risks. Parents of 2-14 years old children completed a survey reporting difficulties experienced due to the lockdown, level of household chaos, parenting stress, parent involvement in the child's daily life, and children emotion regulation competences. The general mean levels of parenting stress and children emotion regulation abilities were not at clinical level compared with Italian norms. Household chaos predicted higher levels of parenting stress, which, in turn, was associated with less effective emotion regulation in children through the mediating role of parental involvement. More stressed parents were less involved in their children's activities, decreasing children's effective emotion regulation. Only for SES no-risk families, the lockdown constraints increased parenting stress. For SES at-risk families, the impact of parenting stress and involvement on children regulation strategies was stronger, with a protective role played by parental involvement on children's negativity not evident for SES no-risk families. Dealing with the lockdown is a stressful experience for parents who have to balance personal life, work, and children upbringing, without other help. This situation potentially impairs their ability to be supportive caregivers and is consequently detrimental for children well-being. Policies should take into consideration the implications of the lockdown for families' mental health and tailor supportive interventions according to family's risk factors.

El brote de la COVID-19 impuso a las familias italianas muchos cambios en su vida cotidiana, los cuales aumentaron el riesgo de desarrollar problemas psicológicos. El presente estudio analizó los factores de riesgo asociados con el estrés de la crianza y las consecuencias para la regulación emocional de los hijos en familias con diferentes riesgos socioeconómicos. Un grupo de padres de niños de entre dos y 14 años contestó una encuesta donde informó las dificultades vividas debido al confinamiento, el nivel de caos en el hogar, el estrés en la crianza, la participación de los padres en la vida diaria de los hijos y las competencias de los hijos para regular sus emociones. Los niveles promedio generales de estrés en la crianza y las habilidades de regulación emocional en los niños no estuvieron a nivel clínico en comparación con las normas italianas. El caos en el hogar predijo niveles más altos de estrés en la crianza, el cual, a su vez, estuvo asociado con una menor regulación emocional eficaz en los niños mediante el rol mediador de la participación de los padres. Los padres más estresados participaron menos en las actividades de sus hijos, lo cual disminuyó la regulación emocional eficaz en los niños. Solo en los casos de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico las limitaciones del confinamiento aumentaron el estrés en la crianza. Para las familias de riesgo socioeconómico, el efecto del estrés en la crianza y la participación en las estrategias de regulación emocional de los niños fue más profundo, y en el caso de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico, no se evidenció el papel protector desempeñado por la participación de los padres en la negatividad de los niños. Lidiar con el confinamiento es una experiencia estresante para los padres que tienen que compatibilizar la vida personal, el trabajo y la educación de los niños sin ninguna otra ayuda. Esta situación puede deteriorar su capacidad de ser cuidadores comprensivos y, como consecuencia, ser perjudicial para el bienestar de los niños. Las políticas deberían tener en cuenta las consecuencias del confinamiento en la salud mental de las familias y adaptar intervenciones de apoyo de acuerdo con los factores de riesgo de las familias.

Parents' Stress and Children's Psychological Problems in Families Facing the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy.

Objectives: The present study aimed to explore the effect of risk factors associated with the COVID-19 outbreak experience on parents' and children's well-being. Methods: Parents of children aged between 2- and 14-years-old completed an online survey reporting their home environment conditions, any relation they had to the pandemic consequences, their difficulties experienced due to the quarantine, their perception of individual and parent-child dyadic stress, and their children's emotional and behavioral problems. Results: Results showed that the perception of the difficulty of quarantine is a crucial factor that undermines both parents' and children's well-being. Quarantine's impact on children's behavioral and emotional problems is mediated by parent's individual and dyadic stress, with a stronger effect from the latter. Parents who reported more difficulties in dealing with quarantine show more stress. This, in turn, increases the children's problems. Living in a more at-risk area, the quality of the home environment, or the relation they have with the pandemic consequences, do not have an effect on families' well-being. Conclusions: Dealing with quarantine is a particularly stressful experience for parents who must balance personal life, work, and raising children, being left alone without other resources. This situation puts parents at a higher risk of experiencing distress, potentially impairing their ability to be supportive caregivers. The lack of support these children receive in such a difficult moment may be the reason for their more pronounced psychological symptoms. Policies should take into consideration the implications of the lockdown for families' mental health, and supportive interventions for the immediate and for the future should be promoted.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in a paucisymptomatic patient: epidemiological and clinical challenge in settings with limited community transmission, Italy, February 2020.

Data concerning the transmission of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in paucisymptomatic patients are lacking. We report an Italian paucisymptomatic case of coronavirus disease 2019 with multiple biological samples positive for SARS-CoV-2. This case was detected using the World Health Organization protocol on cases and contact investigation. Current discharge criteria and the impact of extra-pulmonary SARS-CoV-2 samples are discussed.