Involvement in cyberbullying events and empathy are related to emotional responses to simulated social pain tasks.

Introduction: This study aims to explore the relationship between cyberbullying involvement either as a perpetrator or a victim and emotional responses to virtual social exclusion and inclusion. Previous research has predominantly focused on the impacts of in-person bullying. Our study shifts this focus to the cyber realm. Methods: A total of 156 adolescents living in northern Italy were recruited (Mage: 12.26; SD = 0.87; 43% female). After completing measures of empathy and involvement in cyberbullying, adolescents participated in the cyberball tasks. Latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups. Results: We found three groups: Class 3, reporting negative responses to the social exclusion tasks and positive responses to the social inclusion tasks; Class 1, reporting neutral emotional responses to social inclusion and negative emotional responses to social exclusion; and Class 2, showing neutral responses to 'social exclusion' tasks and strongly positive responses to 'social inclusion' tasks. Linear regression revealed that cyberbullies report a typical emotional response to exclusion and inclusion tasks (Class 3), whereas cybervictims are more likely to report negative responses to both exclusion and inclusion events (Class 1). High levels of empathy are associated with the manifestation of a typical emotional response (Class 3), in contrast to an impaired emotional response characterized by neutral or positive responses to conditions of 'social exclusion' and positive responses to conditions of 'social inclusion' (Class 2). Conclusion: Results underscore the complex interplay between cyberbullying roles and emotional responses to virtual social experiences. Theoretical implications and limitations of the research are discussed.

Correction: Fabris et al. Exploring Multivariate Profiles of Psychological Distress and Empathy in Early Adolescent Victims, Bullies, and Bystanders Involved in Cyberbullying Episodes. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9871.

In the published publication [...].

Childhood trauma and factors influencing primary school teachers' reporting of child abuse: Insights from Italy.

BACKGROUND: Childhood traumatic experiences can profoundly impact individuals, posing risks to the physical and psychological well-being of children and influencing their psychological development. Teachers in primary schools play a critical role in identifying and reporting suspected cases of child abuse and maltreatment (CAM), which initiates child protection interventions. However, the psychological factors that influence teachers' likelihood of reporting suspected CAM cases remain largely unexplored. AIM: This study investigates the influence of teachers' childhood traumatic experiences and psychological factors (i.e., cognitive empathy and psychological detachment) on their reporting behavior regarding child abuse and maltreatment, addressing an important social issue. PARTICIPANTS: The study involved 1380 primary school teachers from Italy (88.3 % female; aged 21-69, Mage 46.7, DS 10.3). RESULTS: The results reveal that teachers with a history of childhood emotional abuse tend to report a higher number of suspected child abuse and maltreatment cases. Other forms of traumatic childhood experiences were not significantly associated with teachers' reporting suspected cases of CAM. Additionally, cognitive empathy and psychological detachment emerge as significant predictors of teachers' reporting behavior. CONCLUSIONS: This research contributes to the existing literature by providing unique insights into actual reporting behavior within an unexplored cultural context.

A cross-cultural comparison of teacher-student relationship quality in Chinese and Italian teachers and students.

Studies comparing teacher-student relationships between Eastern and Western countries are relatively rare. This study compared the affective qualities of teacher-student relationships between Eastern (i.e., China) and Western (i.e., Italy) countries to explore the measurement invariance, latent mean differences, and cultural differences in reporters' (teachers and students) agreement levels. An Italian sample of 31 teachers and 1647 students (46.9% girls; ages 9-14 years) and a Chinese sample of 28 teachers and 1474 students (44% girls; ages 9-14 years) reported on their perceptions of closeness and conflict in the teacher-student relationship. Measures of both student-perceived and teacher-perceived relationships achieved (partial) scalar invariance between the two cultures in the full sample, elementary school subsamples, and junior high school subsamples. Compared to their Chinese peers, the Italian junior high school students reported lower levels of conflict with their teachers, but there was no difference in closeness level. In addition, there was no difference in reporters' agreement across China and Italy in the full sample and in the junior high school subsample, whereas the Italian reporters' agreement on conflict was higher in the elementary school subsample.

Sense of Belonging at School and on Social Media in Adolescence: Associations with Educational Achievement and Psychosocial Maladjustment.

Belongingness is a key factor in the psychological development and school adjustment of children and adolescents. Going beyond the existing literature, the present study evaluated the association between two sources of belongingness, namely sense of belonging at school (SOBAS) and on social media (SOBOSM), and both psychological maladjustment and educational achievement. Sample consisted of 698 early-to-late adolescents (52.3% female, mean age = 13.79 ± 2.09). Both SOBAS and SOBOSM showed negative direct associations with psychological maladjustment. SOBOSM showed a negative direct association with educational achievement. Social media addiction mediated the links between both SOBAS and SOBOSM and psychological maladjustment and education achievement. Overall, findings suggest that adolescents reporting high sense of belonging both at school and on social media may at lower risk for psychological maladjustment. However, adolescents reporting low SOBAS and high SOBOSM may also be a greater risk of SMA, possibly impacting their psychological health and school adjustement.

The representation of bullying in Italian primary school children: A mixed-method study comparing drawing and interview data and their association with self-report involvement in bullying events.

Bullying continues to be a social issue affecting millions of students of all ages worldwide. Research on bullying seems to be dominated by quantitative research approaches employed standardized categories and measures, ultimately limiting our knowledge about children's own view on bullying. Our research follows another direction, aiming to explore the representation of bullying in a sample of Italian primary school children by using and comparing the functioning of two qualitative research instruments: interviews, and children's drawings. In addition, aided by quantitative analyses, we aimed to investigate whether students' involvement in different bullying roles (as bullies, victims, or defenders), as measured by self-assessment, correlated with different characteristics of the representation of bullying emerging from children's drawings and interviews. We recruited a convenient sample of 640 primary school students (mean age = 9.44; SD = 0.67), 53.3% of whom were male. The results showed that all forms of bullying, i.e., physical, verbal, and social bullying, could be identified in interview and drawing data, although references to all types of bullying were more frequent in interview data. In terms of bullying criteria, the presence of a power imbalance between the bully and the victim was most frequently detected in both the interview data and the drawing data, while repetition was more easily detected in the interview data. The interview data showed that sadness was the most frequently reported victim emotions, followed by fear, anger, and lack of emotion. The drawing data showed a similar pattern, although victims were more frequently described as lacking emotions compared to the interview data. In both interview and drawing data, age and female gender were positively associated with references to verbal bullying, and negatively associated with references to physical bullying. Additionally, bully/victim children were more likely than uninvolved children to depict physical bullying in the drawings, while this association was not detected in interview data. In summary, our study shows that, compared with drawings, interviews tend to provide a more comprehensive view of children's own representation of bullying, while drawing data tend to show stronger connections with children's current personal experiences of bullying.

Exploring Multivariate Profiles of Psychological Distress and Empathy in Early Adolescent Victims, Bullies, and Bystanders Involved in Cyberbullying Episodes.

(1) Background: Adolescents may be involved in cyberbullying as victims, perpetrators, or to a lesser extent, victim-perpetrators simultaneously. The present research investigated differences between participants acting in different bullying roles-namely, bully, victim, or bully/victim-and bystander roles-namely, defending, passive bystander, and passive/defending; (2) Methods: We used multivariate analysis of covariance to determine how, in the same individuals, direct involvement in cyberbullying episodes compares to participating in them as by-standers in relation to both psychological distress and empathy; (3) Results: Both victims and bully/victims were found to be at increased risk for suicidal ideation, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and emotional dysregulation compared with students who were neither victims nor perpetrators of cyberbullying episodes. Additionally, victims showed higher empathy scores when compared with bullies and bully/victims. All bystander roles showed increased emotional dysregulation compared with uninvolved students, but no differences emerged on other psychological distress measures. Finally, defending bystanders showed increased cognitive empathy. (4) Conclusions: During early adolescence, the direct experience of cyberbullying, as a bully or a victim (or both), show a stronger association with psychological distress than the mere participation in cyberbullying as a witness, regardless of the witness acting defensive toward the victim, or passive. However, both cyberbullying and bystanding roles provide a similar (small) explicative power over empathy variables.

Adverse childhood experiences and body dysmorphic symptoms: A meta-analysis.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are considered a risk factor for the development of various forms of mental disorders, including body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). The aim of the present work was to examine the association between ACEs and BDD symptomatology and to identify features of studies that might moderate this association. We conducted a three-level meta-analysis of 27 articles that included 9167 participants. Results showed that the types of ACE examined (total ACE, abuse, neglect, teasing, and bullying) were positively associated with BDD symptomatology. Specifically, a low to moderate association was found for ACE overall, defined as abuse, neglect, bullying, or teasing (r = 0.289, 95% confidence interval (CI) [.240,.337), for bullying (r = 0.282, 95% CI [.206,.354]), and for abuse (r = 0.223, 95% CI [.169,.276]) were found; and a moderate to large association was found for experienced teasing (r = 0.423, 95% CI [.360,.482]). In addition, moderator analyses of the association between ACE and BDD symptomatology resulted in a predictive model in which the type of ACE, type of sample, and gender of participants moderated the magnitude of the association between ACEs and BDD symptomatology.

Alexithymia and Adult Attachment: Investigating the Mediating Role of Fear of Intimacy and Negative Mood Regulation Expectancies.

Literature suggests an association between alexithymia and insecure adult attachment, but the mediation factors involved in this relationship are under-investigated. The study was carried out to test the possible mediation roles of the fear of intimacy and negative mood regulation expectancies in explaining this relationship. A convenience sample of 258 Polish adults (mean age: 30; 45% male), completed self-reporting measures related to adult attachment (RAAS), alexithymia (TAS-20), fear of intimacy (FIS) and negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE). The results showed that alexithymia directly and indirectly predicts insecure adult attachment. Alexithymia positively predicts the fear of intimacy, which, in turn, positively predicts insecure adult attachment. Finally, alexithymia negatively predicts NMRE which, in turn, predict insecure adult attachment. It emerges from our data that the fear of intimacy and NMRE may be mediating factors in the relationship between alexithymia and adult attachment. Limitations, future directions of research and guidance for intervention are discussed.

How Plausible are the Accounts of Child Victims of Sexual Abuse? A Study of Bizarre and Unusual Scripts Reported by Children.

Child sexual abuse is a serious social problem. In reports of sexually abused children, victims' narratives often contain elements that suggest the abuse was recorded to create images for child pornography with sadistic, bizarre, or perverted details. The presence of unusual or bizarre elements in the accounts of abused children affects their credibility. The purpose of this paper is to assess the presence and prevalence of these elements in the reports of children with suspected sexual abuse and to examine their consistency with verified cases of child abuse. We conducted two studies. In Study 1, we developed a list of 16 categories of unusual and bizarre scripts reported by children in reports of sexual abuse. In Study 2, we validated the list by examining the presence of the identified scripts in the actual experiences of both individuals convicted of crimes related to child pornography and Italian police officers who were involved with child pornography as part of their official duties. Our findings suggest that children's accounts of sexual abuse should be considered credible even if they contain unusual or bizarre elements that also occur in child pornography and therefore may reflect events actually experienced rather than merely the child's fantasy or imagination.

Student-teacher conflict moderates the link between students' social status in the classroom and involvement in bullying behaviors and exposure to peer victimization.

INTRODUCTION: Student-teacher relationships have been shown to influence bullying-related behaviors in students. In this study we considered the moderating role of student-teacher conflict and students' social status in the classroom and involvement in bullying behaviors and peer victimization. METHODS: Sample consisted of 1742 students (47.2% females, mean age = 10.79; SD = 1.36; range = 8-14) clustered in 113 classrooms, of which 1017 (58.4%) attended primary schools and 725 (41.6%) attended lower secondary schools. We implemented a series of multilevel analyses aimed at determining the role of student-teacher conflict, and students' social status among classroom peers (i.e., average, popular, rejected, neglected, and controversial statuses), as well their interaction, in influencing verbal, physical, and social forms of bullying and victimization at school. RESULTS: Student-teacher conflict had a significant positive effect on all bullying and victimization variables. Regarding students' social status, rejected students showed increased bullying and victimization when compared with average students, except in social bullying. Significant interactions emerged indicating that a highly conflictual student-teacher relationship exacerbated bullying behaviors and the risk of victimization among rejected students. Additionally, popular students who had conflictual relationship with their teachers were more likely to engage in physical bullying then average students. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests the importance of low conflictual student-teacher relationships in acting as a buffer for aggressive student-student interactions in the classroom, especially when these interactions involve students rejected by their classroom peers.

Student-teacher relationship quality and prosocial behaviour: The mediating role of academic achievement and a positive attitude towards school.

BACKGROUND: The current research investigated the association between teacher-student relationship (both teacher-perceived and student-perceived relationship quality) and students' prosocial behaviours, as well as the mediating roles of students' attitudes towards school and perceived academic competence in this association. SAMPLE: Four hundred and fifty-nine Italian primary students (aged 4-9, Mage  = 7.05, SDage  = 1.37) and 47 teachers (aged 26-60, Mage  = 48.35, SDage  = 8.13) participated and finished all the questionnaires and scales. METHODS: Multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping analyses were employed to test the direct and the mediating effects between the teacher/student-perceived relationship and students' prosocial behaviours. RESULTS: Results indicated that (1) teacher-student relationship was positively associated with students' prosocial behaviour; and (2) students' attitudes towards school could significantly mediate the association between teacher/student-perceived relationship and students' prosocial behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Our understanding of how teacher-student relationship helps to enhance students' prosocial behaviours, as well as the intervention programmes that aim to enhance students' prosocial behaviours, may benefit from these findings.

Homicide as a Source of Posttraumatic Stress?: A Meta-Analysis of the Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After Committing Homicide.

There is a growing body of literature on the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after committing homicide that has examined the prevalence of this phenomenon among individuals who have been convicted, but these studies considerably vary. The present study was the first meta-analysis to synthesize scientific evidence regarding the prevalence of offense-related PTSD among convicted killers. A total of 691 articles were identified through an initial screening process, and the final analysis included 11 studies that met the analysis criteria. We examined the prevalence of PTSD after committing homicide and explored how these rates varied by sample type, offender type, diagnosis timeframe, and diagnosis type. Among adult offenders, the pooled prevalence was 42.6%, 95% CI [38.0%, 47.4%], for current full-criteria homicide-related PTSD and 13.1%, 95% CI [9.9%, 17.2%], for current partial-criteria homicide-related PTSD. For mixed offenders (i.e., killers and violent offenders), the pooled prevalence of current full-criteria offense-related PTSD was 33.1% (95% CI [14.1, 59.8]). Thus, we found that PTSD prevalence was higher in killers than mixed offenders, although this difference was not statistically significant. Finally, among youth mixed offenders, the pooled prevalence for current full-criteria offense-related PTSD was 5.3%, 95% CI [2.9%, 9.5%]. These findings provide evidence of the high rate of this phenomenon, especially among convicted adults.

Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Victimization Across Three Generations: a Cross-Sectional Study.

Using data gathered from grandparents (G1), parents (G2), and young adults (G3), this study examines the continuity of intergenerational victimization (physical, emotional, and sexual) across three generations. The study included data from 168 participants within three generations: grandparents, G1 (19.2% male, 80.8% female, M = 78.13 years old); parents, G2 (25.5% male, 74.5% female, M = 50.13 years old); and young adults, G3 (40% male, 60% female, M = 21.10 years old). The data is analyzed at two levels: (1) bivariate analyses to address relationships between the variables studied by Spearman's correlations, and (2) a path model to examine the intergenerational abuse simultaneously considering all variables. Overall, path modeling showed that experienced abuse demonstrated continuity from G1 to G2 and from G2 to G3. Specifically, findings indicated that grandparents' physical and psychological victimization has a direct effect on parents' sexual and physical abuse victimization, respectively. Additionally, parents' physical victimization has a direct effect on young adults' psychological and sexual victimization, while parents' psychological victimization has a direct effect on young adults' physical and sexual victimization. These findings highlight the need for preventive interventions focused on breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse.

The association between muscle dysmorphia and eating disorder symptomatology: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Research shows inconsistent findings about the link between muscle dysmorphia (MD) and eating disorder (ED) symptomatology. The aim of this study is to synthesize the scientific evidence available on this topic, the researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: The literature search enabled us to identify 39 published articles, which provided 36 independent estimations of the correlation between the two variables. RESULTS: Our analysis found a positive association between MD and ED symptoms (r+ = .36; 95% CI = 0.30, 0.41). Moderator analyses showed that the type of sample and the tools for assessing MD and ED were statistically associated with the MD-ED effect sizes. The methodological quality of the studies exhibited a positive, statistically significant association with the MD-ED effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of MD were related to greater ED symptomatology, but several study characteristics may moderate the association between the two variables. In this study, we discuss limitations and implications for clinical practice and future research.

Students' Psychological Adjustment in Normative School Transitions From Kindergarten to High School: Investigating the Role of Teacher-Student Relationship Quality.

School transitions require students to adapt to new challenges and situations and can increase the risk of externalizing and internalizing psychological symptoms. The teacher-student relationship seems to be a protective factor for the risk of developing psychological symptoms during school transitions. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the quality of the teacher-student relationship predicts the decrease of internalizing and externalizing symptoms during three school transitions, namely: from kindergarten to primary school (T1), from primary to middle school (T2), and from middle to high school (T3). We recruited 127 kindergarten students (mean age = 5.40, SD = 0.49), 113 fifth grade primary school students (mean age = 10.64, SD = 0.54), and 240 eighth grade students (mean age = 13.88, SD = 0.37) and their teachers (response rate = 95%). Data were collected from 2016 to 2018. Teachers filled out an anonymous survey, acting as informants for the students, reporting demographic details (age, gender), psychological symptoms, and quality of the teacher-student relationship. The data show that a positive teacher-student relationship quality tends to be associated with a reduction of psychological symptoms. A stable, low-conflict teacher-student relationship was confirmed as a protective factor from increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms during all normative school transitions. Furthermore, we see that an increase in teacher-student conflict during the transitions from primary to middle school, and from middle to high school is linked to an exacerbation in students' externalizing symptoms during the first year of attendance of the new school. Our study confirms the importance of the teacher-student relationship in reducing psychological symptoms associated with school transitions, in every type of transition, favoring an improved psychological adjustment to the new environment. A positive teacher-student relationship represents a protective factor for the development of students. Study limitations are discussed.

Muscle dysmorphia and psychopathology: Findings from an Italian sample of male bodybuilders.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the risk of muscle dysmorphia and psychopathological symptoms in an Italian sample of male bodybuilders. METHOD: The sample was recruited online (145 men with a mean age of 30.0 years) and participants were asked to fill out the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI), Symptom Cheklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II), and to provide other socio-demographic data. Bodybuilders at risk of muscle dysmorphia display greater global psychopathology and present higher scores on all SCL-90-R dimensions when compared to bodybuilders not at risk of muscle dysmorphia. Furthermore, risk of muscle dysmorphia is positively associated to dissociative symptoms. The Competitiveness dimension and anabolic steroid intake were not related to muscle dysmorphia, while age appeared to be more significant. Findings are discussed based upon previous studies and directions for future research are suggested.