Joana Cabral

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.

Discrimination and homonegativity have been consistently linked to poorer mental health outcomes in LGBTQI+ individuals. However, little is known about the role of internal shame and the potential moderating role of social support. This cross-sectional study investigated the impact of discrimination, internal shame, and social support on mental health outcomes in LGBTQI+ individuals, exploring the intersection between gender and sexual orientation. LGBTQI+ participants, especially women, reveal higher levels of discrimination and shame and a stronger impact on mental health outcomes compared to heterosexual counter-partners. Internal shame was found to mediate the impact of discrimination on depression and anxiety. Social support was found to buffer the impact of discrimination on internal shame, depression, and anxiety. These findings have important implications for clinical practice with LGBTQI+ individuals, suggesting that addressing internal shame and building social support networks are central to promoting resilience and mental health. Results also highlight that gender and sexual orientation should be considered in an intersectional approach when addressing gender-based violence and discrimination and its impact on mental health.

Review question / Objective: What are the predictors of digital literacy in the general population? Condition being studied: This review's objective is to pinpoint and assess the factors that predict digital literacy in the general public. Eligibility criteria: Primary, correlational or experimental studies with a focus on digital literacy, published in English.

Social status is found to interfere with health outcomes after adverse life experiences. Evidence suggests the importance of subjective social status (SSS), above and beyond objective status. This study tests the moderating role of SSS in the association between victimization and mental health, considering the effect of distinct forms of victimization, clinical symptoms and psychological well-being. A sample of 300 adults completed self-reported questionnaires. Results revealed that greater psychological victimization was associated with lower self-acceptance and autonomy, and greater sexual victimization was associated with lower autonomy, particularly when participants reported lower SSS. Implications for intervention with victims are discussed.

Although the quality of parent-adolescent emotional bonds has consistently been proposed as a major influence on young adult's psycho-emotional functioning, the precise means by which these bonds either facilitate or impede adaptive coping are not well-understood. In an effort to advance this inquiry, the present study examined interrelationships among measures of parental attachment, emotion regulation processes, and preferred coping strategies within a sample of 942 college freshmen. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test whether the link between attachment to parents and the use of particular coping strategies is mediated by differences in emotion regulation mechanisms. As hypothesized, differences in attachment to parents predicted differences in the use of emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. More specifically, having a close emotional bond, feeling supported in autonomy processes and having (moderately) low levels of separation anxiety toward parents predict more constructive emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. Additionally emotion regulation was found to (partly or totally) mediate the association between attachment and coping.

In this study with 236 Portuguese university students, we examined two competing models for understanding identity. In the first model, the direct independent effects of parental and romantic attachment on identity were tested. The second model examined the mediating role of romantic attachment representations in the link between parental attachment and identity. The participants completed measures of parental and romantic attachment at the beginning of the freshman year (Wave 1), and a measure of identity development 18 months later (Wave 2). Structural equation modeling for the independent model indicated that identity is exclusively predicted by romantic attachment at this life stage, and not by parental attachment. Regarding the second model, our mediational hypothesis was supported, since the association between parental attachment and identity was totally mediated by romantic attachment representations. Both models presented adequate indices of adjustment, and provided a complementary understanding of the differential role that romantic relations play in contributing to explaining identity development.

This cross-sectional study involving a sample of Portuguese college students examined whether parental attachment bonds are related to quality of romantic attachment and whether emotional regulation processes mediate these links. One hundred and seventy college undergraduates completed measures of parental attachment bonds, emotional regulation and a measure of romantic attachment at the beginning of their freshman year. Structural Equations Modeling analyses demonstrated that the quality of parental attachment predicted different patterns of emotional regulation, which in turn predicted significant variability in the representations of students' relationships with intimate peers. The implications of our findings on counseling college students in distressed relationships are discussed.