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Background: Despite the role of mentalization in mental health outcomes and prevention, psychometrically-evaluated screening measures for mentalization remain sparse. One widely-used mentalization questionnaire is the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ; Hausberg et al., 2012), which we aimed to adapt and validate for use in Spanish.

Method: We adapted the MZQ to European Spanish and evaluated its psychometric properties in both adolescent (n = 389, ages 12-19, M = 14.5) and adult community samples (n = 382, M = 48).

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a unidimensional structure including all items. This model had better goodness of fit than the original and other adaptations. Invariance analysis showed the same structure in adolescents compared by sex and age, and additionally in the adult versus adolescent samples. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was found. Internal consistency values in both adolescents and parents were fair and in the adolescent sample the MZQ scores remained moderately stable after re-test.

Conclusions: The Spanish adaptation of the MZQ presents similar evidence of reliability and validity in the adolescent and adult samples. The results support this being a suitable version for evaluating mentalization in the general population.

Background: Exposure to early life stress (ELS) and maternal consumption of a high-fat and high-sugar diet can have detrimental effects on adult emotional responses. The microbiota and gut-brain axis have been proposed as playing a mediating role in the regulation of stress and emotion.

Method: Young male rats were exposed to maternal separation (MS) together with maternal and postnatal consumption of a HFS diet (45%kcal saturated fat, 17%kcal sucrose). Anxiety-like behaviour was evaluated using an elevated zero-maze, and depression-like behaviour using the forced-swim and sucrose preference tests. Microbiota composition and derived metabolites were also analysed in faecal samples using a gas chromatograph and mass spectrometry.

Results: Combined exposure to MS and lifelong consumption of a HFS diet partially reversed the abnormal anxiety-like and depression-like behaviours in early adulthood caused by each adverse factor alone. Diet composition had a greater negative impact than ELS exposure on the gut microbiota, and both environmental factors interacted with microbiota composition partially counteracting their negative effects.

Conclusions: The effects of exposure to early life stress and a HFS diet independently are partially reversed after the combination of both factors. These results suggest that ELS and diet interact to modulate adult stress response and gut microbiota.

Background: The mental health of doctoral students is a matter of concern, and several variables appear to be associated with the state of their mental health. However, there have been no studies on the population of doctoral students in Spain to date using validated instruments.

Method: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted to assess mental health in 1,018 doctoral students. The impact of personal, academic, psychological, and social/organisational variables on their mental health was assessed.

Results: Between 50% and 60% of the sample might be experiencing a common psychological disorder, while 18.8% of the sample might be experiencing passive suicidal ideation. In addition, using binary logistic regression, significant predictors of negative mental health were identified, including: sociodemographic variables (being female); academic variables (longer time spent in a doctoral programme); psychological variables (lower life satisfaction; greater interference and less clarity about negative emotions); and social and organisational variables (greater fear of losing tuition rights, lower social support, and greater interference of academic work with personal life).

Conclusions: Doctoral students need measures to remedy and prevent mental health issues based on improving self-care and emotion regulation, promoting social support at university, and reducing the pressure of losing tuition rights among final-year students.

Background: The grieving process caused by the loss of a loved one triggers a range of responses. While most people experience adaptive grief, some may experience intense distress and persistent symptoms. Prolonged Grief Disorder is commonly diagnosed using the ICD-11 and the DSM-5-TR. Few instruments assess criteria from both simultaneously, underscoring the importance of the Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report Plus (TGI-SR+). This study aimed to analyse the psychometric properties of the scores from the Spanish version of the TGI-SR+.

Method: Data were analysed from 229 participants who were bereaved between March 2020 and March 2022. The Spanish TGI-SR+ was used alongside measures of psychopathology and prolonged grief. We performed confirmatory factor analysis, reliability tests, bivariate correlations and group comparisons.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis of the TGI-SR+ demonstrated a one-factor structure with high reliability ( ϖ = .99). Convergent validity was shown by correlations with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and prolonged grief (p < .001). Differences by sex and educational level were observed. Optimal screening cut-off points were identified for the total sample and for those meeting the criteria for prolonged grief.

Conclusions: The Spanish version of the TGI-SR+ is a valuable instrument for assessing prolonged grief in Spanish-speaking populations.

Background: Bedtime procrastination (BP) is an increasingly prevalent behavior with detrimental outcomes for individuals. Three reasons for BP have been identified: Deliberate procrastination, mindless procrastination, and strategic delay. Developing an instrument to assess the reasons for BP allows better identification of patterns of behaviors and tailored interventions. The present study aims to develop and study the psychometric properties of the Reasons for Bedtime Procrastination Scale (RBPS).

Method: The study sample included adults living in Portugal (N = 653). Validity and reliability analyses were conducted.

Results: Principal component analysis suggested that the RBPS is composed of two factors (factor 1 - deliberate and mindless reasons; factor 2 - strategic reasons). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-factor structure of the scale (e.g., CFI = .984; TLI = .976 RMSEA = .053). The scale demonstrated good internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .85 for factor 1, and of .72 for factor 2. Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations with the number of activities people engage in before going to bed, BP, bedtime gap, fall-asleep time gap, and wake-up time gap.

Conclusions: The RBPS appears to represent a reliable way of assessing reasons for BP in the general adult population.

Background: Internationally adopted children who suffered early institutionalization are at risk of a late onset of internalizing problems in adolescence. Both pre-adoption, adversity-related, and post-adoption factors predict variability in internalizing problems in this population. Previous studies have suggested different patterns of parent-adolescent informant discrepancies in adoptive dyads

Method: We analyzed internalizing problems among 66 adolescents internationally adopted from Russia to Spanish families using both the parent- and self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and comparing them with a low-risk, community group (n = 30). We assessed pre-adoption and post-adoption factors and evaluated cross-informant discrepancies.

Results: Internationally adopted adolescents exhibited more internalizing problems by parent-report than community adolescents, but there were no differences by self-report. Adopted youth showed no discrepancies between parent and self-report, whereas community adolescents reported more internalizing symptoms than their parents. Pre-adoption adversity-related factors predicted parent-reported internalizing problems, while post-adoption factors predicted self-reported internalizing problems.

Conclusions: Parent-adolescent informant discrepancies in adopted adolescents from Eastern Europe for internalizing symptoms were lower than in community adolescents. Both adversity-related factors and the lived experience of adoption may influence the development of internalizing symptoms in internationally adopted adolescents.

Background: The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) is a recently developed instrument for assessing the "dark" personality traits of psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism. We aimed to examine the SD4's psychometric properties, adapting it into Spanish and exploring its structure, gender invariance, reliability, concurrent validity, and nomological network.

Method: A sample of 668 adults (Mage = 26.36, SD = 10.64, 69.2% females) completed the SD4 and other self-report questionnaires.

Results: The results demonstrated sound indices of reliability and concurrent validity, an adequate four-factor structure, and support for gender invariance. Furthermore, most of the findings about the nomological network were in line with prior hypotheses: All four SD4 scales were associated with low levels of agreeableness and antagonism; psychopathy was also related to low conscientiousness, disinhibition and impulse-control problems; narcissism was positively associated with extraversion and negatively associated with internalizing symptoms; Machiavellianism was uncorrelated with impulsivity-related problems, which made it distinct from the psychopathy profile; finally, sadism showed a similar pattern of associations to psychopathy, albeit less strongly linked to impulsivity problems and externalizing behavior.

Conclusions: Overall, the SD4 presents sound psychometric properties, although the overlap between psychopathy and sadism warrants some caution.

Background: Background: This study investigates the effects of cognitive interventions on executive functions and attention in patients with moderate Alzheimer's, comparing traditional and technology-based methods with a control group.

Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 112 participants, divided into three groups: traditional intervention, technology-based intervention, and control group. Sixteen sessions were carried out, assessed using standardized tests and applying hierarchical linear mixed models to adjust for confounding factors and random effects.

Results: The interventions proved effective in improving executive functions. The model for backward digits and categorical fluency was optimized with MMSE scores, highlighting the benefits of good cognitive performance and the negative impacts of age on categorical fluency. The similarity-abstraction variable demonstrated the beneficial effects of education and cognitive performance.

Conclusions: Cognitive training is a valuable tool for improving executive functions and attention in moderate Alzheimer's, indicating significant practical benefits. Future research should focus on the mechanisms of skill transfer to optimize interventions and improve the quality of life for those affected.

Background: Suicide attempt (SA) lethality is associated with heightened suicidal desires and social cognition deficits. Fearlessness about death (FAD) and hypomentalizing may play a role in SA and self-harm. Although studies have identified relationships between these constructs, this line of research is still limited. We aimed to explore the mediating role of FAD and mentalizing between suicidal ideation and both SA lethality and self-harm.

Method: 1,371 suicide attempters (70.1% women; M = 40 years) from seven Spanish hospitals participated. We used the Fearlessness About Death (ACSS-FAD) subscale, the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire-8 (RFQ-8), and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (CSSRS). We conducted serial multiple mediation analyses with suicidal ideation as exposure; FAD and mentalizing as mediators; SA lethality and self-harm as outcomes.

Results: Indirect effects were found of suicidal ideation on self-harm ( B = 0.08, CI = 0.03-0.15) and SA lethality mediated by FAD ( B = 0.02, CI = 0.001-0.04); indirect effects of suicidal ideation on self-harm through mentalizing ( B = 0.10, CI = 0.04-0.167), and total indirect effects between suicidal ideation and self-harm through FAD and mentalizing ( B = 0.18, CI = 0.11-0.27).

Conclusions: Interventions addressing mentalizing and FAD may help reduce SA lethality and self-harm risk.

Background: There are no validated instruments in Spain for measuring parental feeding styles. The aim was to validate the Parental Feeding Styles Questionnaires (PFSQ) in a Spanish sample.

Method: A total of 523 mothers of 523 school-children participated. The children had a mean age of 4.4 years (SD = 1.3), with 51% being boys (M = 4.3 years, SD = 1.4) and 49% girls (M = 4.5 years, = SD 1.3). The PFSQ and the Comprehensive General Parenting Styles Questionnaire (CGPQ) were used.

Results: A model of four correlated factors was identified: Prompting/encouraging eating, emotional feeding, instrumental feeding, and control over eating. Cronbach's alpha for the subscales ranged from 0.64 to 0.86, and McDonald's Omega coefficient ranged from 0.66 to 0.86. Emotional feeding and prompting/encouraging eating had values above 0.70, control over eating had a value of 0.68 and instrumental feeding had an alpha coefficient of 0.64 and omega coefficient of 0.66. The factor structure was similar to the original and to other adapted versions. The Spanish sample used more control over eating and prompting/encouraging to eat.

Conclusions: The adapted PFSQ is a suitable instrument for assessing the feeding styles of Spanish parents.