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Mentalizing and emotion dysregulation in emerging adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: a pilot short-term longitudinal study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

S. Charpentier Mora ,
C. Bastianoni ,
M. Tironi  and
F. Bizzi
S. Charpentier Mora
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
C. Bastianoni
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
M. Tironi*
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
F. Bizzi
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an epidemiological and psychological crisis (APA, 2020). In this context, although emerging adults are less likely to get COVID-19, they might have suffered from the national lockdowns over the last year, as they are indeed involved in a crucial development period wherein interpersonal relationships undertake a fundamental function in their psychological well-being. To this end, mentalizing abilities and emotion dysregulation may play a crucial role as possible salutogenic or pathogenic factors on the onset of psychiatric symptoms during the three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives

1) To examine the relationship between emotion dysregulation assessed at the end of the first wave of COVID-19, mentalizing assessed during the second wave, and psychiatric symptoms levels assessed during the third wave. 2) To examine the moderation role of mentalizing within the relation between emotion dysregulation and psychiatric symptoms.

Methods

Participants were 83 non-clinical emerging adults (Mage=22.18, SD=4.36; 57.8% females). Measures applied were Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to examine emotion dysregulation, Reflective Functioning Questionnaire to examine mentalizing (RFQ_uncertainty; RFQ_certainty) and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90) to examine psychiatric symptoms (Global Severity Index, GSI).

Results

DERS_total score (r=.31, p=.03) and both RFQ_uncertainty (r=.41, p<.01) and RFQ_certainty (r=-.33, p=.02) are associated with GSI. Secondly, a significant moderation role by RFQ_u emerged within the relation between DERS_total score and GSI (∆R2=.067, β=.001, SE=.00, CI[.000, .002]).

Conclusions

These results suggest that mentalizing and emotion dysregulation may play a pivotal role in the onset of psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical implications are discussed.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Covid-19Emotion dysregulationmentalizingemerging adults
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S375 - S376
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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