Di Giuseppe Mariagrazia, Lo Buglio Gabriele, Cerasti Erika, Boldrini Tommaso, Conversano Ciro, Lingiardi Vittorio, Tanzilli Annalisa
Department of History, Humanities and Society, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2024 Nov 8;15:1465164. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1465164. eCollection 2024.
Defense mechanisms play a crucial role in depression and anxiety. The current study aimed at estimating the network structure of defense mechanisms in individuals with symptoms of depression and anxiety to understand the most central defenses and relevant connections. Moreover, we aimed at examining the associations between defense mechanisms and symptoms.
We employed the Symptom Checklist-90 to recruit 655 individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms during the first wave of the COVID-2019 Pandemic in Italy. Defense mechanisms were assessed with the DMRS-SR-30.
Results showed a main component in the network graph featuring 16 defense mechanisms. Self-assertion was the most central node in the network, displaying positive and negative connections with an array of mature and immature defenses, respectively. Among immature defenses, passive aggression was the most interconnected node. Some mature defenses (i.e., humor, affiliation, and sublimation) were not connected to other nodes. A range of defense mechanisms were associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.
This is the first research effort supporting the conceptualization of defense mechanisms as a complex system. Results suggest that defense mechanisms of the same cluster (e.g., mature defenses) play different roles in the network. Central defenses (i.e., self-assertion and passive aggression) detected in this study may be promising intervention targets.
防御机制在抑郁和焦虑中起着关键作用。本研究旨在评估有抑郁和焦虑症状个体的防御机制网络结构，以了解最核心的防御机制及相关联系。此外，我们旨在研究防御机制与症状之间的关联。
在意大利2019年新冠疫情第一波期间，我们使用症状自评量表90招募了655名有抑郁和焦虑症状的个体。防御机制通过防御机制评定量表简版30进行评估。
结果显示网络图中有一个主要成分，包含16种防御机制。自我肯定是网络中最核心的节点，分别与一系列成熟和不成熟防御机制呈现正向和负向联系。在不成熟防御机制中，被动攻击是相互联系最多的节点。一些成熟防御机制（即幽默、亲和与升华）未与其他节点相连。一系列防御机制与焦虑和抑郁症状相关。
这是第一项支持将防御机制概念化为复杂系统的研究。结果表明，同一簇的防御机制（如成熟防御机制）在网络中发挥不同作用。本研究中检测到的核心防御机制（即自我肯定和被动攻击）可能是有前景的干预靶点。
