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Studies have shown that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, as defined by Self-Determination Theory, has a great impact on adolescents’ well-being, prosocial behavior and academic success. In the present study, we aim to validate a brief scale for adolescents measuring the satisfaction of the three basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. A preliminary qualitative study was conducted to select and adapt for adolescents a subset of 12 items from the original version of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale (BPNS). This version of the scale was then analyzed in terms of dimensionality, measurement invariance and criterion validity on a sample of 308 Italian adolescents (M age = 14.04 years; 57.1% males). The results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the posited three-factors structure and the measurement invariance of the instrument across gender. Correlations with a measure of psychological well-being provided evidence for criterion validity. The scale proved to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure the levels of satisfaction of the psychological need for autonomy, competence and relatedness in adolescents.

It is widely acknowledged that the social relationships of adolescents with their classmates can have a significant impact on their adjustment to the school environment and their psychological well-being. This study, based on a random sample of 36,712 students, investigates the psychometric properties and the validity of the Classmates Social Isolation Questionnaire for Adolescents (CSIQ-A), a time-efficient instrument intended to measure peer relatedness at school. Confirmatory factor analysis established the bidimensional structure of the scale. The CSIQ-A showed measurement invariance across gender and across students with different immigrant backgrounds and socioeconomic status. A positive correlation between peer acceptance, peer friendship and positive affect provided support for the criterion validity of the measure. The CSIQ-A proved to be a psychometrically sound measure, which can be reliably used with adolescents with different sociodemographic and cultural characteristics. In conclusion, the CSIQ-A makes it possible to directly measure the effects of classroom interventions that are aimed at promoting peer relatedness and preventing social isolation.

Dropout rates in Italy are very high, particularly in freshmen students (Anvur, 2016). University students’ academic achievement has been found to prevent dropout. The present study tested a predicting model of academic achievement in first-year university students based on self-determination theory, through a longitudinal design with two points in time. Freshmen students in a bachelor program of an Italian university (N = 313; M age = 21.34 years; SD = 4.74; 72.2% female) completed measures of perceived autonomy support from parents and teachers, autonomous motivation, perceived academic control, and intention to drop out from university at the start of their academic year. At the end of the first-semester, information about students’ academic achievement have been collected from the department office. Results from structural equation modeling analyses supported the hypothesized model. Specifically, perceived autonomy support from parents and teachers predicted perceived academic control via autonomous motives; perceived academic control predicted intention to dropout, which, in turn, predicts academic achievement. A major contribution was demonstrating the important role of perceived autonomy support and perceived academic control in freshman students’ academic achievement. These findings could provide a contribution in implementing adequate intervention supporting freshman students in order to promote academic achievement and, consequently, to prevent dropout from university.

Students cannot change the composition and the size of the classroom they attend, and the effect of these variables on achievement is a source of educational inequality. In this study, based on a representative sample of Italian high school students (N = 26,799), a multilevel analysis was performed to: (i) estimate the overall impact of the structural characteristics of the class on achievements; (ii) identify which of the analysed characteristics were more relevant. The results show that the structure of the classroom has a significant impact on academic performance, and they identify group’s initial learning level and gender composition as the most important factors. The overall socio- economic level of the class and the percentage of immigrant students proved to have a lower impact, which varied according to different geographical areas, and the group size does not seem to be relevant. In conclusion, if the outcome of interest is academic performance, results suggest that the classroom size and the number of immigrant students attending the class has little or no relevance in high school, while the group’s initial achievement, the gender composition and, to a lesser extent, the socio-economic composition of the group should be taken into consideration. Given the complexity of the objectives of the educational system in Italy, which are by no means limited to the improvement of academic results, future studies will have to examine the effects of the structure of the classroom also on noncognitive outcomes that are closely related to students’ personal and social development.

Many studies showed the impact that the socio-economic context and students’ characteristics, such as gender and migratory background, have on mathematical performance. This situation poses a problem of equity of the educational system: some groups of young people are in fact disadvantaged for reasons independent of their commitment to the study. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the presence of factors on which teachers can intervene, allowing disadvantaged students to achieve excellence. The contribution aims to identify associated factors not only to compensate for the disadvantage associated with student background conditions, but to a real reversal of predictions in terms of skills acquired. The results show the impact that geographic membership, the socio-economic-cultural background of schools and families and gender, in their interaction, exert in defining situations of major disadvantage for students. At the same time, there is evidence for the protective role played by some teaching strategies, student self-beliefs, and other factors related to specific background situations.

The article discusses several models for contrasting educational poverty, demonstrating the need for actions aimed at increasing the resilience of disadvantaged children and adolescents. Different types of factors promoting resilience, on which a direct intervention of teachers and educators is possible, are identified. Subsequently, tools for evaluating these resilience factors at the individual as well as at the group-level are presented, describing their theoretical approach, their scope and their psychometric properties. For each presented indicator, the available information about gender differences and immigrant background differences is reported.

The aim of this study is to identify the way young Italian students represent immigrants and to evaluate the existence of relationships between these representations and the family background of the students. The data is based on a sample of Italian students (N = 841). The respondents were given an open question, which asked them to provide a simile or a metaphor concerning immigrants. A mixed methodology was employed, which involved: (i) analysis of the qualitative content; (ii) quantitative analysis investigating the relationship between the categories identified by means of an analysis of the content and the socioeconomic status of the student. The results showed a very diverse and articulated set of representations, with the contents of the metaphors produced by the students ranging from those based on a kind of «us-them» opposition, to images based on an attitude of tolerance and equality, and semantic regions with a more emotional component. The analysis revealed some statistically significant relationships between the socio-economic backgrounds of the students’ families and some types of metaphors produced by the students. The mixed research methodology adopted proved to be effective with respect to the objectives of the study, and it combines the use of reliable statistical tools with the qualitative richness of metaphor-based answers to open questions.

Cognitive self-regulation refers to the mental processes that students adopt with the aim of adapting and changing their processes of cognition and that can lead to positive results in terms of learning. The purpose of the present study was to develop a short scale with sound psychometric properties in order to measure self-regulated knowledge in university students. The scale was designed on the basis of the Self-Regulated Learning theoretical framework (Pintrich, 2004) as well as the results of previous studies investigating students’ cognitive self-regulation. The «Self-Regulated Knowledge Scale - University» (SRKS-U) was made up of five subscales, each one intended to measure one of the following cognitive processes: knowledge networking, knowledge extraction, knowledge practice, knowledge critique, and knowledge monitoring. The psychometric properties of the scale were tested on a sample of 2.209 Italian university students (average age = 22.6 years; SD = 6.14; 67% female) to ascertain its reliability (internal consistency) and factorial structure (using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis). A multigroup analysis was employed to verify the measurement invariance of SRKS-U across gender. The results proved the good internal consistency of the scale, confirmed its theoretical structure, and demonstrated its configural, metric and scalar invariance across gender. Given its brevity and its good psychometric properties, the SRKS-U can be usefully employed in research programs which aim to investigate self-regulated knowledge as well as in evaluation programs as a screening instrument to provide information that can be used for developing targeted interventions in order to enhance students’ self-regulation of learning.

High School Transition: Theoretical Underpinnings, Development and Validation of the Transition Difficulty Scale – SDIT The transition into senior high school is a critical juncture in the Italian education system and requires a challenging adaptation for students entering a new learning environment. It could be positive, by providing opportunities for personal growth, or negative when the new school setting is not sensitive to students’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. In the transition year, the so-called «transition selection process» has very alarming features. In Italy there are only a few studies in this field compared to other countries, mainly the United States. However, despite its relevant accomplishments, international research on school transitions only seldom address students’ transition experience directly by using theoretically based tools with sound psychometric properties. The purpose of this study is to present the conceptual model and the development and validation processes of the Transition Difficulty Scale (SDIT). The study was conducted on a national representative sample of 7.732 students attending the first year of 150 senior high schools. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis attested the mono-dimensional structure of the SDIT and showed factorial invariance across gender and types of schools. The SDIT had satisfactory levels of internal consistency and the correlations among the SDIT scores and the criterion meas ures were consistent with the theoretical framework. In sum, the present findings provide adequate support for construct validity and reliability and for using the SDIT in research and practice, particularly as a screening tool.