Settled in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the present short-term longitudinal study aims to investigate the relation between emotion dysregulation, mentalizing (both certainty and uncertainty about mental states), and psychological symptoms in a sample of 83 emerging adults (M_age = 22.18 years, SD = 4.36) over a continuous period started with COVID-19 spreads. Results display significant positive associations between psychological symptoms and both emotion dysregulation and uncertainty about mental states, while an inverse association with certainty about mental states was found. A moderation model was also performed, showing a significant negative association between emotion dysregulation and psychological symptoms at low levels of uncertainty about mental states. Conversely, a marginally significant positive association occurs at high levels of uncertainty about mental states. In other words, the presence of individual impairments in perceiving one’s own/others mind may increase the negative consequences of emotion dysregulation on reported psychological symptoms. To sum up, our findings highlight the importance of considering mentalizing as a possible key factor for the promotion of emerging adults’ mental health also in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

在 COVID-19 大流行的背景下，本短期纵向研究旨在调查 83 名新兴成年人样本中的情绪失调、心智化（精神状态的确定性和不确定性）和心理症状之间的关系（M_年龄= 22.18 岁，SD = 4.36）在从 COVID-19 传播开始的连续时期内。结果显示，心理症状与情绪失调和精神状态的不确定性之间存在显着的正相关，而与精神状态的确定性之间存在负相关。还进行了调节模型，显示在精神状态不确定性较低的情况下，情绪失调与心理症状之间存在显着的负相关。相反，在精神状态高度不确定的情况下，会出现轻微显着的正相关。换句话说，个体在感知自己/他人思想方面存在缺陷可能会增加情绪失调对所报告的心理症状的负面影响。总而言之，我们的研究结果强调了在当前的 COVID-19 大流行背景下，将心智化视为促进新兴成年人心理健康的可能关键因素的重要性。