Anxiety disorders are one of the most widespread psychological diseases in youth. They may lead to impairment in several areas of life and may represent a risk factor for other psychiatric disorders. During the last decades, an accumulation of evidences has led to the important advances in the understanding of the aetiology of anxiety disorders. Genetics, child temperament, gender, life adversities, family environment, peer relationships, academic demands and cultural beliefs are some of the well-known risk factors affecting anxiety levels in youth. The current symposium is aimed to shed some lights on the role of intrapersonal, interpersonal and cultural variables linked to anxiety in childhood and adolescence.The first contribution deepens on the link between anxiety symptoms and types of education. It is devoted to compare and discuss anxiety levels in teenagers who chose to work and attend vocational training and adolescents who enroll in secondary schools. The second contribution is aimed to compare anxiety levels in Chinese, Italian and Polish adolescents. Previous research shows higher anxiety levels in collectivistic (Chinese) than individualistic (Italy) countries. Poland is a country used to be collectivist but that now is undergoing the process of social and economic system transformation, which is taking Polish culture closer to individualistic countries. Thus the current presentation aims to analyze and interpret the role of cultural issues on anxiety. The third contribution deals with situational anxiety, loneliness, hostility, and some school characteristics to study the subjective safety/unsafety at school among Russian adolescents aged 10-18. A questionnaire of psychological atmosphere in class has been developed to assess the risk of bullying and predicting negative consequences. The purpose of the last study is to examine the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) two-session workshop for cultivating emotional health in elementary school children.

Elisa Delvecchio, Ph.D., is assistant professor in Clinic and Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education at the University of Perugia (Italy), where she teaches “General and developmental psychopathology” and “Theories and methods in family assessment and intervention planning”. She is the representative of the international relationships for the psychological field at the University of Perugia. She is the coordinator of the “Psychology and Cultures Lab” at the International Human-being Research Centre (IHRC). Her main research interests focus on the role of personal and interpersonal variables for the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in adolescence adopting a cross-cultural perspective. She is currently running a project aimed to assess the link between psychological well-being and cultural beliefs in adolescents and young adults across the world, including Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Russia, US and several European countries. Moreover, she is interested in attachment and its measurement. She has been trained for the Strange Situation Procedure as well as for the Adult Attachment Projective Picture Stimuli. She is involved in the Italian translation and validation of self-report as well as narrative measures (e.g., Adolescent’s self-consciousness; Affect in Play Scale; Separation Anxiety Scale for Children; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children; Rorschach Performance Assessment System). She has authored or co-authored more than 30 articles in international peer reviewed scientific journals.
She has clinical experience in the contexts of individual and group therapy with adolescents and adults. She works as a psychologist in the clinical centre of the University of Perugia.
She is a member of the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) and of the Associazione Italiana di Psicologia (Italian Association of Psychology).