*3.4. Mood Scales*

Fifteen mood aspects (insecurity, helplessness, sadness, fear, anger, frustration, stress, anxiety, depression, boredom, serenity, happiness, preoccupation, tranquility, energy) both positive and negative were assessed to examine the emotional impact of the current situation. In these evaluations, the participant was required to refer to two different periods. The first was December, preceding the outbreak of the contagion (December 2019); the second period referred to the last week. The mood scales required a response on a 10-point Likert scale [15], from 0 (not at all) to 10 (very much). The use of mood scales has mainly been adopted to analyse the self-reported conditions of individual mood [16–18]. The items on the Mood Scales presented high internal consistency (α = 0.75).

### *3.5. Impact of Event Scale- Revised(IES-R)*

The IES-R is a self-report measure designed to assess PTSD symptomatology according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—Fourth version (DSM-IV) criteria for PTSD. The questionnaire requires the indication of the magnitude of distress on specific dimensions (e.g., recurring dreams, feelings of anger and irritability) related to specific life events (i.e., the current COVID-19 emergency) referring to the last seven days [19] (Italian Version: 20). The three subscales measure Avoidance (the tendency to avoid thoughts or reminders about the incident), Intrusion (difficulty in staying asleep, dissociative experiences similar to flashbacks), and Hyperarousal (irritated feeling, angry, difficulty in sleep onset). The IES-R requires a response on a 5-point Likert-scale, from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). The score on an IES-R subscale is the mean of the scores of the items of that cluster. The IES-R also gives an overall score (IES-R total that is the sum of the scores of the three subscales). The cut-off of 33 was adopted to indicate a high risk of PTSD symptomatology [20,21]. In the present sample, the IES-R presented high internal consistency (α = 0.95).
