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The school textbook is a cultural artefact capable of conveying a particular cultural and social imagery that clearly affects the attitudes of teachers and learners towards disability. This paper presents an exploratory-descriptive study that aims to investigate the attitudes of primary school teachers towards the representation of disability within the school textbook. Correlation between attitudes and teaching qualifications and experience were also sought. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed starting from macro-themes that emerged from semi-structured interviews during the previous qualitative phase. Findings have shown that teachers, while aware of the low educational value of the textbook and the scarcity of images and texts related to disability, have positive attitudes towards inclusive representation, use and design of materials related to special needs. Finally, teachers with the specialization for support activities were found to have more positive attitudes towards the representation and management of materials representing the reality of disability. Rappresentazione della disabilità nei libri di testo: gli atteggiamenti degli insegnanti della scuola primaria. Il libro di testo scolastico costituisce un artefatto culturale che veicola un particolare immaginario destinato ad influenzare le percezioni di insegnanti e alunni. L’articolo presenta uno studio esplorativo-descrittivo che mira ad investigare gli atteggiamenti dei docenti nei confronti della rappresentazione della disabilità all’interno dei libri di testo scolastici. A tale scopo è stato costruito un questionario ad hoc a partire dai macro-temi emersi dalle interviste semi-strutturate durante la precedente fase qualitativa. La ricerca mostra che gli insegnanti, pur consapevoli dello scarso valore educativo del libro di testo e della scarsità di immagini e testi relativi alla disabilità, hanno atteggiamenti positivi nei confronti della rappresentazione inclusiva e delle competenze personali nella gestione di materiali relativi alla realtà dei bisogni speciali. Gli insegnanti in possesso della specializzazione per le attività di sostegno, infine, tendono ad avere atteggiamenti più positivi nei confronti della rappresentazione della e dell’utilizzo di immagini e testi disabilità all’interno dei libri di testo rappresentanti la disabilità.

Parental rejection has been consistently empirically implicated in a wide array of developmental, behavioural and psychological problems worldwide. However, the interaction effect between parental rejection in childhood and the oxytocin receptor genotype on psychological adjustment has yet to be investigated. The present study aimed to investigate gene–environment interaction effects between parental rejection (maternal and paternal) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene polymorphisms (rs53576 and rs2254298) on depressive symptoms in adults in different cultural contexts. Adults from Italy and Japan (N = 133, age = 18–27 years, females = 68) were preliminarily genotyped and then completed the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers and the Beck Depression Inventory. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that paternal rejection was related to self-reported depression and that the effect of parental rejection was moderated by OXTR gene polymorphisms and nationality. Among Italians, OXTR rs2254298 A-carriers showed resilience to negative early parental care, whereas among Japanese, OXTR rs53576 non-A-carriers showed resistance to negative early paternal care. These findings align with expected relations between perceived acceptance–rejection and an individual’s psychological adjustment, as proposed by interpersonal acceptance–rejection theory, and indicate the need for future studies adopting a multicultural and multilevel approach to better understand how the effects of parental rejection extend into adulthood.