Emotional closure refers to the subjective sense that a personally significant past event has been resolved, allowing it to be integrated into autobiographical memory with reduced emotional disturbance. The Need for Emotional Closure Scale (NECS) was developed to assess individual differences in the motivation to achieve such resolution. Across two studies, we evaluated the psychometric properties and convergent validity of the NECS in a Polish sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure, and the scale demonstrated good internal consistency. Convergent validity was examined through associations with rumination, need for cognitive closure (Studies 1 and 2), intolerance of uncertainty (Study 1), and the frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts assessed via both self-report and laboratory paradigms (Study 2). Emotional closure tendencies were positively associated with rumination and intolerance of uncertainty. Although NECS scores were significantly related to self-reported frequency of involuntary mental time travel, no significant associations were observed for laboratory- based measures. Additionally, NECS subscales showed distinct patterns of association with dimensions of need for cognitive closure, supporting their conceptual differentiation. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the validity of the NECS and highlight the role of emotional closure in shaping autobiographical memory and spontaneous mental time travel.
Objective: This 12-month longitudinal study with three waves of data collection examined reciprocal relationships betweenparental reflective functioning (PRF)—the capacity to understand one's child's mental states—dimensions and parental burnoutin mothers of young children.
Background: Parental burnout affects approximately 3%–8% of mothers in Western populations, with particularly high rates inPoland, yet factors that explain parental burnout remain poorly understood. PRF may be an important factor, but no longitudinalresearch has examined the relationships between parental burnout and PRF over time.
Method: This three-wave longitudinal study is the first to examine PRF–burnout relationships over a one-year period. Usingcross-lagged panel models (CLPM) and random-intercept CLPM (RI- CLPM), we modeled stable between-person differencesfrom dynamic within-person processes in the longitudinal associations between parental burnout and three PRF dimensions (i.e., prementalizing modes, certainty about child's mental states, and interest/curiosity in mental states) in 988 Polish mothersof children aged 0–5 years 12 months.
Results: Findings revealed considerable heterogeneity in PRF–burnout relationships. Prementalizing modes showed unidirec-tional effects, increasing only in response to chronic parental exhaustion rather than predicting parental burnout. Certaintyabout mental states demonstrated a bidirectional relationship with maternal burnout, driven by stable between-person differ-ences in both constructs. Maternal interest and curiosity predicted increases in parental burnout, with lower curiosity associatedwith higher parental burnout at both the between-person and within-person levels.
Conclusion: Different aspects of maternal mentalization predict parental burnout through distinct longitudinal patterns thatchallenge prevailing theoretical frameworks.
Implications: These findings provide the first longitudinal evidence that maternal curiosity about the child's mental states andchronic uncertainty may represent key psychological processes implicated in vulnerability to parental burnout, with potentialimplications for prevention and family support.
While socially comparative emotions such as envy and schadenfreude are a pervasive part of people's lives, surprisingly little is known about how large-scale sporting events shape these emotional responses. We address this gap by investigating the UEFA EURO 2024 tournament, which provided a unique ecologically-valid field setting to examine how major competitions and national teams winning (vs. losing) evoke not only joy and happiness, but also intergroup emotions rooted in social comparison. In a multi-wave survey of 952 participants from five different countries (England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland), we measured spectators' happiness, enthusiasm, envy, schadenfreude, and their basking in reflective glory intentions (BIRGing) the day after each national team won versus lost (or drew) their match. Multilevel analyses revealed that match outcomes (win vs. loss vs. draw) shaped participants' emotions, including their happiness, enthusiasm, schadenfreude, envy, and BIRGing intentions—all on the day after their national team's match. Several of these effects were moderated by spectators' football fanship and by the opponent's relative team status (stronger or weaker). The present findings underscore that emotionally charged, group-based reactions during major sporting events mirror deeper intergroup dynamics shaped by relative team status, social identity, and processes of social comparison.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the experiences of service providers supporting male victims and female perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV). The study explored the drivers, methods and treatments of female-perpetrated IPV, the nature and impact of abuse towards male victims, the barriers and facilitators to service provision and the impact on the practitioners themselves.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a qualitative approach, using reflexive thematic analysis to analyse semi-structured interviews with 13 experienced service providers.
Findings
Two overarching themes were identified: systemic issues in service provision, including challenges with multi-agency approaches, funding and availability of services and the impact on practitioners; and gender stereotypes, which created barriers to male victims' help-seeking and influenced the treatment of female perpetrators.
Practical implications
The findings suggest the need for a multi-level approach, addressing gendered inequalities in IPV policy and funding, implementing gender-inclusive, evidence-based and trauma-informed practices, and raising public and professional awareness to challenge the dominant “domestic violence stereotype”.
Originality/value
This study provides a detailed, in-depth exploration of the experiences of service providers supporting “non-typical” populations in IPV, revealing the complex, multi-faceted challenges they face within a system that is inherently designed to support female victims of male perpetrators.
Pozostałe osiągnięcia naukoweArtykuły (zamknięty dostęp)Journal article
This article examines different theoretical explanations for rioting and crowd disorder drawing on psychological, sociological and political perspectives. The role of the law and in particular, police practice in tackling and exacerbating crowd violence are explored with a critical eye on the latest police science research. Both psychological motivations of rioters and systemic intersectional inequalities are considered together in this piece to comprehensively account for the reasons why people choose to riot. The adequacy of theoretical explanations and recommendations for how future riots might be avoided are considered in relation to the English riots of August 2011 and August 2024.
