Adolescents and the urge to learn from others: Validation of Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire for Adolescents

Epistemic Trust (ET), defined as the individual’s openness to socially transmitted knowledge, is a construct that has recently gained attention both from academics and clinicians. Due to the interpersonal nature of the concept, its relevance is evident in adolescence, when individuals deeply need to understand all the changes they are going through and try to catch information from several sources. ET has been also investigated for its possible role in the development of psychopathology when disrupted, and consequentially its reparation has been proposed as a key factor in therapeutic change. Building on these considerations, the necessity to assess it becomes urgent. This study aimed at validating the Italian version of the Epistemic Trust Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) in a sample of adolescents. A first group of 662 participants completed the questionnaire, while a smaller group of 417 completed a self-report tests battery, including measures regarding interpersonal trust, mentalizing abilities, emotional dysregulation, and psychopathology. Data were collected online via Qualtrics. We aimed at testing the factorial structure of the questionnaire, already validated in Italian for adults, and investigate the convergent validity through the associations between epistemic stances and the abovementioned psychological dimensions. The ETMCQ version for adolescents showed good psychometric properties, regarding both reliability and validity. Moreover, interesting associations between different epistemic stances and mental functioning dimensions revealed the importance of such construct in the comprehension of adolescent mental health.