Journal of Psychiatry

Psychiatric adolescents in residential-care: The role of attachment and emotional regulation strategies on psychopathological symptoms

Annual Congress on Mental Health

July 09-11, 2018 | Paris, France

Muzi Stefania

University of Genoa, Italy

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

Attachment and emotional regulation [ER] strategies cognitive reappraisal [CR] and expressive suppression [ES] can be protective or risk factors for psychopathological symptoms, also interacting with each other. Children in residential-care [RC], due to their previous negative experiences showed difficulties in the development of secure attachments and adaptive ER strategies, as CR. This is the preliminary report of a larger pilot study aimed to investigating the associations between attachment, ER�??strategies and psychopathological symptoms in 12 adolescents with psychiatric diagnoses (aged 15-18, M=16.92, DS=1.08; 50% males), placed in residential-care [RC]. We used: the youth self-report 11/18 (YSR 11/18) to measure the levels of internalizing and externalizing problems; the emotional regulation questionnaire for children-adolescents (ERQCA) to assess ER�?? strategies and the inventory of parent and peer attachment (IPPA) to assess attachment patterns. Main results showed that internalizing symptoms were negatively related to attachment to mother (ρ=-.740, p=.009) and CR (ρ=-.596, p=.041) but positively with ES (ρ=.616, p=.033), which was also related with delinquency (ρ=.618, p=.032) and thought problems (ρ=.765, p=.004). CR also showed positive associations with attachment to mother (ρ=.838, p=.001), father (ρ=.833, p=.005) and peers (ρ=.679, p=.022). No correlations were found with total score of externalizing symptoms (p.value>.102). A stepwise multiple regression on internalizing symptoms only acknowledged the contribution of attachment to mother (adjusted R2=.455, p=.028). These results suggest further investigations on attachment to mother and ER�??s strategies, especially CR, which could be related to the symptoms of psychiatric adolescents.

Biography :

Muzi Stefania is a Psychologist and PhD student at DISFOR, University of Genoa: the Research Project investigates the role of emotional regulation, alexithymia and attachment in at-risk teenagers..

E-mail: muziunige@gmail.com