Paola Magnano | Università di Enna Unikore (original) (raw)
Papers by Paola Magnano
Behavioral Sciences, 2019
Recent literature on positive psychology underlines the crucial role of schools to create a psych... more Recent literature on positive psychology underlines the crucial role of schools to create a psychologically healthy environment and to set programs and strategies fostering adolescents’ well-being. The aim of the present study is to validate a scale that measures scholastic satisfaction since a scientific evaluation and interventions on school satisfaction can help professionals to support adolescents’ positive development and school adjustment. We adapted the College Satisfaction Scale (CSS) and confirmed the previous five-dimensional structure also in a high school students’ sample (n = 792). The High-school Satisfaction Scale (H-Sat Scale) evaluates five dimensions of school satisfaction: appropriateness of choice (CH), quality of school services (SE), relationships with classmates (RE), effectiveness of study habits (ST) and usefulness for a future career (CA). The questionnaire consists of 20 items; it showed good psychometric features and, consistent with previous literature, ...
Behavioral Sciences
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the psychological well-being of people around the... more The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the psychological well-being of people around the world; university students have experienced feelings of fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the intolerance of uncertainty, and a worsened quality of life, related to the reduction of social contacts. Scholars all around the world widely suggest the need to take care of this issue, proposing solutions to support students’ adjustment in the post-pandemic period. The literature on positive psychology and the life design approach has identified multiple psychological resources, the character strengths, that can sustain people’s life satisfaction and well-being in changing contexts, including their university experience. We proposed an online group career counseling intervention for 30 Italian university students (experimental group) to promote university students’ psychological resources and mitigate the long-term negative implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on life satisfaction. The o...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
The Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) measures the degree of sociocultural competence in new ... more The Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) measures the degree of sociocultural competence in new cultural settings, and, despite its popularity, research aiming at evaluating its dimensionality is lacking and has incongruent results. Moreover, the dimensionality of the scale has been mainly tested on different samples adjusted to Eastern culture. We administered the SCAS to 266 international students sojourning in Los Angeles to test which underlying dimensionality emerges if the measure is used to assess sociocultural adaptation to Western culture, also verifying its measurement invariance across sex. Findings from EFA showed a three-factor solution: Diversity Approach, Social Functioning, and Distance and Life Changes, and the CFA indicated a plausible goodness-of-fit to the empirical data. The examination of MGCFA suggested that the questionnaire showed an invariant structure across sex. Our results suggest that the dimensionality of the SCAS may differ according to the sojourner...
Behavioral Sciences
This study, after presenting a review of the existent literature on courage and social courage in... more This study, after presenting a review of the existent literature on courage and social courage in the workplace, has the purpose of providing new evidence about the psychometric properties of an Italian-language version of the Workplace Social Courage Scale (WSCS), verifying its measurement invariance across gender and the discrimination properties of its items through IRT analysis. The aim of the research is testing the Italian version of the WSCS; for this scope, four studies have been conducted on four different samples analyzing the factorial structure, the internal consistency, the measurement invariance across gender, and the convergent and concurrent validity. The results support the psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, reliability, validity, and utility, showing positive relationships with the criterion variables: satisfaction of work-related basic needs, prosocial rule breaking and work performance. The current study extends prior findings by providing furt...
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship
In recent years, markets have been hit by various crises, both economically and naturally. These ... more In recent years, markets have been hit by various crises, both economically and naturally. These shocks have highlighted how important it is for companies to be able to adapt with resilient behaviors. Entrepreneurs and their resilience capacity will play a very important role in the recovery process. Resilience is closely linked to other abilities such as risk intelligence; that is, the ability to look at uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage or danger. The study assesses the relationship between these two constructs using a sample of entrepreneurs in the tourism sector within Italy. Analysis confirmed a relationship between subjective risk intelligence and resilience. These relations are explained by taking into consideration four aspects (imaginative capacity, problem-solving self-efficacy, attitude toward uncertainty and emotional stress management) included in risk intelligence, highlighting which of them contributed to explaining the three dimensions of the r...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Attitude toward smart working reflects feelings of favorableness towards this object; attitudes i... more Attitude toward smart working reflects feelings of favorableness towards this object; attitudes influence intentions, which in turn guide behaviors. Recent research confirms the positive influence that attitude toward smart working has on expected usage of it. Despite a direct influence, other factors could interact in the context of opportunities for ICT usage for teleworkers; among these factors, work engagement stands out. In turn, work engagement influences the perception of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Considering that literature suggests that among the antecedents of work engagement are attitudes, the present study analyzes the role of positive attitude towards smart working on work engagement, and consequently on job satisfaction and on life satisfaction, hypothesizing that work engagement could mediate between positive attitude towards smart working and job and life satisfaction. The participants were 342 workers (115 males and 227 females) in private and public o...
Work, 2020
BACKGROUND: The organizational climate is a quality of the internal environment of an organizatio... more BACKGROUND: The organizational climate is a quality of the internal environment of an organization that is shared by its members, can be described in terms of the values of the characteristics of an organization, influencing the workers’ behaviour. A number of empirical studies have examined the relationship between climate perceptions and a variety of variables such as job satisfaction, performance, psychological well-being, absenteeism and turnover. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to verify the psychometric properties of the Work Psychosocial Climate Scale in the Italian context. METHODS: The participants were 1063 Italian workers. The survey comprised: Work Psychosocial Climate Scale, Majer D’Amato Organizational Questionnaire 10, Work and Organizational Motivation Inventory, Mindfulness Organising Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Organizational outcomes (Turnover intentions, Exit and neglect, Performance). RESULTS: The results provide evidence for the reliability a...
The ideas that people have about work can greatly influence the ways in which they characterize t... more The ideas that people have about work can greatly influence the ways in which they characterize their careers and their lives. Decent work refers to an opportunity for women and men to experience productive work in the conditions of respect for human rights. However, respect for the principles of decent work seems rather far from always being applied. This study presented the results of a qualitative research study on perceptions of the future and of decent work for people in situations of social vulnerability. Data were collected through focus groups. A semi-structured interview was used to explore the differences in representation between work and decent work and the representations of their work in the short and medium terms. The data were processed with N-vivo software, which was used to highlight the most recurring meanings related to the representation of "work" and "decent work." Moreover, the results showed some gender differences. Implications for career counselling practices are discussed in this paper, emphasizing the possibilities of designing paths and actions that convey the idea of decent work.
Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2018
Background: The phases of career building today bring out a more complex process than in previous... more Background: The phases of career building today bring out a more complex process than in previous decades. Starting from the literature review, the university-to-work transition is considered a very important step in the future career of the graduates, and it involves some psychological resources and requires specific abilities. Methods: Research has examined the psychological resources that students at the end of a degree course can use in the university-to-work transition. The aim of the study is to verify the relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity, and the mediational role of readiness and confidence on this relationship. A group of 438 students were assigned to complete a questionnaire in order to examine the relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity and the role of core components of psychological resources: readiness and confidence as mediator. Results: The results indicated both a direct relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity and a mediated relationship with the influence of readiness and confidence for a transition. Adding to our results, we assert that academic satisfaction has a directed effect on confidence during the transition and is a predictor of career identity, both directly and by the mediation of readiness in career transitions. Conclusion: Career identity has implication for exploratory behavior, thus increasing the motivation and mindfulness that create a virtuous circle, influencing the development of knowledge and skills, which are the base of proactivity and confidence in construction of one's future career.
Healthcare
As a major life trauma, COVID-19 had negative impacts on psychological well-being. The aim of thi... more As a major life trauma, COVID-19 had negative impacts on psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to test and verify the mediation of resilience, hope and self-efficacy and to analyze the moderating effect of gender and COVID-19 contagion on the association between symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, and post-traumatic growth among adults during COVID-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted via an online survey with self-administered questionnaires. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, the Resilience Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Comprehensive State Hope Scale were used. A total of 493 (n = 262 female and n = 231 male) participated in the survey (Mage = 33.40 years, SD = 13.41, range = 20 to 60). A multiple mediation model was used to verify the mediating effect of resilience, hope and self-efficacy on the relationship between symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, and PTG. A moderated mediation m...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological poi... more Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological point of view; recently, courage has been related with numerous positive individual behaviors and outcomes, such as coping strategies and subjective wellbeing, and an increasing number of studies explore the role of courage in the working and organizational environments. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect that individual courage—together with risk intelligence—and workplace social courage have on working performance; Methods: The participants are 961 Italian workers, balanced by gender; the measures used are: Courage, Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale, Workplace Social Courage Scale, and Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Models; Results: The results show the effect of subjective risk intelligence and courage on working performance, both directly and through the mediation of workplace social courage; Conclusions: Suggestions for further research a...
Strumenti per l'orientamento nella scuola media, 2005
Presentazione: Nell'articolo vengono riportati dati di ricerca su alcune variabili centr... more Presentazione: Nell'articolo vengono riportati dati di ricerca su alcune variabili centrali per l'orientamento scolastico-professionale nella scuola media, quindi in età preadolescenziale: auto-valutazione delle capacità, valori professionali, aspetti critici dell'adattamento sociale, immagine di sé ...
Vocational interest inventories are widely used by career counselors to help individuals to make ... more Vocational interest inventories are widely used by career counselors to help individuals to make career choices. The most common approach to assess vocational interests is based on verbal or textual stimuli. However, some of them are based on pictorials to overcome reading limits and provide additional information about the working environment and the activities related to a particular job. This article aims to present two studies on the development and first validation of the Multilingual Iconographic Professional Interest Inventory (MIPII) on two samples, one composed of 792 high-school students, and one composed of 366 middle school students. The inventory aimed to assesses the vocational interests of people over 19 areas by illustrations representing 95 jobs, five for each one, combined with their title in six different languages (Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French and Italian in this order). Both illustrations and titles are provided separately in the male and female vers...
Journal for Perspectives of Economic Political and Social Integration, 2020
Unaccompanied foreign minors are migrant children without their parents, relatives, or other adul... more Unaccompanied foreign minors are migrant children without their parents, relatives, or other adults. In Italy, especially in Sicily, an increasing number of young, non-European Union foreigners arrive daily in search of a new life and work opportunities. Despite this increasing phenomenon, interventions to support young migrants in career projects are infrequent and occasional within the host communities. With the aim of developing a career guidance intervention suitable for unaccompanied foreign minors, we propose a case study presenting a career guidance intervention for a group of unaccompanied foreign adolescents. The framework is the life design paradigm. The conductors of the activities were career counsellors, with the support of a cultural mediator and/or an educator. The setting of the interventions was individual and small groups. The instruments and procedures were predominantly qualitative. This paper includes a discussion of the strengths and weakness of this interventi...
Introduction: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder which a... more Introduction: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder which affects around 3%-7% of school-aged children, more often boys than girls. The present research aims to explore the relationship between ADD symptoms, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Image and how different levels of ADD affect emotional intelligence and self-perception. Method: We administered to a total of 370 young adolescents (girls = 203, boys = 167) with an age range of 12 years to 16 years (mean = 13; standard deviation = .59), the following self-reports: SIE-Self-Image Evaluation; EQ-i: YV-Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version; Brown ADD Scales-Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scales. Results: deficits in emotional intelligence were associated with a negative evaluation of self-image in adolescents who scored higher on the Brown ADD Scales.
Behavioral Sciences, 2020
The recent transformation of the workplaces and labor market, characterized by rapid technologica... more The recent transformation of the workplaces and labor market, characterized by rapid technological changes, social and economic instability, has greatly influenced the construction of people’s career paths. These paths cannot be viewed more as linear, but multifaceted and unstable. In organizational context, the psychological contract has changed from long term to short term. In this scenario, the construct of employability becomes central: people need to maintain and improve their ability to be attractive to the labor market to get or keep a job. The study presents the adaptation of the Self-Perceived Employability Scale to the Italian context. The participants are 660 Italian workers. The instruments used to verify the concurrent validity of the scale were the Employability Scale, the Flourishing Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Organizational Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Results showed good psychometric properties of the Italian ver...
Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2018
Literature show that the presence of an insecure attachment is at the root of a difficulty in aff... more Literature show that the presence of an insecure attachment is at the root of a difficulty in affect regulation and of the implementation of dysfunctional coping and resilience strategies. Adult attachment perspective posits that individuals with secure attachment are engaged in adaptive coping strategies, because their internal working models support a self-efficacy in achieving goals through their behavior. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationships between alexithymia, adult attachment styles, coping and resilience strategies, in a group of 488 subjects (M = 248; F = 240) with ages ranging from 18 to 55 years (M = 34.9, SD = 12.52). The following instruments were used: the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE); the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ); and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA). The data show that the secure adult attachment is positively associated with the ability to modulate affects, the cor...
Journal of prevention & intervention in the community, 2021
Work is a multidimensional construct that plays a crucial role in people's lives, assuring th... more Work is a multidimensional construct that plays a crucial role in people's lives, assuring their psychological well-being, social connections, and self-determination. "Decent" work is conceptualized as a satisfactory job in conditions of equity, security, and respect for human rights. The paper reports the results of a study on the perception of the future and decent work in young immigrants, at risk of undertaking undignified and unsatisfactory jobs. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview, aimed at exploring the representations of decent work and hope. Data analysis was conducted through both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the study are discussed with reference to career counseling promoting decent work for immigrant people, activating the motivation to plan the future, including hope.
Behavioral Sciences, 2019
Recent literature on positive psychology underlines the crucial role of schools to create a psych... more Recent literature on positive psychology underlines the crucial role of schools to create a psychologically healthy environment and to set programs and strategies fostering adolescents’ well-being. The aim of the present study is to validate a scale that measures scholastic satisfaction since a scientific evaluation and interventions on school satisfaction can help professionals to support adolescents’ positive development and school adjustment. We adapted the College Satisfaction Scale (CSS) and confirmed the previous five-dimensional structure also in a high school students’ sample (n = 792). The High-school Satisfaction Scale (H-Sat Scale) evaluates five dimensions of school satisfaction: appropriateness of choice (CH), quality of school services (SE), relationships with classmates (RE), effectiveness of study habits (ST) and usefulness for a future career (CA). The questionnaire consists of 20 items; it showed good psychometric features and, consistent with previous literature, ...
Behavioral Sciences
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the psychological well-being of people around the... more The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the psychological well-being of people around the world; university students have experienced feelings of fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the intolerance of uncertainty, and a worsened quality of life, related to the reduction of social contacts. Scholars all around the world widely suggest the need to take care of this issue, proposing solutions to support students’ adjustment in the post-pandemic period. The literature on positive psychology and the life design approach has identified multiple psychological resources, the character strengths, that can sustain people’s life satisfaction and well-being in changing contexts, including their university experience. We proposed an online group career counseling intervention for 30 Italian university students (experimental group) to promote university students’ psychological resources and mitigate the long-term negative implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on life satisfaction. The o...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
The Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) measures the degree of sociocultural competence in new ... more The Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) measures the degree of sociocultural competence in new cultural settings, and, despite its popularity, research aiming at evaluating its dimensionality is lacking and has incongruent results. Moreover, the dimensionality of the scale has been mainly tested on different samples adjusted to Eastern culture. We administered the SCAS to 266 international students sojourning in Los Angeles to test which underlying dimensionality emerges if the measure is used to assess sociocultural adaptation to Western culture, also verifying its measurement invariance across sex. Findings from EFA showed a three-factor solution: Diversity Approach, Social Functioning, and Distance and Life Changes, and the CFA indicated a plausible goodness-of-fit to the empirical data. The examination of MGCFA suggested that the questionnaire showed an invariant structure across sex. Our results suggest that the dimensionality of the SCAS may differ according to the sojourner...
Behavioral Sciences
This study, after presenting a review of the existent literature on courage and social courage in... more This study, after presenting a review of the existent literature on courage and social courage in the workplace, has the purpose of providing new evidence about the psychometric properties of an Italian-language version of the Workplace Social Courage Scale (WSCS), verifying its measurement invariance across gender and the discrimination properties of its items through IRT analysis. The aim of the research is testing the Italian version of the WSCS; for this scope, four studies have been conducted on four different samples analyzing the factorial structure, the internal consistency, the measurement invariance across gender, and the convergent and concurrent validity. The results support the psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, reliability, validity, and utility, showing positive relationships with the criterion variables: satisfaction of work-related basic needs, prosocial rule breaking and work performance. The current study extends prior findings by providing furt...
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship
In recent years, markets have been hit by various crises, both economically and naturally. These ... more In recent years, markets have been hit by various crises, both economically and naturally. These shocks have highlighted how important it is for companies to be able to adapt with resilient behaviors. Entrepreneurs and their resilience capacity will play a very important role in the recovery process. Resilience is closely linked to other abilities such as risk intelligence; that is, the ability to look at uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage or danger. The study assesses the relationship between these two constructs using a sample of entrepreneurs in the tourism sector within Italy. Analysis confirmed a relationship between subjective risk intelligence and resilience. These relations are explained by taking into consideration four aspects (imaginative capacity, problem-solving self-efficacy, attitude toward uncertainty and emotional stress management) included in risk intelligence, highlighting which of them contributed to explaining the three dimensions of the r...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Attitude toward smart working reflects feelings of favorableness towards this object; attitudes i... more Attitude toward smart working reflects feelings of favorableness towards this object; attitudes influence intentions, which in turn guide behaviors. Recent research confirms the positive influence that attitude toward smart working has on expected usage of it. Despite a direct influence, other factors could interact in the context of opportunities for ICT usage for teleworkers; among these factors, work engagement stands out. In turn, work engagement influences the perception of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Considering that literature suggests that among the antecedents of work engagement are attitudes, the present study analyzes the role of positive attitude towards smart working on work engagement, and consequently on job satisfaction and on life satisfaction, hypothesizing that work engagement could mediate between positive attitude towards smart working and job and life satisfaction. The participants were 342 workers (115 males and 227 females) in private and public o...
Work, 2020
BACKGROUND: The organizational climate is a quality of the internal environment of an organizatio... more BACKGROUND: The organizational climate is a quality of the internal environment of an organization that is shared by its members, can be described in terms of the values of the characteristics of an organization, influencing the workers’ behaviour. A number of empirical studies have examined the relationship between climate perceptions and a variety of variables such as job satisfaction, performance, psychological well-being, absenteeism and turnover. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to verify the psychometric properties of the Work Psychosocial Climate Scale in the Italian context. METHODS: The participants were 1063 Italian workers. The survey comprised: Work Psychosocial Climate Scale, Majer D’Amato Organizational Questionnaire 10, Work and Organizational Motivation Inventory, Mindfulness Organising Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Organizational outcomes (Turnover intentions, Exit and neglect, Performance). RESULTS: The results provide evidence for the reliability a...
The ideas that people have about work can greatly influence the ways in which they characterize t... more The ideas that people have about work can greatly influence the ways in which they characterize their careers and their lives. Decent work refers to an opportunity for women and men to experience productive work in the conditions of respect for human rights. However, respect for the principles of decent work seems rather far from always being applied. This study presented the results of a qualitative research study on perceptions of the future and of decent work for people in situations of social vulnerability. Data were collected through focus groups. A semi-structured interview was used to explore the differences in representation between work and decent work and the representations of their work in the short and medium terms. The data were processed with N-vivo software, which was used to highlight the most recurring meanings related to the representation of "work" and "decent work." Moreover, the results showed some gender differences. Implications for career counselling practices are discussed in this paper, emphasizing the possibilities of designing paths and actions that convey the idea of decent work.
Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2018
Background: The phases of career building today bring out a more complex process than in previous... more Background: The phases of career building today bring out a more complex process than in previous decades. Starting from the literature review, the university-to-work transition is considered a very important step in the future career of the graduates, and it involves some psychological resources and requires specific abilities. Methods: Research has examined the psychological resources that students at the end of a degree course can use in the university-to-work transition. The aim of the study is to verify the relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity, and the mediational role of readiness and confidence on this relationship. A group of 438 students were assigned to complete a questionnaire in order to examine the relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity and the role of core components of psychological resources: readiness and confidence as mediator. Results: The results indicated both a direct relationship between academic satisfaction and career identity and a mediated relationship with the influence of readiness and confidence for a transition. Adding to our results, we assert that academic satisfaction has a directed effect on confidence during the transition and is a predictor of career identity, both directly and by the mediation of readiness in career transitions. Conclusion: Career identity has implication for exploratory behavior, thus increasing the motivation and mindfulness that create a virtuous circle, influencing the development of knowledge and skills, which are the base of proactivity and confidence in construction of one's future career.
Healthcare
As a major life trauma, COVID-19 had negative impacts on psychological well-being. The aim of thi... more As a major life trauma, COVID-19 had negative impacts on psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to test and verify the mediation of resilience, hope and self-efficacy and to analyze the moderating effect of gender and COVID-19 contagion on the association between symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, and post-traumatic growth among adults during COVID-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted via an online survey with self-administered questionnaires. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, the Resilience Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Comprehensive State Hope Scale were used. A total of 493 (n = 262 female and n = 231 male) participated in the survey (Mage = 33.40 years, SD = 13.41, range = 20 to 60). A multiple mediation model was used to verify the mediating effect of resilience, hope and self-efficacy on the relationship between symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, and PTG. A moderated mediation m...
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological poi... more Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological point of view; recently, courage has been related with numerous positive individual behaviors and outcomes, such as coping strategies and subjective wellbeing, and an increasing number of studies explore the role of courage in the working and organizational environments. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect that individual courage—together with risk intelligence—and workplace social courage have on working performance; Methods: The participants are 961 Italian workers, balanced by gender; the measures used are: Courage, Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale, Workplace Social Courage Scale, and Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Models; Results: The results show the effect of subjective risk intelligence and courage on working performance, both directly and through the mediation of workplace social courage; Conclusions: Suggestions for further research a...
Strumenti per l'orientamento nella scuola media, 2005
Presentazione: Nell'articolo vengono riportati dati di ricerca su alcune variabili centr... more Presentazione: Nell'articolo vengono riportati dati di ricerca su alcune variabili centrali per l'orientamento scolastico-professionale nella scuola media, quindi in età preadolescenziale: auto-valutazione delle capacità, valori professionali, aspetti critici dell'adattamento sociale, immagine di sé ...
Vocational interest inventories are widely used by career counselors to help individuals to make ... more Vocational interest inventories are widely used by career counselors to help individuals to make career choices. The most common approach to assess vocational interests is based on verbal or textual stimuli. However, some of them are based on pictorials to overcome reading limits and provide additional information about the working environment and the activities related to a particular job. This article aims to present two studies on the development and first validation of the Multilingual Iconographic Professional Interest Inventory (MIPII) on two samples, one composed of 792 high-school students, and one composed of 366 middle school students. The inventory aimed to assesses the vocational interests of people over 19 areas by illustrations representing 95 jobs, five for each one, combined with their title in six different languages (Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French and Italian in this order). Both illustrations and titles are provided separately in the male and female vers...
Journal for Perspectives of Economic Political and Social Integration, 2020
Unaccompanied foreign minors are migrant children without their parents, relatives, or other adul... more Unaccompanied foreign minors are migrant children without their parents, relatives, or other adults. In Italy, especially in Sicily, an increasing number of young, non-European Union foreigners arrive daily in search of a new life and work opportunities. Despite this increasing phenomenon, interventions to support young migrants in career projects are infrequent and occasional within the host communities. With the aim of developing a career guidance intervention suitable for unaccompanied foreign minors, we propose a case study presenting a career guidance intervention for a group of unaccompanied foreign adolescents. The framework is the life design paradigm. The conductors of the activities were career counsellors, with the support of a cultural mediator and/or an educator. The setting of the interventions was individual and small groups. The instruments and procedures were predominantly qualitative. This paper includes a discussion of the strengths and weakness of this interventi...
Introduction: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder which a... more Introduction: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder which affects around 3%-7% of school-aged children, more often boys than girls. The present research aims to explore the relationship between ADD symptoms, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Image and how different levels of ADD affect emotional intelligence and self-perception. Method: We administered to a total of 370 young adolescents (girls = 203, boys = 167) with an age range of 12 years to 16 years (mean = 13; standard deviation = .59), the following self-reports: SIE-Self-Image Evaluation; EQ-i: YV-Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version; Brown ADD Scales-Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scales. Results: deficits in emotional intelligence were associated with a negative evaluation of self-image in adolescents who scored higher on the Brown ADD Scales.
Behavioral Sciences, 2020
The recent transformation of the workplaces and labor market, characterized by rapid technologica... more The recent transformation of the workplaces and labor market, characterized by rapid technological changes, social and economic instability, has greatly influenced the construction of people’s career paths. These paths cannot be viewed more as linear, but multifaceted and unstable. In organizational context, the psychological contract has changed from long term to short term. In this scenario, the construct of employability becomes central: people need to maintain and improve their ability to be attractive to the labor market to get or keep a job. The study presents the adaptation of the Self-Perceived Employability Scale to the Italian context. The participants are 660 Italian workers. The instruments used to verify the concurrent validity of the scale were the Employability Scale, the Flourishing Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Organizational Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Results showed good psychometric properties of the Italian ver...
Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2018
Literature show that the presence of an insecure attachment is at the root of a difficulty in aff... more Literature show that the presence of an insecure attachment is at the root of a difficulty in affect regulation and of the implementation of dysfunctional coping and resilience strategies. Adult attachment perspective posits that individuals with secure attachment are engaged in adaptive coping strategies, because their internal working models support a self-efficacy in achieving goals through their behavior. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationships between alexithymia, adult attachment styles, coping and resilience strategies, in a group of 488 subjects (M = 248; F = 240) with ages ranging from 18 to 55 years (M = 34.9, SD = 12.52). The following instruments were used: the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE); the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ); and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA). The data show that the secure adult attachment is positively associated with the ability to modulate affects, the cor...
Journal of prevention & intervention in the community, 2021
Work is a multidimensional construct that plays a crucial role in people's lives, assuring th... more Work is a multidimensional construct that plays a crucial role in people's lives, assuring their psychological well-being, social connections, and self-determination. "Decent" work is conceptualized as a satisfactory job in conditions of equity, security, and respect for human rights. The paper reports the results of a study on the perception of the future and decent work in young immigrants, at risk of undertaking undignified and unsatisfactory jobs. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview, aimed at exploring the representations of decent work and hope. Data analysis was conducted through both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the study are discussed with reference to career counseling promoting decent work for immigrant people, activating the motivation to plan the future, including hope.
Nella società del rischio (Beck, 2000) il senso di insicurezza, caratteristico dell'economia post... more Nella società del rischio (Beck, 2000) il senso di insicurezza, caratteristico dell'economia postmoderna, ha delle ricadute, oltre che sulle dimensioni economiche, sociali e culturali, anche sulle scelte individuali e sulle caratteristiche personali: la generazione del terzo millennio possiede ormai come caratteristica strutturale quell'identità fluida (Bauman, 2002), che ha trasformato la flessibilità, da dimensione caratterizzante i rapporti economici e lavorativi, in una caratteristica identitaria derivante da una fluidità esistenziale, prodotto di continue transizioni tra diverse attività e ruoli sociali, nella ricerca che ogni giovane compie per trovare il proprio posto nel mondo (Buzzi, Cavalli, de Lillo, 2008).
Numerosi sono i contributi sul ruolo degli interessi professionali nell'orientamento e altrettant... more Numerosi sono i contributi sul ruolo degli interessi professionali nell'orientamento e altrettanto numerosi sono gli strumenti che sono stati sviluppati per la pratica e la ricerca nel campo dell'orientamento. Tra questi ricordiamo lo Strong Vocational Interest Blank (Strong, 1943), il Self-Directed Search (SDS) (Holland, 1997), i questionari sulle Preferenze Scolastiche e Professionali (PSP/3) (Bonelli, Mancinelli, 2012) e sugli Interessi Accademici e Professionali (IAP/5) (Bonelli, Mancinelli, 2012). Ai più tradizionali test psicologici, si affiancano altre modalità di indagine, in alcuni casi non legate all'uso della parola. Un esempio è la forma non verbale del questionario MV70 (Viglietti, 1974) che indaga gli interessi professionali usando come stimolo delle vignette che rappresentano persone nell'atto di svolgere alcune professioni. Il presente contributo intende presentare un nuovo strumento, l'Inventario Iconografico degli Interessi Professionali (3IP) che si ispira al MV70 cercando di superarne alcuni limiti (forti bias di genere e relativi alla cultura dell'epoca). Lo strumento nasce con l'obiettivo di facilitare l'assessment degli interessi nel periodo pre-adolescenziale e con particolari categorie di utenti, quali gli studenti di origine straniera che potrebbero incontrare qualche difficoltà nel rispondere ad un questionario verbale in lingua italiana. Una prima fase di pre-test, condotta su 143 alunni della Lombardia e della Sicilia, ha permesso di identificare 22 aree utilizzando 75 vignette accompagnate dalla denominazione del lavoro rappresentato. Queste rappresentano figure umane stilizzate e con il viso completamente bianco: ciò ha permesso di eliminare connotazioni di genere e fenomeni di influenza legati alla fisionomia del viso. L'interesse è stato rilevato su scala Likert a 4 punti (Per nulla, Poco, Abbastanza e Molto). Una seconda fase di pre-test è stata condotta su un campione di 537 studenti utilizzando una versione migliorata dello strumento a 68 item. Infine, sono stati selezionati 65 item finali che permettono di rilevare l'interesse per le seguenti 19 aree professionali:
Il progetto di ricerca Ottimismo e stili decisionali nasce dal lavoro della rete interistituziona... more Il progetto di ricerca Ottimismo e stili decisionali nasce dal lavoro della rete interistituzionale per l'orientamento Enti in rete e si integra al progetto di orientamento "Orientalfuturo", rivolto agli studenti delle scuole secondarie di secondo grado del territorio di Acireale (CT), con la finalità di aiutare gli studenti a divenire consapevoli delle variabili psicologiche e psicosociali in vista delle importanti scelte scolastiche e/o professionali. Accanto alle dimensioni tradizionalmente considerate come intervenienti della scelta post-diploma, nell'ambito della ricerca e degli interventi sull'orientamento si pone crescente attenzione verso nuovi costrutti che, in tempi di crisieconomica, sociale, culturalepossono giocare un ruolo importante nel processo di scelta del proprio futuro formativo e professionale: le dimensioni considerate nel presente contributo sono l'ottimismo e la sua influenza sugli stili decisionali. Scheier e Carver (1985) descrivono l'ottimismo come una generale tendenza ad aspettarsi risultati positivi anche di fronte ad ostacoli; l'ottimismo può essere inteso come un atteggiamento mentale che ha esiti positivi sulla salute fisica e psicologica e che permea la vita sociale (Delle Fave, 2007). Le persone che detengono una visione ottimistica della vita hanno dimostrato alti livelli di motivazione, persistenza, performance (Carver et al., 1979; Taylor e Brown, 1988) e la tendenza ad avvicinarsi al mondo in modo più attivo (Peterson e Bossio, 1991). Lo stile decisionale fa invece riferimento a un'abitudine, una propensione a reagire in una determinata maniera all'interno di un dato contesto, influenzando, in maniera relativamente stabile la modalità con cui ogni individuo compie delle scelte (Iannello, 2007). Gli individui, in risposta a specifiche situazioni, tendono a impiegare un certo stile con più frequenza di altri, presentando uno stile predominante. Scopo del presente contributo è: verificare l'eventuale esistenza di differenze, nei due costrutti considerati, di genere, di classe e di tipologia di istituto scolastico; mettere a confronto i livelli di ottimismo degli studenti e dei loro insegnanti; esaminare la possibile relazione esistente tra questi due costrutti, ovvero tra credenze e aspettative circa il futuro e modalità predominante nel prendere le decisioni. I partecipanti alla ricerca sono 644 studenti delle classi quarte e quinte della scuola secondaria di secondo grado, pareggiati per genere e per istituto scolastico frequentato; 58 insegnanti degli stessi istituti scolastici pareggiati per genere. Gli strumenti utilizzati per la rilevazione dei dati sono: Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) (Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994; ad. it. Anolli, 2005); Questionario sugli Stili Decisionali (QSD) (Magnano, Di Nuovo, in press). I risultati dell'analisi dei dati forniscono utili indicazioni per la strutturazione e la rivisitazione degli interventi di orientamento educativo e di supporto al processo decisionale.
La motivazione al lavoro rappresenta un elemento essenziale nel miglioramento delle performance l... more La motivazione al lavoro rappresenta un elemento essenziale nel miglioramento delle performance lavorative e nell'incremento della soddisfazione lavorativa; nell'insegnamento la motivazione al lavoro è associata al benessere in classe, più efficace apprendimento e più elevata motivazione negli studenti. La motivazione degli insegnanti, oltre ad essere strettamente correlata alla percezione di autoefficacia nell'insegnamento, si associa a migliori performance degli studenti, alla loro autodeterminazione e alla capacità di controllare la relazione insegnamento-). Tutte queste dimensioni sono incluse nell'atteggiamento metacognitivo. Gli insegnanti con atteggiamento metacognitivo mostrano più elevati livelli di job satisfaction, sono in grado di gestire le loro emozioni nell'ambito della relazione con gli studenti, si sentono maggiormente efficaci nel fronteggiare situazioni critiche e utilizzano differenti strategie in differenti contesti-classe. L'atteggiamento metacognitivo degli insegnanti, non solo stimola l'incremento delle competenze metacognitive negli studenti, ma diventa per loro fonte di motivazione all'apprendimento (Moè, Pazzaglia, Friso, 2010). Lo scopo del presente studio è verificare, rispetto alle dimensioni di analisi, l'esistenza di eventuali differenze di genere e di livello scolastico; la relazione esistente tra l'utilizzo delle strategie metacognitive nell'insegnamento e la motivazione al lavoro come dimensione legata all'organizzazione; se l'utilizzo di un atteggiamento metacognitivo negli insegnanti può essere considerato predittore di un più elevato livello di motivazione al lavoro. I partecipanti allo studio sono 210 insegnanti italiani (M=77, F=132, n.r.=1), di età compresa tra 28 e 67 anni (M=49.61; SD=7.61), appartenenti a scuole italiane primarie e secondarie. Gli strumenti utilizzati sono: MESI-Motivazione, Emozioni, Strategie, Insegnamento. Questionari Metacognitivi per Insegnanti (Moè, Pazzaglia, Friso, 2010),WOMI-Work and Organizational Motivation Inventory (Giorgi, Majer, 2010). I risultati mostrano positive correlazioni tra atteggiamento metacognitivo e motivazione al lavoro, soprattutto nelle dimensioni dell'achievement e della soddisfazione e ci forniscono indicazioni utili nella progettazione di azioni di formazione life-long per gli insegnanti.
Le recenti ricerche sulla resilienza hanno dimostrato che l'impatto traumatico di un evento si po... more Le recenti ricerche sulla resilienza hanno dimostrato che l'impatto traumatico di un evento si pone in stretto rapporto con le caratteristiche personologiche dell'individuo; ovvero nell'adattamento ad uno stressor sono implicate sia l'oggettiva gravità dell'evento sia il grado di vulnerabilità psicofisica dell'individuo, con particolare riferimento alle sue capacità di individuazione e di modulazione delle emozioni. Partendo da questo presupposto teorico, ci si è proposti di valutare il grado d'incidenza sulla resilienza di alcune variabili -attaccamento, capacità di regolazione affettiva, strategie di coping -in un gruppo di 458 partecipanti adulti (maschi = 205; femmine = 213), a cui sono stati somministrati i quattro seguenti test: Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) per la valutazione dello stile di attaccamento; Twenty-Items Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) per la misurazione dell'alessitmia/disregolazione degli affetti; Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) per la misurazione del coping; Resiliencs scale for adult (RSA) per la misurazione della resilienza.
In un contesto sociale ed economico caratterizzato da una marcata discontinuità del lavoro, la nu... more In un contesto sociale ed economico caratterizzato da una marcata discontinuità del lavoro, la nuova organizzazione sociale del lavoro prevede incarichi temporanei e progetti limitati nel tempo in sostituzione di posti di lavoro permanenti. I cambiamenti continui richiedono, inevitabilmente, una nuova organizzazione interna delle dinamiche intrapersonali che sostengono l'efficienza e l'efficacia della performance. Il costrutto di motivazione è l'insieme dei processi psicologici che provocano la nascita, la direzione e la persistenza di azioni volontarie dirette verso un obiettivo. La motivazione al lavoro è il processo che attiva, dà energia, dirige e sostiene il comportamento e la performance lavorativa (Luthans, 1998). Tuttavia la motivazione non spiega, da sola, la globalità del comportamento lavorativo, ma agisce ed interagisce con altri processi cognitivi. L'Intelligenza emotiva è la capacità di monitorare i sentimenti e le emozioni proprie e altrui, di discriminare tra di loro e di utilizzare queste informazioni per guidare il proprio comportamento (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Concettualmente, l'intelligenza emotiva integra efficacemente l'intelligenza cognitiva e può considerarsi predittore di prestazioni superiori grazie alle sue componenti di autovalutazione, auto-regolazione, motivazione, empatia e abilità sociali. Gran parte della letteratura sull'intelligenza emotiva nelle organizzazioni (Abraham, 2003(Abraham, , 2004 sostiene che essa è coinvolta anche in dimensioni organizzative complesse, quali impegno organizzativo, cittadinanza organizzativa, e la leadership trasformazionale (Higgs, 2002). La Resilienza, considerata come un processo (Vaillant, 1993), piuttosto che come condizione o uno stato, si riferisce ad un processo dinamico che comprende l'adattamento positivo all'interno di un contesto significativamente avverso. Implica due presupposti fondamentali: l'esposizione ad un rischio significativo; un adattamento positivo malgrado l'importante minaccia cui è sottoposto lo sviluppo del soggetto (Luthar, Zigler, 1991; Masten e al., 1990; Rutter, 1980). Secondo il modello proposto da Friborg, che ipotizza una dimensione relazionale della resilienza, se ne rintracciano tre fattori: competenze sociali, coesione familiare e risorse sociali. Obiettivo del presente contributo è verificare quale ruolo di mediazione l'intelligenza emotiva e la resilienza svolgono nella motivazione al lavoro. I partecipanti allo studio sono circa 458 lavoratori adulti (maschi = 205; femmine = 213) di età compresa tra 18 e 55 anni. Gli strumenti utilizzati sono: WOMI-Work and Organizational Motivation Inventory (Giorgi, Majer, 2010); RSA-Resilience Scale for Adult (Friborg et al., 2005; ad. it. Laudadio et al., 2011); SREIT-Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte et al., 1998). L'analisi dei dati metterà in evidenza l'eventuale relazione esistente tra i tre costrutti e se i fattori personali (resilienza e intelligenza emotiva) hanno una funzione predittiva rispetto a specifiche dimensioni motivazionali.
Education Sciences, 2020
(1) Background: To improve academic performance and prevent dropouts, many studies have investiga... more (1) Background: To improve academic performance and prevent dropouts, many studies have investigated the effects of non-intellective competencies on performance, and the effects of performance on school satisfaction. The aim of this study was to investigate the direct role of both non-intellective competencies and performance on school satisfaction at the same time. (2) Methods: The study involved 731 Italian students, attending three different high schools, who responded to the H-Comp Scale, a questionnaire assessing twelve different aspects of students' skills, attitudes and motivations over the study, and the H-Sat Scale, a questionnaire assessing five different areas of school satisfaction. (3) Results: We found a strong role of non-intellective competencies on school satisfaction and a marginal role of academic performance, gender and the attended class, which reduced as students' seniority increased. (4) Conclusions: This study showed that school satisfaction depends on students' self-perception in terms of their study competencies and the motivations possessed more than their sole performance, suggesting that this helps students to improve their non-intellective competencies in order to increase their performance and reduce the risk of dropouts, both directly and indirectly, through increasing their school satisfaction.