| Id |
Subject |
Object |
Predicate |
Lexical cue |
| T40 |
0-2 |
Sentence |
denotes |
2. |
| T41 |
3-24 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Materials and Methods |
| T42 |
25-130 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The study was conducted through an on-line survey, starting on 10 April 2020 and ending on 13 April 2020. |
| T43 |
131-394 |
Sentence |
denotes |
This timeline was chosen in order to assess participant response during an early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, after the lockdown in Italy following the governmental decree of 9 March 2020, and the WHO characterization of COVID-19 as a pandemic (11 March 2020). |
| T44 |
395-526 |
Sentence |
denotes |
During this period, the total COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths were 147.577 and 18.849, respectively (Italian Civil Department). |
| T45 |
527-598 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The snowball sampling method was employed to recruit participants [22]. |
| T46 |
599-1060 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In an attempt to ensure an adequately representative sample of the Italian population, an initial subset of invitees (five participants) was selected according to fixed socio-demographic variables, including age groups (18–27, 28–37, 38–47, 48–57, and >57 years old) gender (male, female), occupation (student, employed, unemployed), education level (graduate, undergraduate), and geographic location (northern Italy, central Italy, southern Italy and islands). |
| T47 |
1061-1185 |
Sentence |
denotes |
This subset of participants then forwarded the questionnaire to five referrals whom they considered suitable for the survey. |
| T48 |
1186-1275 |
Sentence |
denotes |
This second subset forwarded the survey in the same way and so on, until data saturation. |
| T49 |
1276-1349 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The survey was anonymous, and confidentiality of information was assured. |
| T50 |
1350-1575 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Participants aged 18–75 years, living in Italy for at least four weeks from February 2020, with adequate command over written and spoken Italian language, and with at least five years of education were eligible for the study. |
| T51 |
1576-1772 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Respondents were excluded if they were non-Italian language speakers, were currently hospitalized, reported a history of mental disorder, and/or could not complete the online survey independently. |
| T52 |
1773-1851 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The study followed the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) guidelines. |
| T53 |
1852-1918 |
Sentence |
denotes |
All participants completed the questionnaire on-line via EUSurvey. |
| T54 |
1919-2371 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The study was approved by the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation IRCCS-Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Rome Ethics Committee (approval protocol number ID 3114) and was undertaken in accordance with the Principles of Human Rights, as adopted by the World Medical Association at the 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964 and subsequently amended at the 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013. |
| T55 |
2372-2510 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The provision of electronic informed consent was mandatory in order to start the survey, and anonymity was guaranteed to all participants. |
| T56 |
2511-2592 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The final study sample included 500 subjects from the Italian general population. |
| T57 |
2593-2694 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The number of participants was estimated according to sensitivity analysis conducted on G*Power [23]. |
| T58 |
2695-2950 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Power analysis suggested that an aprioristic sample size of N = 500 would detect with a probability ≥ 0.9 a minimally interesting effect size of δ = 0.2, assuming a two-sided criterion for detection that allows for a maximum Type I error rate of α = 0.05. |
| T59 |
2951-3401 |
Sentence |
denotes |
A dedicated, self-report questionnaire was adopted to collect main demographic characteristics (age, gender, educational level, occupation, marital status), medical variables (lifetime history of chronic diseases, family history of psychiatric disorders) and information on lockdown conditions (living alone, change in working activities, working on frontline, and having had close contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases; see Supplementary Materials). |
| T60 |
3402-3603 |
Sentence |
denotes |
To measure the severity of depressive symptoms we adopted the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) [24], one of the most widely recognized as well as valid and reliable screening tests for depression. |
| T61 |
3604-3757 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Participants must rate their agreement with each statement on a 4-point Likert scale (0 = not at all; 3 = severely) referring to the preceding two weeks. |
| T62 |
3758-3867 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Each of the 21 items of the BDI-II corresponding to a symptom of depression is summed to give a single score. |
| T63 |
3868-3911 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The BDI-II total score ranges from 0 to 63. |
| T64 |
3912-4049 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Consistently with previous validation studies, we adopted a cut-off score of >13 to detect the likelihood of presence of depression [24]. |
| T65 |
4050-4283 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Hedonic tone was investigated by the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) [25], a 14-item self-report instrument that assesses the ability to feel consummatory pleasure in response to stimuli that typically elicit positive emotion. |
| T66 |
4284-4390 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The SHAPS covers four domains: interests/pastimes, social interaction, sensory experience, and food/drink. |
| T67 |
4391-4550 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Subjects are requested to agree or disagree with a statement for each item on a Likert-type scale (definitely agree, agree, disagree, and definitely disagree). |
| T68 |
4551-4624 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In order to avoid response set, some items are phrased in negative terms. |
| T69 |
4625-4718 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The four available answers are divided into dichotomous categories (agree = 0; disagree = 1). |
| T70 |
4719-4757 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Scores range, therefore, from 0 to 14. |
| T71 |
4758-4957 |
Sentence |
denotes |
To assess deficits in emotion regulation we used the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) [26], a 36-item self-report instrument that targets the individual level of emotion dysregulation. |
| T72 |
4958-5063 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Exploratory factor analysis of the original validation study highlighted a six-factor model for the DERS. |
| T73 |
5064-5818 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The six-factor model is reflected into six subscales yielding a total score: (a) lack of emotional awareness (Awareness; “I am attentive to my feelings”); (b) lack of emotional clarity (Clarity; “I have difficulty making sense out of my feelings”); (c) impulse control difficulties when distressed (Impulse; “When I’m upset, I become out of control”); (d) difficulties engaging in goal-directed behaviors when distressed (Goals; “When I’m upset, I have difficulty getting work done”); (e) unwillingness to accept emotional responses (Non-acceptance; “When I’m upset, I become angry at myself for feeling that way); and (f) lack of access to emotion regulation strategies (Strategies; “When I’m upset, I believe there is nothing I can do to feel better”). |
| T74 |
5819-5919 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Participants rate each item using a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = almost never; 5 = almost always). |
| T75 |
5920-5963 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The DERS total score ranges from 36 to 180. |
| T76 |
5964-6049 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The higher the DERS total scores, the greater the difficulties in emotion regulation. |
| T77 |
6050-6336 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In prior studies, the DERS has demonstrated convergent validity with other established measures of emotion dysregulation, good test–retest reliability, excellent internal consistency, and adequate predictive validity of several behavioral outcomes associated with emotion dysregulation. |
| T78 |
6337-6675 |
Sentence |
denotes |
To fit our aims, we compared individuals presenting with and without depression according to BDI-II cut-off scores on the basis of contingency table/χ2 for categorical measures, including demographic characteristics, medical variables, information on lockdown conditions, and Student’s t-test for hedonic tone and emotional dysregulation. |
| T79 |
6676-6722 |
Sentence |
denotes |
The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. |
| T80 |
6723-6914 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In the group of depressed participants, a multivariate general linear model was conducted to test the effect of all factors of interest on depression severity according to BDI-II total score. |
| T81 |
6915-7138 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Specifically, multiple linear regression was used to predict depression severity on the basis of demographic characteristics, medical variables, information on lockdown conditions, hedonic tone, and emotional dysregulation. |
| T82 |
7139-7299 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Possible multicollinearity between variables of interest was tested through variance inflation factor (VIF) indicators obtained from linear regression analysis. |
| T83 |
7300-7397 |
Sentence |
denotes |
All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 24.0 for Windows (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). |
