Adolescence is marked by significant bodily changes and heightened body awareness. While body dissatisfaction—one aspect of bodily self-experience—has been extensively studied in relation to psychological health problems, embodiment, defined as the anchoring of one’s identity in bodily self-experience, has received less empirical attention despite strong theoretical foundations, largely due to the lack of appropriate measurement tools. This study aimed to develop and validate the 12-item Embodiment Scale (ES-12) and identify distinct embodiment profiles among adolescents. It also examined how these profiles relate to mental health profiles based on disordered eating (DE), non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), depression, and anxiety.

A sample of 530 adolescents (mean age = 14 years, SD = 0.89) completed the ES-12 along with measures of body dissatisfaction, DE, NSSI, anxiety, and depression. The ES-12 demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including a distinct three-factor structure and incremental validity in predicting DE, NSSI, depression, and anxiety, beyond body dissatisfaction.

Hierarchical cluster analysis identified five embodiment profiles—Strong Embodiment, Average Embodiment, Weak Embodiment, Body for Others, and Low Body Harmony—which were cross-referenced with five psychological health profiles: Healthy, Average Psychological Health, Disordered Eating Only, Multiple Problems without NSSI, and Multiple Problems with NSSI.

Findings revealed that Strong Embodiment was strongly linked to psychological well-being, with these adolescents being over-represented in the Healthy cluster. Conversely, Weak Embodiment was associated with psychological distress and over-represented in clusters with multiple mental health issues, indicating a high-risk profile. The Body for Others profile, characterized by an externalized sense of bodily self-experience, was over-represented among adolescents with disordered eating but under-represented in more severe psychological distress clusters. This challenges theories that position Body for Others as a central risk factor for broad psychological maladjustment.

These findings highlight the need to assess embodiment beyond body dissatisfaction and tailor interventions to adolescents' embodiment profiles for better psychological health outcomes.

Adolescents' digital technology use is deeply intertwined with their social, emotional, and academic lives. Understanding the motivations behind their engagement can provide critical insights into their developmental needs and behaviors. Exploring how these motivations differ by age, gender, and academic performance (GPA) is essential for identifying patterns that may inform targeted interventions and support.

This study examines the factor structure of the Internet Motive Questionnaire for Adolescents (Bischof-Kastner, 2014), with the goal of identifying adolescents' motivations for digital technology use and exploring potential differences based on age, gender, and academic success (GPA). A total of 258 students in Croatia participated in the study (44.2% female; M_age = 13.99, SD = 1.12), spanning 6th grade through the first year of high school. The original questionnaire assumes a four-factor structure—Coping, Social, Mood Enhancement, and Conformity. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed a comparable four-factor structure, with the exception of one item removed during analysis due to cross-loadings. Overall, students reported more Social and Mood Enhancement motives and less Coping and Conformism motives which are viewed as more positive in valence within the Motivational Model of Cox and Klinger (1988). Analysis of variance identified significant gender differences for Mood Enhancement and Conformity motives, with male students reporting higher levels of both. Age differences were observed, with older students reporting higher levels of Social and Coping motivations compared to younger students. Motivation strategies were generally not associated with GPA, except for coping motivation, where higher coping-related use was linked to lower academic performance.

This study underscores the diverse motivations driving adolescents’ digital technology use and highlights significant age and gender differences. The link between coping motivation and lower academic performance suggests the need for interventions to address maladaptive technology use. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how adolescents interact with digital technologies and the implications for their well-being.

Objective: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. A current debate among researchers concerns whether emotional dysregulation (ED) is an independent symptom of adult ADHD (Shaw et al., 2014). This debate is particularly significant for researchers and clinicians who advocate for understanding ED within the framework of ADHD assessment scales. Meanwhile, the Utah Criteria (Wender, 1981) identified ED as a third core symptom, developed specialized adult ADHD scales which include a subcategory for ED, and are extensively used in both research and clinical settings. However, in Japan, widely used ADHD scales do not recognize ED as a distinct symptom. This may hinder the provision of targeted support for adult ADHD. To address this, our study aims to adapt the self-report Wender-Reimherr Adult ADHD Scale (WRAADDS) (Marchant et al., 2015) for Japanese use. The study aims to capture the emotional aspects of adult ADHD that conventional scales have failed to fully represent, striving for a more comprehensive understanding.
Method: Our study will involve a reliability and validity assessment of the translated WRAADDS, using a back-translation method and assessing it alongside additional scales in 300 participants with ADHD who are recruted in two psychiatric hospitals.
Results: The investigation is currently in progress. Among the seven subcategories of the WRAADDS, the preceding study suggests ADHD-specific ED issues, such as temper, affective lability, and emotional over-reactivity, are associated with WURS-25, ASL-18, and TOSCA-3.
Discussion: We intend to discuss the implications of our findings for clinical practice, research, and training in the field of ADHD.

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), which originate from neurobiological factors, disrupt children's developmental trajectories, affecting their learning and experiences from an early age (Parenti et al., 2020; Bishop & Rutter, 2008). Early intervention following the identification of NDDs signs is crucial to mitigating the severity of future difficulties (Benzies et al., 2013; Finlay-Jones et al., 2019). However, despite the high prevalence of comorbidity - more the rule than the exception -, certain NDDs receive greater attention in public health policies, often leading to delays in care for the others (Yegba, 2022; Inguaggiato, et al., 2017). Enhancing the detection of early signs through a transdiagnostic approach is therefore a major public health priority (Astle et al., 2022; Mareva, 2021).

Our team’s project aims to validate a transdiagnostic early screening tool for NDDs in children under one year of age. This study is based on the longitudinal observation of 2000 children across 69 partner daycare centers. At 4, 6, 9, and 12 months, each child is observed using screening grids—first by childcare professionals, then by a trained pair of professionals specialized in early NDDs signs, and finally by a pediatrician who either validates or refutes the observations. The Brunet-Lézine test and the ASQ questionnaire are used to further assess the validity of the grids.

This presentation will focus on the project design, the content of the screening grids, and preliminary results regarding the internal consistency and inter-observer reliability of the grids, based on 400 already reported observations.