Beatriz Moreno-Amador

Background: In recent years, there has been an increased interest in studying sensory responses to stimuli in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Sensory reactivity has been linked to restrictive and repetitive behaviors. However, few instruments have been designed to assess the dimensions of sensory hyporeactivity and pain in the general population. Methods: The psychometric properties of the Pain and Sensitivity Reactivity Scale (PSRS) were analyzed in a non-clinical sample of 1122 adolescents and adults (mean age = 22.39, SD = 7.32). Results: The PSRS exhibited excellent psychometric properties, and three first-order factor models were confirmed. The sensory hyperreactivity subscales were highly correlated with the sensory over-responsivity scales, whereas a moderate correlation was found between sensory hyperreactivity measured via the PSRS and OCI-R subscales. Furthermore, sensory hyporeactivity and hyperreactivity appear to be moderately and positively correlated. Differences were observed as a function of gender and age. Conclusions: PSRS may be a reliable measure for analyzing pain and sensory reactivity in neurotypical populations. Future research should include clinical samples and multiple informants.

Background: In recent years there has been an increased interest in studying sensory responses to stimuli in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Sensory reactivity has been linked to restric-tive and repetitive behaviors. However, few instruments have been designed to assess the dimen-sions of sensory hyporeactivity and pain in the general population. Methods: The psychometric properties of the Pain and Sensitivity Reactivity Scale (PSRS) were analyzed in a non-clinical sample of 1,122 adolescents and adults (mean age = 22.39, SD = 7.32). Results: The PSRS exhibited excellent psychometric properties and three first-order factor models were confirmed. The sensory hyperreactivity subscales were highly correlated with the sensory over-responsivity scales, whereas a moderate correlation was found between sensory hyperreactivity measured via the PSRS and OCI-R subscales. Furthermore, sensory hyporeactivity and hyperreactivity appear to be moderately and positively correlated. Differences were observed as a function of sex and age. Conclusions: PSRS is a reliable measure for analyzing pain and sensory reactivity in neurotypical populations. Future research should include clinical samples and multiple informants.

Antecedentes: : La adolescencia es un periodo importante del desarrollo en el que pueden aparecer problemas psicológicos, incluyendo conducta suicida. Además, experimentar acontecimientos vitales estresantes (AVEs) puede contribuir a su aparición, aunque el impacto de distintos tipos de AVEs ha sido escasamente examinado. Este estudio pretende analizar asociaciones entre diferentes AVEs, problemas psicológicos, bienestar subjetivo y conducta suicida en adolescentes. Se desarrolló un nuevo instrumento - (SLECA)- donde los AVEs se clasificaron como: leves/graves, dependientes/independientes, interpersonales/no-interpersonales y crónicos/episódicos. Método: : Se incluyeron dos oleadas. 5.610 adolescentes participaron en la primera y 2.312 en la segunda. Resultados: : Los AVEs graves-dependientes-interpersonales-episódicos se asociaron fuertemente a problemas exteriorizados; los AVEs graves-dependientes-no-interpersonales-episódicos mostraron la más alta relación con problemas de atención e hiperactividad; y los AVEs graves-independientes-crónicos se asociaron tanto a bajo bienestar subjetivo como a problemas interiorizados. Los AVEs académicos y relacionados con problemas con los iguales se relacionaron con problemas psicológicos y bajo bienestar subjetivo. Controlando por variables de salud mental, la conducta suicida se asoció a AVEs graves-independientes-crónicos y los relacionados con la victimización y problemas con la sexualidad. Conclusiones: : El SLECA es un instrumento útil para evaluar AVEs en adolescentes, desenredando las interrelaciones entre AVEs, salud mental y conducta suicida.

Objective: The covitality model suggests that the co-disposition and synergy of core psychosocial assets (i.e., covitality) buffer the negative impact of stressful events and prevent the emergence of mental health problems during adolescence. At this stage of development, suicide already constitutes the leading cause of unnatural death in Europe. The present study aimed to examine how covitality relates to bidimensional mental health status (i.e., psychopathology and subjective well-being) and suicidal risk.Method: Participants were 5,296 Spanish students ages 12 to 18 years (M-age +/- SD = 14.19 +/- 1.53), 50.2% male.Results: In a structural equation mediational model, covitality acted as a powerful shield of psychosocial strengths against suicidality, via an indirect effect entirely mediated by its impact on bidimensional mental health. The total variance in suicidal risk explained by the set of independent variables was 61.8%, while the total variance of psychopathology and subjective well-being explained by covitality was 54.1% and 75.6%, respectively.Conclusions: These preliminary findings highlight the need for further study of covitality as a defense strategy against adolescent suicide.

Background: The Social Emotional Distress Scale-Secondary (SEDS-S) is a short measure designed for comprehensive school-based mental health screening, particularly for using very brief self-reported measures of well-being and distress. Whereas prior studies have shown validity and reliability evidence for the English version, there is a lack of literature about its psychometric properties for Spanish-speaking youths. Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the SEDS-S in a large sample of Spanish adolescents, providing evidence of its reliability, structure, convergent and discriminant validity, longitudinal and gender measurement invariance, and normative data. Methods: Participants were 5550 adolescents aged 12–18 years old. Test–retest reliability was examined using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients, and evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was measured using Pearson’s correlation. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine structure validity, while multigroup and longitudinal measurement invariance analysis was conducted for longitudinal and gender latent structure stability. Results: The CFA supported a unidimensional latent structure, which was also observed to be invariant between gender groups and over time. The scale showed evidence of reliability, with coefficients above .85. In addition, the SEDS-S score was positively related to measures assessing distress and negatively related to measures assessing well-being, thereby providing convergent/discriminant validity of the total scores. Conclusion: This study provides the first evidence of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the SEDS-S for assessing emotional distress among adolescents, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Furthermore, findings indicated that SEDS-S could be a suitable assessment tool for screening and program evaluation purposes at different contexts beyond the school setting.

Cognitive emotion regulation refers to the management of one’s emotions through cognitive strategies. Studies have found that individuals with obsessive–compulsive symptoms utilize emotion regulation strategies differently compared to those without these symptoms. This study aims to investigate the relationship between cognitive strategies for emotion regulation and specific dimensions of obsessive–compulsive symptoms in adolescents. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 307 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old. Associations between sociodemographic variables, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, and emotion regulation strategies were examined using regression and network analyses. Regression results indicated that emotion regulation strategies and gender accounted for 28.2% of the variation in overall obsessive–compulsive symptoms (p < 0.001) and that emotion regulation explained most variance in the symptom dimension of obsessing. Network analysis showed that self-blame and catastrophizing were uniquely linked to overall obsessive–compulsive symptoms, while several strategies were uniquely linked to specific symptom dimensions. The adaptive strategy that demonstrated the strongest association with obsessive–compulsive symptoms was refocus on planning, while maladaptive strategies included catastrophizing, self-blame, and rumination. In conclusion, the results support the relationship between cognitive strategies for emotion regulation and dimensions of obsessive–compulsive symptoms in adolescents, though these relations appear complex and require further investigation. Addressing emotion regulation in the prevention of obsessive–compulsive symptoms may be warranted, but prospective studies are needed.

Background: Sensory overresponsivity (SOR) has emerged as a potential endophenotype in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but few studies have examined SOR in relation to the major symptom dimensions of OCD and to symptoms across the full obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptom spectrum. Objective: This study had 2 main objectives. First, we examined the psychometric properties of the SOR Scales in a community-based sample of Spanish adolescents and adults. Second, we identified how SOR difficulties are related to symptoms across the full OC spectrum (eg, OC, body dysmorphic, hoarding, skin-picking, and hair-pulling symptoms), including the heterogeneity of OC symptoms. Methods: We translated the SOR Scales into Spanish—a measure that assesses SOR across the 5 sensory modalities—and created a web-based version of the measure. A sample of 1454 adolescents and adults (mean age 23.84, SD 8.46 years) participated in the study, and 388 (26.69%) participants completed the survey twice (approximately 8 months apart). The survey also contained a web-based measure that assesses symptoms across the full OC spectrum: harm and checking, taboo obsessions, contamination or cleaning, symmetry and ordering, body dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms. Results: The psychometric properties of the SOR Scales were excellent, and the test-retest reliability was adequate. All types of SOR were related to all major symptom dimensions of OCD and to all OC spectrum symptoms. Conclusions: SOR across the sensory modalities can be validly assessed using a web-based measure. SOR emerged as a pure transdiagnostic phenomenon in relation to symptoms across the OC spectrum, with no specific sensory modality being more strongly related to OC symptoms. SOR can shed much needed light on basic mechanisms that are important for the onset and maintenance of OC spectrum symptoms, and this study shows that large-scale web-based studies can aid in this endeavor. Future studies should examine whether SOR precedes or emerges alongside OC symptoms.

Few studies have investigated body-dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms in adolescents and how they relate to mental health, quality of life, suicide attempts, and non-suicidal self-harm. We used a quota sampling procedure and contacted 100 secondary centres in the Southeast of Spain, of which 34 participated in the study. A sample of 5,345 adolescents (12–18 years) completed dimensional measures of body-dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms. The proportion of adolescents with clinically significant symptoms within each symptom type was estimated and associations with other indicators of mental health examined. Clinically significant body-dysmorphic symptoms were reported by 3.7%, hoarding by 0.9%, hair-pulling by 0.7%, and skin-picking by 1.8%. Body-dysmorphic symptoms were more common in girls and in those over 14 years of age. Body-dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms were moderately to strongly associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and poor quality of life. Those with significant body-dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms were much more likely to have attempted suicide and engaged in non-suicidal self-harm during the last twelve months than those without such symptoms. Body-dysmorphic symptoms showed the strongest associations with internalizing symptoms and poor quality of life. Limitations are the sole use of self-report and a sample from only two regions in Spain, but findings suggest that body-dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms are common and impairing during adolescence.

BACKGROUND Sensory overresponsivity (SOR) has emerged as a potential endophenotype in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but few studies have examined SOR in relation to the major symptom dimensions of OCD and to symptoms across the full obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptom spectrum. OBJECTIVE This study had 2 main objectives. First, we examined the psychometric properties of the SOR Scales in a community-based sample of Spanish adolescents and adults. Second, we identified how SOR difficulties are related to symptoms across the full OC spectrum (eg, OC, body dysmorphic, hoarding, skin-picking, and hair-pulling symptoms), including the heterogeneity of OC symptoms. METHODS We translated the SOR Scales into Spanish—a measure that assesses SOR across the 5 sensory modalities—and created a web-based version of the measure. A sample of 1454 adolescents and adults (mean age 23.84, SD 8.46 years) participated in the study, and 388 (26.69%) participants completed the survey twice (approximately 8 months apart). The survey also contained a web-based measure that assesses symptoms across the full OC spectrum: harm and checking, taboo obsessions, contamination or cleaning, symmetry and ordering, body dysmorphic, hoarding, hair-pulling, and skin-picking symptoms. RESULTS The psychometric properties of the SOR Scales were excellent, and the test-retest reliability was adequate. All types of SOR were related to all major symptom dimensions of OCD and to all OC spectrum symptoms. CONCLUSIONS SOR across the sensory modalities can be validly assessed using a web-based measure. SOR emerged as a pure transdiagnostic phenomenon in relation to symptoms across the OC spectrum, with no specific sensory modality being more strongly related to OC symptoms. SOR can shed much needed light on basic mechanisms that are important for the onset and maintenance of OC spectrum symptoms, and this study shows that large-scale web-based studies can aid in this endeavor. Future studies should examine whether SOR precedes or emerges alongside OC symptoms.

Background: The short form, 17-item version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Youth Self-Report (PSC-17-Y) is a validated measure that assesses psychosocial problems overall (OVR) and in 3 major psychopathological domains (internalizing, externalizing, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), taking 5-10 min to complete. Prior research has established sound psychometric properties of the PSC-17-Y for English speakers. Objective: This study extends psychometric evidence for the acceptability of the PSC-17-Y in a large sample of Spanish adolescents, providing proof of its reliability and structure, convergent and discriminant validity, and longitudinal and gender invariance. Methods: Data were collected on 5430 adolescents, aged 12-18 years, who filled out the PSC-17-Y twice during 2018-2019 (7-month interval). We calculated the Cronbach alpha and the McDonald omega coefficients to test reliability, the Pearson correlation for convergent (distress) and criterion validity (well-being, quality of life, and socioemotional skills), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for structure validity, and multigroup and longitudinal measurement invariance analysis for longitudinal and gender stability. Results: Within structural analysis for the PSC-17-Y, CFA supported a correlated 3-factor solution, which was also invariant longitudinally and across gender. All 3 subscales showed evidence of reliability, with coefficients near or above .70. Moreover, scores of PSC-17-Y subscales were positively related with convergent measures and negatively related with criterion measures. Normative data for the PSC-17-Y are presented in the form of percentiles (75th and 90th). Conclusions: This work provides the first evidence of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the PSC-17-Y administered over the internet to assess mental health problems among adolescents, maintaining the same domains as the long version.