Associations among Irritability and Hostile Rumination with Depression and Verbal Aggression in Young Italians during the first year of Covid-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Professional and Academic Demands.

During the last two years, the Covid-19 outbreak massively affected people’s mental health and well-being. The increase in feelings of loneliness and anger were affected especially by social isolation and measures to contain the spreading of the virus, such as using face masks, social distancing, quarantine, or avoiding social gatherings. In Italy more than 30% of people reported symptoms of depression in the first phases of pandemic outbreak, as well as an increase in aggressive behaviors, especially those related to verbal aggression. In this situation, several personality dispositions may influence how people faced with the pandemic. Previous studies have highlighted that irritability (i.e., the ability to tolerate frustrations and to modulate emotional and behavioral reactions in dangerous or stressful situations) and hostile rumination (i.e., the tendency to manifest negative emotionality such as resentment and vengeance in response of dangerous or negative situations) may increase individual vulnerability to depressive symptoms and aggressive behaviors. This condition of uncertainty and isolation may lead people who are more irritable or that tend to manifest more hostile rumination, because of their high negative emotionality and their impairment in regulating emotional and behavioral responses, to be more worried about their academic or professional career and affect their own beliefs on future demands. Work and academic future demands (i.e., psychological, and social aspects of youths’ career that imply efforts and commitment, as well as specific skills and welfare rules, associated with psychological costs and cognitive energies) are a crucial aspect for youths from 18 to 29, because decisions about career and future orientations are one of the most salient issue of this developmental stage. These feelings of worries about the future and youths’ own career and work, could increase depressive and aggressive behaviors, especially in this extremely challenging period of global pandemic. This contribution aimed to explore how irritability and hostile rumination predicted depression and verbal aggression both directly and indirectly, through their effects on professional and academic future demands in youths, examining the moderating role of gender, controlling for age. Five-hundred-ninety-six Italian youths (70% females) from 18 to 29 years old were considered. Multiple group by gender mediation model revealed that a) Hostile rumination positively and directly predicted verbal aggression, and positively and indirectly predicted depression through the effects on professional demands both in men and women; b) Irritability positively and directly predicted both depression and verbal aggression in young men and women. The present study underlined that, during the first year of the pandemic in Italy, being more irritable or more hostile ruminating predisposed to higher levels of depression and verbal aggression in early adults. In addition, findings highlighted one possible mechanism that link hostile rumination and depressive feelings, showing that being more hostile ruminating was associated to higher levels of worries about professional and academic career, that in turn, made youths more depressed. This contribution suggests the important role that an appropriate welfare for people’s future career could have especially for those who manifest impairments in emotional and behavioral domains of functioning.