Ines Testoni
Biographic Data
| ID | 163205 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ines Testoni |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ines |
| FAMILY NAME | Testoni |
| SIGNATURE | TESTONI I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2325-6450 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 69 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 69 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Perceived non-ordinary end-of-life experiences witnessed and reported by a palliative care team accompanying terminally ill patients in a hospice: A qualitative study
Ambiguous presence: Grief and care among healthcare assistants in permanent vegetative state
Patients in a permanent vegetative state present unique emotional, ethical and relational challenges for those who care for them, whose physical presence yet psychological absence may expose staff to ambiguous loss, vicarious grief and disenfranchized grief. This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the lived experiences of 13 healthcare assistants working in a vegetative-state unit in north-east Italy, drawing on semi-st…
Bearing Witness to Loss: Formal Caregivers’ Grief in End-of-Life Care
Formal caregivers in end-of-life care routinely accompany patients into death, yet their own grief is often interpreted through individualized constructs—burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress—that obscure how loss is generated relationally and shaped institutionally. Drawing on Doka’s concept of disenfranchized grief and Kastenbaum’s concept of vicarious grief, this study examines how caregivers bear witness to loss: how they ca…
Shared Death Experiences in palliative care among family caregivers of cancer patients: A qualitative study
Palliative care can provide a crucial contribution to the spiritual aspect of managing both anticipatory grief and bereavement. Spirituality may imply the possibility of thinking of oneself beyond death, thereby imagining existence after death. Very little research has been conducted on Shared Death Experiences (SDEs) and After Death Communication Experiences (ADCEs) in the palliative care field. The present study investigated these experiences u…
Experiences and narratives of mandatory psychological assessment in Trans and Nonbinary people: An Italian qualitative analysis
The study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Padua with unique number D120DC6FDC5DF2694CF281D76B2CDB41 and protocol number 5003
Butoh dance as death pedagogy practice in a primary school: A mixed methods analysis
This article examines the integration of butoh dance into death pedagogy through the workshop The Great Breath of the Seasons, developed and carried out by the authors in two fifth-grade classrooms in Padua, Italy. The project sought to support children’s meaning-making around death within the elementary school context by engaging them in butoh dance. Drawing on a mixed-methods analysis of the workshop, which involved 38 students aged 10–11, the …
Death education and educators: The role of attitudes, anxiety, and future time perspective
This study explores the impact of death representations on openness to death education among university students in teaching and education degree programs. Drawing from Terror Management Theory, the roles of future time perspective (FTP), death anxiety, and the ontological representation of death as total annihilation were analyzed. The results show that viewing death as annihilation negatively impacts FTP, reducing the ability to think about the…
Social Psychological and Spiritual Discomfort: Legitimization of the Need for Transcendence and Psychological Listening
This study explores the interplay between social psychological distress and spiritual suffering, examining the motivations leading individuals in Italy to seek support from spiritual figures rather than mental health professionals. Grounded in a holistic bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach and using a mixed-method research design, the study’s data were collected through standardized psychological scales and semistructured interviews with 35 adul…
Devotion to Saints as Medieval Death Anxiety Management
This article examines the fear of death in fourteenth-century Italy by analysing miracle testimonies through the methodological frameworks of terror management theory (TMT) and lived religion. It argues that devotion to saints served as a key coping mechanism for existential anxiety. Examples from the canonisation processes of Clare of Montefalco and Nicholas of Tolentino reveal how individuals turned to saints for protection, seeking to prolong …
Believing in Possession: Social Psychological Distress and the Need for Spiritually Oriented Psychological and Pastoral Support
This study explores the intersection of beliefs in possession and the need for spiritually oriented psychological support. It addresses the gaps in the current literature regarding the psychological, psychopathological, supernatural, and spiritual dimensions of possession, emphasizing the need for specialized tools among religious and mental health practitioners. The research, conducted with 217 participants in Veneto, Italy, employed both quanti…
Parents' Experiences and Challenges in Communicating Pet Loss to Their Children
The loss of a companion animal can deeply affect both children and parents, often resulting in a form of grief that is overlooked by society. This research explored parents’ experiences in communicating the loss of a companion animal to their children and in understanding their children’s adaptation to the loss. Using a qualitative methodological framework, the study involved 28 semi-structured interviews with parents. A thematic analysis reveale…
Creative adaptability and emotional well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic: An international study
The putative associations between creative adaptability and the experience of emotional well-being (i.e., a positivity ratio of more positive than negative emotions) was investigated during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak with a sample of 1,432 adults from four countries: Israel (n = 310), United States (n = 312), Italy (n = 378), and China (n = 569). Country differences and a mediation model for creative adaptability predicting emotional well-bei…
Experiencing death and grief at the border: A sociocultural psychological analysis of activists’ struggles at the European and Central-American border
Dramatic consequences related to borders, such as migrants' deaths, disappearances and human rights violations, have increased since the 1990s. Several migration policies contribute to border violence, leading to traumatic mental health effects on migrants, their families and activists. The literature has overlooked the psychological, cultural and religious/spiritual experience of activists sharing the burden of migrants and their families' grief…
The Absence of Funeral Rites as a Risk Factor for the French Bereaved Population
During the COVID-19 pandemic, stringent measures were imposed in numerous countries, including France. These measures significantly disrupted societal practices, particularly mourning and funeral rituals. This study, conducted between June and September 2021 as part of the COVIDEUIL-France research, involved 242 participants, predominantly female (84%) with an average age of 49.64 years. The research aimed to investigate the consequences of the a…
The Impact of Covid-19 on Grief: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis in Italy
This mixed-method research study delves into the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on loss and mental health in Italy. The analysis uncovers a significant correlation between COVID-19 fear and heightened anxiety, depression, and stress, exacerbated by social isolation and misinformation. The loss of loved ones during the pandemic intensifies distress, with 28% showing signs of prolonged disorder and 22.8% displaying maladaptive grief symptom…
Psychodrama as group intervention on minority stress, identity and psychosocial well-being of LGBTQ+ Italian young adults: A qualitative case study
The study validates the minority stress model but suggests broader theoretical integration, emphasizing the role of social identity and therapeutic impact of psychodrama in managing minority stress
Exploring Emotions Related to the Covid-19 Pandemic through Death Education: A Qualitative Study at Italian Primary Schools
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of individuals, families, and children worldwide. In Italy, the implementation of measures such as lockdowns and distance learning in schools affected the mental health of children and families. Methods: This article employs a qualitative method to explore the efficacy of a death education project that aimed to help primary school children process the emotions and losses that they experienc…
Strengths and Weaknesses of Children Witnessing Relatives with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Research on minors who have a close family member with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is scarce. This study aims to analyze the relationships between reflective function and wellbeing among such children, considering their reflective function, representations of death, and behavioral problems with the following instruments: Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, Testoni Death Representation Scale for Children, Positive and Negative Affect Sch…
A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences of Young Patients and Caregivers Confronting Pediatric and Adolescent Oncology Diagnosis
Epidemiological studies show that new cases of young oncology patients are increasing by 400,000 every year. Psychological literature has shown that receiving an oncological diagnosis can cause significant psychological stress and discomfort. However, the experiences of young patients and their caregivers as they confront this challenge are not yet fully understood. This paper adopts a qualitative methodological approach to explore how young pati…
Is the Coming Out of an LGBTQIA+ Child a Death-like Event for Italian Parents
Parents of LGBTQIA+ individuals often report experiencing an affective state similar to grief after their children’s coming out. The current study explores whether this experience resembles that of people who have recently lost someone close. Furthermore, we tested whether the parents’ alexythimic traits are associated with their grief-like experience. In a sample of 194 parents who experienced their children’s coming out, we administered the Int…
Bereavement and Critical Incidents Involving Healthcare Professionals in Italy During Covid-19: The Importance of the Spiritual Dimension
This exploratory research investigated the work of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the major critical aspects, including healthcare providers’ needs as well as personal, professional, and social changes brought about by the pandemic upon both living and dying. In general, for many healthcare providers, the changes imposed by COVID-19 together with their inadequate training led to an excessive emotional load tha…
The Management of Voluntary Abortion in Family Counselling Services. A Qualitative Study on the Role of Social Workers in Italy
Introduction. Elective abortion has always been considered taboo. The event can sometimes be experienced as traumatic, as the woman finds herself struggling against a range of emotions: fear, shame, ambivalence, and a sense of guilt. Multidisciplinary support is therefore fundamental to guide women during this complex phase, and social workers usually play a key role in the process. The present study aimed therefore to explore the experiences and…
Journey to Switzerland as a state of exception: A 'homo sacer' Italian experience
In Italy, the topic of assisted suicide (AS) has been gaining increasing interest in recent years through a number of 'travel to Switzerland' cases. Italy, together with other European countries where this practice is not legalised, is involved in the 'Swiss effect', that is, 'suicide tourism' of ill people. This article looks at the experience of a patient who went to Switzerland for AS ('Andrea'), accompanied by a photojournalist ('Giordano') w…
Artificial Intelligence Versus Natural Intelligence
This book centers on a dialogue between Roger Penrose and Emanuele Severino about the comparison of artificial intelligence and natural intelligence
The Covid-19 Pandemic Between Bio-Ethics, Bio-Law and Bio-Politics: A Case Study on The Italian Experience of The DuPre Commission
The aim of this qualitative study was to consider the question of whether the Italian political management of the pandemic respected the European bio-ethical and bio-juridical approaches in light of the principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability. As no specific consolidated literature exists on the subject, the Italian situation was taken into consideration, specifically the work of a spontaneous commission (DuPre) that collecte…
Self-Appropriation between Social Mourning and Individuation: A Qualitative Study on Psychosocial Transition among Jehovah’s Witnesses
Spirituality for Coping with the Trauma of a Loved One’s Death During the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Italian Qualitative Study
Spirituality may be a key factor in reducing the negative psychological effects of traumatic events and a means by which the experience of grief can be processed. The objective of the present research is to assess whether and how spirituality provided concrete support in those who lost a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants are 8 people from the most affected cities in northern Italy. They were interviewed in depth, the interv…
The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study
This study describes the psychological effects of death education in reducing the fear of death in a large cohort of Italian adolescents. Following the constructs of "distal defenses" and "mortality salience" of Terror Management Theory, this research intervention also evaluated the proposition that spirituality and belief in an afterlife could provide an effective buffer against fear of death. Five hundred thirty-four Italian high school student…
The Psychological Correlates of Decreased Death Anxiety After a Near-Death Experience: The Role of Self-Esteem, Mindfulness, and Death Representations
Near-death experiences (NDE) are intense events that can have profound psychological consequences. Although decreased fear of death after an NDE is a well-documented phenomenon, it is unclear what psychological factors are associated with reduced death anxiety. In this study, grounded in terror management theory, we compared 102 people who had an NDE with 104 individuals who did not. Participants completed measures of death anxiety, self-esteem, …
Forgiveness and Blame Among Suicide Survivors: A Qualitative Analysis on Reports of 4-Year Self-Help-Group Meetings
Pet Loss and Representations of Death, Attachment, Depression, and Euthanasia
T Studies that have examined pet loss hypothesize that attachment, representations of death, and the belief in an afterlife for animals may \ninfluence owners’ bereavement and depressive outcomes. The following instruments were administered to 159 Italian participants recruited through \nsnowball sampling: the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), the Pet \nBereavement Questionnaire (PBQ), the Testoni Death Representation Scale \n(TDRS), and…
The Last Glance: How Aesthetic Observation of Corpses Facilitates Detachment in Grief Work
Following a ritual perspective, the paper identifies a new form of ritual concerning the corpse, which could facilitate separation and allow the living to look at the deceased without disgust. In order to explore the effect of thanato-aesthetic interventions, the experience of the last glance of the bereaved at their deceased loved ones was analyzed. Twenty interviews were performed in three morgues, and thematic analysis was utilized. The aim wa…
Spirituality and Children’s Coping with Representation of Death During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Research with Parents
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the related lockdown measures have had intense negative impacts on the psychological well-being of both adults and children. Among such impacts is a significant increase in mortality salience and changes in how people deal with grief and losses. This qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with 23 Italian parents to draw insights on the impact of the pandemic on children aged 5-15 …
Online reverse discourses? Claiming a space for trans voices
In recent years, online media have offered to trans people helpful resources to create new political, cultural and personal representations of their biographies. However, the role of these media in the construction of their social and personal identities has seldom been addressed. Drawing on the theoretical standpoint of positioning theory and diatextual discourse analysis, this paper discusses the results of a research project about weblogs crea…
The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being
Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population i…
Believing in Possession: Social Psychological Distress and the Need for Spiritually Oriented Psychological and Pastoral Support
This study explores the intersection of beliefs in possession and the need for spiritually oriented psychological support. It addresses the gaps in the current literature regarding the psychological, psychopathological, supernatural, and spiritual dimensions of possession, emphasizing the need for specialized tools among religious and mental health practitioners. The research, conducted with 217 participants in Veneto, Italy, employed both quanti…
Italian adolescents’ perception of tele-psychodrama treatment during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Despite the differences between online and in-person psychodrama, all the participants expressed their appreciation of group tele-psychodrama, which contributed to their overall psychological wellbeing and helped them process difficulties that emerged during the lockdowns
Conceptual Development and Content Validation of a Multicultural Instrument to Assess the Normalization of Gender-Based Violence against Women
The normalization of gender-based violence (GBV) consists of all those cultural beliefs and values that sustain, justify, or minimize GBV perpetration. Acknowledging the lack of instruments addressing the normalization of GBV and its constitutive sociocultural dimensions, this article presents the conceptual development and initial validation of the Normalization of gender-based violence against women scale. This 18-item instrument could be used …
A struggle for definition: Online narratives of Italian trans women
In recent years, literature in the field of trans studies suggested that there has been a widespread trend in academic debates about gender transitivity to produce monolithic conceptualizations of transness unable to account for the different gender experiences of trans individuals. This paper aims to provide a further contribution to debates in this area through an empirical investigation of trans narratives of identity and embodiment. Drawing o…
The Management of Voluntary Abortion in Family Counselling Services. A Qualitative Study on the Role of Social Workers in Italy
Introduction. Elective abortion has always been considered taboo. The event can sometimes be experienced as traumatic, as the woman finds herself struggling against a range of emotions: fear, shame, ambivalence, and a sense of guilt. Multidisciplinary support is therefore fundamental to guide women during this complex phase, and social workers usually play a key role in the process. The present study aimed therefore to explore the experiences and…
Journey to Switzerland as a state of exception: A 'homo sacer' Italian experience
In Italy, the topic of assisted suicide (AS) has been gaining increasing interest in recent years through a number of 'travel to Switzerland' cases. Italy, together with other European countries where this practice is not legalised, is involved in the 'Swiss effect', that is, 'suicide tourism' of ill people. This article looks at the experience of a patient who went to Switzerland for AS ('Andrea'), accompanied by a photojournalist ('Giordano') w…
Differences in Social Networking Behaviors Between Italian Gay and Heterosexual Men
The present study investigates differences between gay and heterosexual Italian men regarding both social networking behaviors and addiction. Furthermore, it explores the possible mediation effects of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, fear of missing out, and physical appearance on social networking behaviors and addiction. A total of 586 Italian men (334 gay and 252 heterosexual) were recruited with snowball sampling, and they completed an on…
Death education and photovoice at school: A workshop with Italian high school students
The study shows the effects of a death education workshop with Italian high school students. Students ( N = 416) from 10 high schools throughout Italy participated: 212 in the experimental group and 204 in the control group. Four weekly, two-hour workshops about the themes of death, with theoretical lessons and an experiential artistic activity of photovoice. Results show that the students in the experimental group showed significantly increased …
Spirituality during Covid-19 in Northern Italy: The experience of participating in an online prayer group
Social Support in Perinatal Grief and Mothers’ Continuing Bonds: A Qualitative Study With Italian Mourners
The grieving process after perinatal loss has unique properties. This qualitative study examines one aspect of the grieving process: continuing bonds experienced by the mothers. We offer an interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with 15 Italian mothers. Three main relevant themes emerged: “continuing bonds between externalized and internalized presence,” “a difficult guilt to manage,” and “relationships are crucial support systems…
Educating New Generations: Standpoints in Women's and Gender Studies and Implications for the Inclusion of LGBTQ Studies in Italian University Courses
It should not be surprising that in Italy, one of the latest European countries to recognize same-sex couples, LGBTIQ+ concerns are not included in students' academic curricula. Therefore, following the historical path of gender studies (GS) and women's studies (WS), this article explores the current feminist and gender discourse in order to catch a glimpse of what will be needed to fill this gap. To clarify which women's and gender studies stand…
Dignity as Wisdom at the End of Life: Sacrifice as Value Emerging from a Qualitative Analysis of Generativity Documents
The Ontological Representation of Death: A Scale to Measure the Idea of Annihilation Versus Passage
Since the borders between natural life and death have been blurred by technique, in Western societies discussions and practices regarding death have became infinite. The studies in this area include all the most important topics of psychology, sociology, and philosophy. From a psychological point of view, the research has created many instruments for measuring death anxiety, fear, threat, depression, meaning of life, and among them, the profiles …
Because Moms Say So: Narratives of Lesbian Mothers in Italy
The aim of this study is to analyze the narratives of 17 lesbian mothers (10 biological mothers and seven social mothers) in order to outline the construction of their identities as parents, their affective relationships with the partner (social mother), and the relationships established with public agencies (school, neighborhood, family networks). Results show that lesbian maternity has strong political and social implications. In particular, ou…
The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being
Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population i…
Pet Loss and Representations of Death, Attachment, Depression, and Euthanasia
T Studies that have examined pet loss hypothesize that attachment, representations of death, and the belief in an afterlife for animals may \ninfluence owners’ bereavement and depressive outcomes. The following instruments were administered to 159 Italian participants recruited through \nsnowball sampling: the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), the Pet \nBereavement Questionnaire (PBQ), the Testoni Death Representation Scale \n(TDRS), and…
Forgiveness and Blame Among Suicide Survivors: A Qualitative Analysis on Reports of 4-Year Self-Help-Group Meetings
Work And Spirituality Among People With Asperger Syndrome: An Exploratory Study
Spirituality and religiosity are important aspects of an individual’s psychology, but little is known about this dimension in people suffering from Asperger syndrome, and research on its relationship with work experience is rare. The main objective of this qualitative study is to report how 12 people with Asperger syndrome perceived their current or past jobs, focusing on the role of spirituality and religiosity, fear of death, and relationships …
Grieving those Who Still Live: Loss Experienced by Parents of Transgender Children
Transgender identity can be defined as the self-awareness of a discrepancy between the assigned sex at birth and the personal gender identity of an individual. This study assumed the constructionist perspective, focused on the influence of culture on sex-typing and the representations of gender in child development. This research considers how parents of transgender children emotionally handled the transition. Being faced with a child’s transgend…
Let’s Start With the End: Bibliodrama in an Italian Death Education Course on Managing Fear of Death, Fantasy-Proneness, and Alexithymia With a Mixed-Method Analysis
This article presents the results of an experience of death education (DE) course with bibliodrama in Italian high schools, which focused on emotions and existential themes. The research analyzed the inability to recognize or describe one's own emotions (alexithymia), fantasy-proneness, and attitudes toward death in two different groups of students: one who took a course on DE (with 113 students) and another who did not participate in it (with 11…
Online reverse discourses? Claiming a space for trans voices
In recent years, online media have offered to trans people helpful resources to create new political, cultural and personal representations of their biographies. However, the role of these media in the construction of their social and personal identities has seldom been addressed. Drawing on the theoretical standpoint of positioning theory and diatextual discourse analysis, this paper discusses the results of a research project about weblogs crea…
The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study
This study describes the psychological effects of death education in reducing the fear of death in a large cohort of Italian adolescents. Following the constructs of "distal defenses" and "mortality salience" of Terror Management Theory, this research intervention also evaluated the proposition that spirituality and belief in an afterlife could provide an effective buffer against fear of death. Five hundred thirty-four Italian high school student…
Dignity as Wisdom at the End of Life: Sacrifice as Value Emerging from a Qualitative Analysis of Generativity Documents
Self-Appropriation between Social Mourning and Individuation: A Qualitative Study on Psychosocial Transition among Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Psychological Correlates of Decreased Death Anxiety After a Near-Death Experience: The Role of Self-Esteem, Mindfulness, and Death Representations
Near-death experiences (NDE) are intense events that can have profound psychological consequences. Although decreased fear of death after an NDE is a well-documented phenomenon, it is unclear what psychological factors are associated with reduced death anxiety. In this study, grounded in terror management theory, we compared 102 people who had an NDE with 104 individuals who did not. Participants completed measures of death anxiety, self-esteem, …
Burnout, Reasons for Living and Dehumanisation among Italian Penitentiary Police Officers
The literature on burnout syndrome among Penitentiary Police Officers (PPOs) is still rather scarce, and there are no analyses on the protective factors that can prevent these workers from the dangerous effect of burnout, with respect to the weakening of the reasons for living and de-humanization. This study aimed to examine the relationships between burnout, protective factors against weakening of the reasons for living and not desiring to die a…
Beyond the Wall: Death Education at Middle School as Suicide Prevention
This study investigates the psychological effects of participation in Death Education (DeEd) by middle school children in two towns in northeast Italy in which suicides occur to a greater extent than in the rest of the region. The aims of the project "Beyond the Wall" were inherent to the prevention of suicide, address existential issues and enhance the meaning of life through positive intentions for the future and reflection on mortality. It inv…
The Hospice as a Learning Environment: A Follow-Up Study with a Palliative Care Team
In Western society, the topic of death has been removed from everyday life and replaced with medical language. Such censorship does not reduce individuals' fear of death, but rather limits their ability to elaborate their experiences of death, thus generating negative effects. The objective of this follow-up qualitative study was to detect how and if death education can help to improve individuals' relationship with death and enhance care environ…
Social Support in Perinatal Grief and Mothers’ Continuing Bonds: A Qualitative Study With Italian Mourners
The grieving process after perinatal loss has unique properties. This qualitative study examines one aspect of the grieving process: continuing bonds experienced by the mothers. We offer an interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with 15 Italian mothers. Three main relevant themes emerged: “continuing bonds between externalized and internalized presence,” “a difficult guilt to manage,” and “relationships are crucial support systems…
A struggle for definition: Online narratives of Italian trans women
In recent years, literature in the field of trans studies suggested that there has been a widespread trend in academic debates about gender transitivity to produce monolithic conceptualizations of transness unable to account for the different gender experiences of trans individuals. This paper aims to provide a further contribution to debates in this area through an empirical investigation of trans narratives of identity and embodiment. Drawing o…
Educating New Generations: Standpoints in Women's and Gender Studies and Implications for the Inclusion of LGBTQ Studies in Italian University Courses
It should not be surprising that in Italy, one of the latest European countries to recognize same-sex couples, LGBTIQ+ concerns are not included in students' academic curricula. Therefore, following the historical path of gender studies (GS) and women's studies (WS), this article explores the current feminist and gender discourse in order to catch a glimpse of what will be needed to fill this gap. To clarify which women's and gender studies stand…
Psychology Students' Perceptions of Covid-19 in a Death Education Course
The systematic removal of death from social life in the West has exposed people living in areas affected by COVID-19 to the risk of being unable to adequately manage the anxiety caused by mortality salience. Death education is a type of intervention that helps people manage their fear of death by offering them effective strategies to deal with loss and anxiety. To that end, a path of death education has been carried out with University students o…
Mourning and Management of the Covid-19 Health Emergency in the Priestly Community: Qualitative Research in a Region of Northern Italy Severely Affected by the Pandemic
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing major social changes to which significant psychological effects are linked. During the first phase of the pandemic wave in Italy, whilst there was insufficient information about the phenomenon and the strategies to safeguard the population against it, many categories of people, whose professions required constant contact with the public, were affected by the contagion. Aims: The literature has shown ho…
The Covid-19 Disappeared: From Traumatic to Ambiguous Loss and the Role of the Internet for the Bereaved in Italy
In Italy, in the very first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a dramatic rise in mortality. However, families were forbidden because of lockdown regulations to be with their loved ones at their deathbeds or to hold funerals. This qualitative study examined bereavement experiences among family members, how they processed their grief, and how they used social networks in particular by uploading photographs during the working-through of berea…
Catharsis Through Cinema: An Italian Qualitative Study on Watching Tragedies to Mitigate the Fear of Covid-19
Background: Among different ways of coping with the unsettling situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a very peculiar one has been identified: a more frequent request, by the general population, of movies or TV series related to the very theme of viruses, contagions, and epidemics. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to explore this peculiar phenomenon, in order to identify people's emotions and cognitions during and after the process, and …
Conflicts Between Women's Religiosity and Sense of Free Will in the Context of Elective Abortion: A Qualitative Study in the Worst Period of Italy's Covid-19 Crisis
This qualitative study considers the relationship between abortion, bereavement, and the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown nine women who had undergone an elective abortion, which is voluntarily termination of a pregnancy at the woman's request. These women were interviewed in three time points (1 month, 6 months, and 1 year after the event) to consider the possible evolution of their experience. The third phase was concurrent with the COVID-19 pa…
Mental Health in Prison: Integrating the Perspectives of Prison Staff
(1) Background: The Italian Constitutional Court's decision n. 99/2019 abolished the distinction between physical and psychological health care in the Italian prison system. However, this and other changes to the penitentiary system present challenges to prison staff, which may vary based on their roles and backgrounds; (2) Purpose: To create a process of dialogue and collaboration that include different points of view, needs, and proposals regar…
Psychology (60 works) · Medicine (37 works) · Sociology (37 works) · Social Psychology (36 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (35 works) · Qualitative research (29 works) · Social Psychology (27 works) · Psychiatry (23 works) · Clinical Psychology (21 works) · Clinical Psychology (21 works)