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Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization
In order to explore the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the caregiver–child relationship, we investigated the interplay among COVID-19 exposure and children’s internalizing/externalizing problems during the Italian lockdown, hypothesizing a mediation effect played by maternal distre...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8507724/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34639750 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910450 |
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author | Bianco, Federica Levante, Annalisa Petrocchi, Serena Lecciso, Flavia Castelli, Ilaria |
author_facet | Bianco, Federica Levante, Annalisa Petrocchi, Serena Lecciso, Flavia Castelli, Ilaria |
author_sort | Bianco, Federica |
collection | PubMed |
description | In order to explore the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the caregiver–child relationship, we investigated the interplay among COVID-19 exposure and children’s internalizing/externalizing problems during the Italian lockdown, hypothesizing a mediation effect played by maternal distress. Additionally, we included maternal reflective functioning (i.e., hypermentalization) as a moderator factor among this interplay. A total of 305 Italian mothers of children aged 6–13 years (M = 10.3; SD = 2.4) filled in an online survey. Findings revealed an indirect effect of maternal COVID-19 exposure on children’s anxious/depressed (k(2) = 0.46) and attention problems (k(2) = 0.32) via maternal distress. Hypermentalization moderated the impact of maternal COVID-19 exposure on children’s anxious/depressed problems (β = −1.08, p = 0.04). Hypermentalization moderated both the relation between maternal distress and children’s aggressive behaviors (β = 12.226; p < 0.001) and between maternal distress and children’s attention problems (β = 5.617, p < 0.001). We found pivotal significant effects of maternal hypermentalization on children’s anxious/depressed and attention problems, indicating that the higher the mother’s hypermentalization was, the higher the children’s problems were. Our results broaden what we knew on the role of maternal reflective and emotional functioning on children’s emotional/behavioral adjustment during stressful situations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8507724 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85077242021-10-13 Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization Bianco, Federica Levante, Annalisa Petrocchi, Serena Lecciso, Flavia Castelli, Ilaria Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In order to explore the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the caregiver–child relationship, we investigated the interplay among COVID-19 exposure and children’s internalizing/externalizing problems during the Italian lockdown, hypothesizing a mediation effect played by maternal distress. Additionally, we included maternal reflective functioning (i.e., hypermentalization) as a moderator factor among this interplay. A total of 305 Italian mothers of children aged 6–13 years (M = 10.3; SD = 2.4) filled in an online survey. Findings revealed an indirect effect of maternal COVID-19 exposure on children’s anxious/depressed (k(2) = 0.46) and attention problems (k(2) = 0.32) via maternal distress. Hypermentalization moderated the impact of maternal COVID-19 exposure on children’s anxious/depressed problems (β = −1.08, p = 0.04). Hypermentalization moderated both the relation between maternal distress and children’s aggressive behaviors (β = 12.226; p < 0.001) and between maternal distress and children’s attention problems (β = 5.617, p < 0.001). We found pivotal significant effects of maternal hypermentalization on children’s anxious/depressed and attention problems, indicating that the higher the mother’s hypermentalization was, the higher the children’s problems were. Our results broaden what we knew on the role of maternal reflective and emotional functioning on children’s emotional/behavioral adjustment during stressful situations. MDPI 2021-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8507724/ /pubmed/34639750 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910450 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Bianco, Federica Levante, Annalisa Petrocchi, Serena Lecciso, Flavia Castelli, Ilaria Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title | Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title_full | Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title_fullStr | Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title_full_unstemmed | Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title_short | Maternal Psychological Distress and Children’s Internalizing/Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role Played by Hypermentalization |
title_sort | maternal psychological distress and children’s internalizing/externalizing problems during the covid-19 pandemic: the moderating role played by hypermentalization |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8507724/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34639750 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910450 |
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