Eleonora Gullone

Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review

This review aims to integrate the constructs of mindfulness and emotion regulation. Research into both of these areas is relatively new, and while several reviews have emerged for each area independently, none has directly proposed a conceptual integration. The current review explores how key axioms and assumptions of traditional psychological models of emotion regulation and the psychological interventions that are derived from them (e.g., cognitive behavior therapy) differ fundamentally from mindfulness-based approaches in terms of the underlying processes they address. Accordingly, mindfulness and emotion regulation are each reviewed, followed by a conceptual integration. Fundamental difficulties arising from the attempt to integrate the two domains are highlighted, especially as to the reality of thoughts, the relationship between thoughts and emotions, and the need to move beyond a valence model of emotion. Finally, a model is proposed outlining the likely critical processes and mechanisms that underlie mindful emotion regulation.

The development of normal fear: a century of research.

This paper reviews over a centurys research into the developmental patterns of normal fear. Normal fear has been defined as a normal reaction to a real or imagined threat and is considered to be an integral and adaptive aspect of development with the primary function of promoting survival. Across a wide range of methodologies and assessment instruments researchers have been particularly focussed on investigating whether fear content, prevalence and intensity differ depending upon age, gender, socio-economic status, and culture. The structure and continuity of normal fears have also received much attention. The most consistently documented findings include that fear decreases in prevalence and intensity with age and that specific fears are transitory in nature. There are also predictable changes in the content of normal fear over the course of development. Such changes are characterized by a transition from infant fears which are related to immediate, concrete and prepotent stimuli, and which are largely non-cognitive, to fears of late childhood and adolescence which are related to anticipatory, abstract, and more global stimuli and events. Recent research into normal fear has more closely examined the validity of the more frequently used current assessment technique (i.e., the fear survey schedule). This research has provided some encouraging results as well as directions for future investigation.

Adolescent body image dissatisfaction: Relationships with self-esteem, anxiety, and depression controlling for body mass.

The current study examined the relationships of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem with Perceived Body Image Dissatisfaction (PBID) in a nonclinical population of 516 adolescents, aged 12 to 18. The prevalence of PBID was comparative with previous findings. Interestingly, actual body mass and psychological well-being variables were found to be significantly related with PBID, whilst being independent of each other. Findings support proposals that PBID arises from a complex interplay of factors, including gender, self-esteem, and actual body mass. In particular, our findings highlight the need for future research of a prospective nature incorporating psychological, sociocultural, and maturational factors.

The Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse An Australian Study

Several North American studies have found a connection between domestic violence and animal abuse. This article reports on the first Australian research to examine this connection. A group of 102 women recruited through 24 domestic violence services in the state of Victoria and a nondomestic violence comparison group (102 women) recruited from the community took part in the study. Significantly higher rates of partner pet abuse, partner threats of pet abuse, and pet abuse by other family members were found in the violent families compared with the nondomestic violence group. As hypothesized, children from the violent families were reported by their mothers to have witnessed and committed significantly more animal abuse than children from the nonviolent families. Logistic regression analyses revealed, for the group as a whole, that a woman whose partner had threatened the pets was 5 times more likely to belong to the intimate partner violence group.

The relationship between personality and affect over the lifespan

Abstract This study compared the trait and emotion perspectives of personality development by examining relationships between extraversion, neuroticism, positive and negative affect across the lifespan. A total of 533 volunteers: 228 children and early adolescents (8 to 15 years), 163 late adolescents and young adults (16 to 29 years) and 142 adults (30 to 68 years) completed Eysencks Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Extraversion correlated significantly with positive affect and neuroticism with negative affect in each age group. As predicted by the emotion perspective, correlations were significantly stronger for adults than children and early adolescents. In addition, extraversion-positive affect and neuroticism-negative affect factors explained less variance for children and early adolescents compared to those of adults.

Self-reports of panic attacks and manifest anxiety in adolescents

A recent paper by Nelles and Barlow (1988; Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 359-372) provided the rationale for an investigation of panic attacks in adolescents. A panic attack questionnaire and the Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered to an unselected sample of Australian adolescents. Of 534 adolescents, 42.9% reported having at least one panic attack. Other data are reported on the characteristics of panic attacks, life interference and avoidance behaviour. Panickers reported significantly higher anxiety levels than nonpanickers. Differences between the findings of Australian and American samples were noted and directions for future research were identified. Several methodological issues were also discussed including the reliability and validity of self-report data on panic attacks.

Coping styles and prison experience as predictors of psychological well‐being in male prisoners

Research investigating the effects of imprisonment on prisoners psychological well‐being has suggested that imprisonment does not have an adverse effect on their well‐being. However, given inconsistency across studies, this finding cannot be considered conclusive. The present study sought to investigate this issue further through a comprehensive assessment of prisoner well‐being including measures of self‐esteem, depression, anxiety and subjective quality of life. Given their documented association with well‐being in both community and prisoner populations, we also included assessment of coping styles. Findings regarding the association between well‐being and prison‐related variables such as length of sentence and time spent in prison have been particulariy inconsistent. Thus, we also investigated these variables. Data collected from 81 Australian male prisoners, indicated that prisoners have significantly compromised psychological well‐being and that coping style appears to be more salient for prisoner well‐being than prison‐related variables. However, we argue that it would be overly simplistic to conclude from these findings that the prison experience is not playing a part in the compromised well‐being of prisoners.

Emotion regulation moderates relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology

The study investigated the moderating role of emotion regulation (ER) in relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology. A community sample of 533 boys and girls (11-20 years) completed measures assessing body image thoughts and feelings, domain-specific and general ER strategies, drive for thinness, and bulimic, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results indicated that ER moderated relationships between body image concerns and both bulimic and depressive symptoms, but not relationships between body image concerns and drive for thinness or anxiety symptoms. Adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of bulimic symptoms if they tended to use avoidance and internal dysfunctional ER strategies. Furthermore, adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of depressive symptoms if they used positive rational acceptance and internal functional strategies infrequently. Implications of the findings for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Fears in hearing-impaired and normally hearing children and adolescents

In this study the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children was administered to 138 hearing-impaired and 134 normally hearing youths. Although both groups expressed fear of potentially dangerous stimuli, significant differences in responding were evident towards other kinds of stimuli. Whereas hearing children were more fearful of failure and criticism, the hearing-impaired children were more afraid of the unknown, injury and small animals. Girls reported significantly greater levels of fear than boys thus confirming a well established research finding. Further, significant interactions were found between hearing status and gender. In contrast to previous findings, age was not related to self-reports of fear.