Emotional Experience, Physiological Reactivity, and Psychological Difficulties during middle childhood: a pilot study

Introduction Many studies linked expression and regulation of emotions as transdiagnostic variables involved in the emergence of psychopathological disorders. However, few studies investigated such processes during middle childhood, a critical period of life defined by significant psychological, physical, and social changes. Objectives Explore the relationship between child’s emotion regulation – both emotional subjective experience and physiological reactivity – and child’s psychological difficulties. Methods 20 children (Mage=10.7, SD=1.25; 65% males) and their mothers were recruited from general population. Emotion regulation was assessed with (1) How I Feel (HIF) and Positive and Negative Affect questionnaires (PANAS) and (2) Heart Rate (i.e., Beats Per Minute, BPM) and Heart Rate Variability (i.e., High Frequency and Low Frequency ratio, LF/HF). Child’s psychological difficulties were measured with the parent report Child Behavioral Checklist 6-18 (CBCL-6/18). Results Statistically significant correlations emerged between the HIF-Positive emotions scale and both externalizing (rs = -.51) and internalizing (rs = -.46) difficulties; the HIF-Negative emotions scale and internalizing difficulties (rs = .49); LF/HF and internalizing difficulties (rs = -.58). Finally, a non-significant but moderate effect was found between the HIF-Negative emotions scale and externalizing difficulties (rs = .33). Conclusions Although the limited number of participants, data suggest an interesting role played by both child’s emotional experience and physiological reactivity on internalizing and externalizing difficulties as reported by mothers. More specifically, child’s experience of positive emotions is associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing difficulties, while child’s experience of negative emotions illustrates an opposite relationship, implying the relevance of looking at child’s emotional subjective experience in understanding psychological difficulties. Moreover, LF/HF ratio – labeled as the child’s sympathovagal balance – seems like it might be higher in children with less internalizing difficulties. Although doubts about LF/HF interpretation, several studies share this view showing a decrease in autonomic reactivity in internalizing problems, such as depression, in adults. Overall, our preliminary results underline the importance of studying the emergence of psychopathological outcomes in middle childhood connected to both psychological and physiological emotional processes. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Introduction: Attachment, as an interpersonal motivational system, is the relational ground that allows emotions to be regulated through action on the Autonomic Nervous System resulting in better psychological outcomes during middle childhood.Emotion dysregulation and autonomic function are often connected to psychiatric symptoms observed in adolescence (e.g.borderline personality disorder traits) and thus middle childhood becomes a critical age for psychopathological trajectories.Objectives: Examine the relationship between child's attachment and both psychological and physiological emotional regulation.Methods: 20 children (M age = 10.7,SD = 1.25; 65% males) were recruited from general population.Attachment was measured through the Child Attachment Interview (CAI), while emotional regulation was assessed with a multimethod approach, using questionnaires i.e.How I Feel (HIF) and Positive and Negative Affect (PANAS), and physiological measurements i.e.Heart Rate Variability (ratio between High Frequency and Low Frequency, HF/LF, labeled as the child's sympathovagal balance) and Heart Rate (Beats Per Minute, BPM, as an index of physiological reactivity).Results: Statistically significant correlations emerged between the HIF-Control scale and the Mother and Father Dismissal CAI scale, the PANAS-Negative Affect scale and the Mother and Father Preoccupied Anger CAI scale.Moreover, there was a nonsignificant but moderate effect (rs > .30) between HF/LF and the Emotional Openness and the Resolution scales of the CAI, and between BPM and the Emotional Openness scale.Conclusions: Despite the small sample size, more secure children are able to connect with their emotions and properly use them in solving relational problems.Consequently, they are likely to succeed in understanding and regulating emotions as they manage to find more adaptive strategies their own.On the contrary, the presence of dismissal or anger (insecure attachment) towards parents would appear to lead to higher levels of psycho-physiological dysregulation, a core feature of Borderline Personality Disorder dimensions starting to emerge later in adolescence.Future studies should consider physiological dysregulation as an additional factor linked to psychopathological developmental trajectories.
Introduction: Many studies linked expression and regulation of emotions as transdiagnostic variables involved in the emergence of psychopathological disorders.However, few studies investigated such processes during middle childhood, a critical period of life defined by significant psychological, physical, and social changes.
Objectives: Explore the relationship between child's emotion regulationboth emotional subjective experience and physiological reactivityand child's psychological difficulties.Methods: 20 children (M age =10.7,SD=1.25; 65% males) and their mothers were recruited from general population.Emotion regulation was assessed with (1) How I Feel (HIF) and Positive and Negative Affect questionnaires (PANAS) and (2) Heart Rate (i.e., Beats Per Minute, BPM) and Heart Rate Variability (i.e., High Frequency and Low Frequency ratio, LF/HF).Child's psychological difficulties were measured with the parent report Child Behavioral Checklist 6-18 (CBCL-6/18).Results: Statistically significant correlations emerged between the HIF-Positive emotions scale and both externalizing (rs = -.51) and internalizing (rs = -.46)difficulties; the HIF-Negative emotions scale and internalizing difficulties (rs = .49);LF/HF and internalizing difficulties (rs = -.58).Finally, a non-significant but moderate effect was found between the HIF-Negative emotions scale and externalizing difficulties (rs = .33).Conclusions: Although the limited number of participants, data suggest an interesting role played by both child's emotional experience and physiological reactivity on internalizing and externalizing difficulties as reported by mothers.More specifically, child's experience of positive emotions is associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing difficulties, while child's experience of negative emotions illustrates an opposite relationship, implying the relevance of looking at child's emotional subjective experience in understanding psychological difficulties.Moreover, LF/HF ratiolabeled as the child's sympathovagal balanceseems like it might be higher in children with less internalizing difficulties.Although doubts about LF/HF interpretation, several studies share this view showing a decrease in autonomic reactivity in internalizing problems, such as depression, in adults.Overall, our preliminary results underline the importance of studying the emergence of psychopathological outcomes in middle childhood connected to both psychological and physiological emotional processes.

EPV0185
Food addiction and impulsivity in adolescents: A crosssectional survey of 360 cases Introduction: Impulsive personality Traits have been highly associated with both alcohol abuse and drug addiction, but have been accorded little attention in the context of food addiction.Objectives: To study the relationship between impulsivity and food addiction in school-aged adolescents.Methods: It is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical survey, conducted in a sample of secondary school students, randomly collected in 6 schools in the region of Sfax during February 2022.A pre established form of 33 questions, including socio-demographic and family information was used.Impulsivity was evaluated by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11;Patton et al., 1995).The BIS is a 30-item questionnaire that measures impulsivity along the following dimensions: cognitive, motor, and non-planning.The validated arabic version was used.* The 25-item Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), validated in Arabic, was used to assess food addiction in adolescents.
Results: Our sample consisted of 360 adolescents, with an average age of 16.62 years, being male in 52.2% and with a low to medium socio-economic level in 72.7% of them.A total of 20% of the adolescents showed a tendency to impulsivity, 23.6% had impulse control disorder.The food addiction score of our sample ranged from 0 to 56 with an average of 16.37 AE 12.380.The average food addiction score for adolescents with impulse control disorder was 20.21 AE14.819 while the average food addiction score for adolescents without impulse control disorder was 15.18 AE 11.291.Food addiction was strongly associated with impulsivity (p < 0.001).In particularly, Non-planning impulsivity was most strongly correlated with food addiction (p < 0.001, r ꞊ 0.252) Conclusions: Impulsivity, commonly related to addictive substance use behaviors, may be a significant risk factor for food addiction.Early monitoring of impulse control disorder may help to reduce addictive food consumption.Results: We collected 360 adolescents, 52.2% of whom were male.The mean age of our patients was 16.62 years.A total of 4.7% of the adolescents had an online gambling disorder, 26.9% had problematic use, while 68.3% were occasional users.The analytical study revealed that online video game addiction was associated with male gender (p ꞊0.003), the presence of relationship problems with parents (p ꞊0.000), and low academic achievement (p ꞊0.000).

S732
e-Poster Viewing Disclosure of Interest: None Declared EPV0186 Internet gambling disorder in adolescents: Prevalence and associated factors; A cross-sectional study of 360 cases Introduction: Gambling disorders have increased over time due to the easy availability of online games.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of internet gambling disorder in an adolescent population and to identify associated factors.Methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, conducted among a sample of high school students, randomly collected in 6 schools in the region of Sfax during the month of February 2022.A pre-established form of 33 questions, including socio-demographic and family information was used.The Arabic version of the Internet Gaming Disorder-20 (IGD-20) questionnaire was used to assess online gaming activity.It is a 20-item questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).A respondent's score was obtained by aggregating the 20 items.The higher the score, the more severe the gambling disorder.The cut-off score for the IGD-20 is 70.A score below 50 indicates occasional use; a score between 50 and 70 indicates problematic use; and a score above 70 indicates an online gambling disorder.