Clinical Characterization of Preschool Children With Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: The Role of Empathy, Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors, Emotional-Behavioral Dysregulation, and Executive Functions

This observational study aims to collect data (both prospective and retrospective from 2025) regarding a sample of children aged between 3 and 6 years who were referred in a naturalistic setting to the Department of Developmental Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology at the IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation and to the Child Neuropsychiatry Unit of the IRCCS Giannina Gaslini (multicenter study) for diagnostic assessment, and who received a diagnosis of an internalizing and/or externalizing disorder following the clinical assessment. Through a back-translation procedure, our research group translated and adapted into Italian the "Emotion Dysregulation Inventory Young Child (EDI-YC)" questionnaire for the assessment of emotional-behavioral dysregulation in preschool children. Children will be enrolled according to the eligibility criteria and after informed consent for participation in the study has been signed by both parents/legal guardians. For the collection of retrospective data only, as provided for by the study, and where explicit consent from the parents/legal guardians could not be obtained, the data will be collected in accordance with Article 110-bis, paragraph 4, of the Italian Privacy Code. The data about emotional-behavioral dysregulation obtained from the completion of the EDI-YC will be correlated with data obtained from other questionnaires and from the clinical assessment in order to achieve a characterization of clinical phenotypes based on the psychopathological dimensions investigated.

Executive functions will be investigated in the sample of preschool children through a correlation analysis between BRIEF-P scores and EEG recordings