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The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the processes of a Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) citizenship education project by examining a 2-year intervention that involved 43 Italian high school students. We collected qualitative data (focus groups with students and interviews with teachers) to capture participants’ perspectives, as well as longitudinal quantitative data to monitor the process over time (assessing school climate, perceived quality of participation, and group participation norms). The results revealed that YPAR was successful in reducing hierarchy, facilitating group activities, and recognizing youth voice, thus changing students’ perception of their school environment and views on participation and active citizenship. The intervention also changed teachers’ perceptions of students. YPAR proved to be a suitable option for citizenship education in school.

Prior studies revealed that low levels of youth political activity are not necessarily indicative of complete disengagement from societal affairs but could be accompanied by interest and latent involvement stemming from a standby or monitorial attitude. However, no prior study has investigated patterns of citizenship orientations including both manifest and latent engagement defined by one’s position towards institutional politics, according to different forms of participation. A questionnaire was filled out by 1,732 late adolescents and young adults in Italy (15–30 years old, M = 19.73, 60.7% female). Cluster analysis identified six profiles of citizenship orientations across different types of participatory activities (political, activist, political online and civic): active trustful, active distrustful, standby trustful, standby distrustful, unengaged trustful and unengaged distrustful. The results showed that each level of engagement—active, standby and unengaged—could be further differentiated between trustful and distrustful based on their attitude towards institutions and the electoral process.

Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) is a theoretical–methodological approach that has been designed to promote positive development (e.g., well-being and health, social–emotional and cognitive development, academic or career advancement) and civic engagement among young people. Although YPAR holds particular promise, there has been little systematic assessment of its effects. Moreover, no study has investigated the role of YPAR in the promotion of active citizenship. We report on an effectiveness evaluation of a YPAR project designed to promote European active citizenship (i.e., identification and attitudes toward a political entity, institutional trust, participation, and political alienation) and social well-being among adolescents. Our sample included 69 Italian high school students (35 in the intervention group; 34 in the control group). We evaluated the impact of YPAR using a pretest–posttest control group design and fitting the generalized estimating equations procedure. The results showed that participants in the intervention group reported increased scores on social well-being, institutional trust, and participation and decreased scores on political alienation compared with the control group. We found no significant effects for identification as European and attitudes toward a political entity. Findings support the benefits of YPAR in terms of social well-being and active citizenship.

This qualitative study examines how young people of Moroccan descent in Italy construct their social identities and make sense of acculturation experiences. Twenty nine Moroccan young people, fourteen males and fifteen females (16–23 years old) took part in five focus groups. Thematic analyses of data indicated that participants have to navigate different identity categories in the host country, including Muslim, Moroccan, and migrant, which are often used to construct them as not belonging. They use different strategies to negotiate experiences of prejudice and exclusion including; “Italy is not my home… it is other people’s home”: Accommodating an outsider status, turning critically towards one’s community, claiming an insider status: Feeling Italian, Creating activist identities: Becoming bridge builders. In the absence of legal status, participants conceived citizenship as respecting Italian laws and norms, accommodating their status and position, but making claims based on being and feeling as belonging – cultural citizenship. By using a liberation orientation, our analysis shows the political nature of acculturative integration in a context that denies citizenship as a legal status. These political aspects include deconstructing exclusionary dominant group narratives and forming identities of resistance that are important to their claims for recognition and belonging. We discuss the findings with reference to ways in which researchers and activists can support the activities of young people of immigrant background.

A substantial amount of literature has revealed gender gaps in political participation. However, little is known about such gaps when using more comprehensive measures of civic and political participation including online participation. In the present study, we recruited a sample (n = 1792) of young people living in Italy. Controlling for age, majority/minority status, socioeconomic status, respondents’ educational attainment, and parents’ educational attainment, we found that female participants reported higher scores on online and civic participation, while male participants were more likely to report political and activist participation. The effect size for these gender differences was small. In addition, we did not find any gender differences in voting behavior in the last European parliamentary elections, national parliamentary elections, and local elections. These findings highlight the need to move toward a more comprehensive and detailed picture of gender gaps in political engagement and participation including different types of participation.

It has been widely argued that effective citizenship education should focus on more than mere teaching of civic knowledge, but should provide a wider range of opportunities for the experience of participation and development of skills, efficacy and interest instrumental to active citizenship. Opportunities for critical reflection such as open classroom discussions, fairness at school, institutional efficacy and student participation at school activities have been linked to the development of civic and political attitudes. The capacity of school education to provide opportunities for critical reflection on students’ participative experiences, however, has not been explored empirically sufficiently. This paper aims to identify the contribution of different school characteristics to the development of civic and political attitudes and their impact on students’ level of participation in civic activities through a mixed methods study. Questionnaire data collected in two waves with 685 adolescents from Italy were analyzed through structural equation modeling to test the effects of school characteristics at Time 1 (democratic climate, student participation and critical reflection) on civic participation at Time 2, mediated by institutional trust, civic efficacy and political interest. In order to explore the quantitative findings and examine further students’ perceptions of the school aspects that support their civic involvement, focus group discussions were conducted with students from secondary schools with different tracks.The results highlight the importance of opportunities for active involvement in school and critical reflection in fostering political interest, efficacy and civic participation. Democratic school climate was found to impact institutional trust and civic efficacy, but not participation. Students’ accounts of schools’ citizenship education activities highlight further the need for a participative environment that rises above information transmission by inviting critical reflection and giving value to students’ active involvement in the institution.

Tolerance toward migrants currently represents a key issue in many Western democracies and studying the factors that can foster it has become increasingly more important for the social sciences. This chapter starts by providing a definition of ‘tolerance’, illustrating the ambivalent qualities that are attributed to this concept in the literature. Recognizing some limits of this concept, our reasoning develops from the assumption that, with specific reference to migration, tolerance represents a basic democratic principle. It can be defined as the belief, based on equalitarian principles and a political conviction, that migrants and non-migrants should be treated equally. We proceed to report the findings from two recent studies we conducted in Italy and illustrate some key paths through which tolerance can develop during different developmental stages. The results from our studies showed that younger participants had lower levels of tolerance toward refugees and migrants. Different forms of politically committed youth participation (online and offline, more and less conventional) were positively associated with tolerance; in particular, civic participation represents a ‘school for democracy’ in which young people learn a range of civic skills also enhanced tolerance toward migrants. Finally, we present an overview of some of the main approaches (global citizenship education, education to intercultural dialogue and community-based approaches) that professionals across the world have at their disposal to promote a tolerant attitude at different stages of the developmental process. The chapter closes by illustrating some implications for future research and interventions to promote tolerance toward migrants.

L'attivazione di partnership è da tempo riconosciuta come una componente centrale degli interventi di promozione della salute. Una questione ancora aperta riguarda come valutare la qualità del lavoro di partnership e i processi che lo rendono efficace. L'obiettivo di questo con-tributo consiste nell'esplorare se il tipo di ruolo e di contributo dato dai/alle partecipanti all'interno del programma "Guadagnare salute nei contesti di comunità" della regione Emilia Romagna (2014-2016) influisca sull'efficacia del lavoro di partnership. È stato somministrato un questionario a un campione di 238 persone (65,4% donne, età media = 51,13 anni). I risultati evidenziano che i ruoli assunti e le tipologie di contributo offerto dai/alle partecipanti influi-scono sull'efficacia della collaborazione; in particolare, sulla qualità percepita del lavoro di partnership, il senso di comunità e l'empowerment.

Community coalitions or intersectoral partnerships have long been advocated for the promotion of population health. In the present study, we assessed the quality of the functioning of health promotion partnerships created within a large community health promotion program implemented by the Emilia-Romagna region located in the north-east of Italy (2014-2016). In particular, we aimed to test the effectiveness of partnership working in strengthening participants' empowerment, sense of community and ultimately, the outcomes of a well-functioning partnership, conceptualized as including perceived effectiveness of health promotion interventions developed by the partnership, trust in their implementation and personal commitment in health promotion in the future. Participants were 238 stakeholders (e.g., health professionals, representatives of local administrations, teachers, representative of community and volunteer organizations, and citizens) formally included in six partnerships lead by six major local health services. Using Bayesian structural equation modeling, we found that a higher perceived quality of collaboration within the partnership enhances the outcomes of a well-functioning partnership, by strengthening their sense of a health-promoting community and empowerment. Sense of community responsibility did not predict future commitment in health promotion. The study findings suggest that community members' ownership and feeling of responsibility, as well as empowerment constitute positive partnership processes.

Collective action is typically studied in social protest contexts and predicted by different motivations (i.e., ingroup identification and efficacy beliefs, and outgroup-directed anger). Assuming that voting to some extent reflects a form of collective action, we tested whether these three different motivations predicted voting in Dutch, Israeli, and Italian national election contexts. Based on previous meta-analyses on voting and collective action, we hypothesized that identification with and efficacy beliefs regarding this party would motivate voting across the different elections (i.e., context-independent effects). As for anger, we predicted more context-dependent effects, depending on whether the anger is targeting the previous government or at the political system at large. Results were largely in line with predictions, showing the relatively context-independent motivational power of party identification and efficacy beliefs, and clearly context-dependent effects for anger. Specifically, we found little support for a similar motivational power of anger targeting previous government policies, but anger targeting politics in general demotivated Dutch and Israeli participants to vote (interpreted as an expression of political cynicism), while curiously motivating Italian participants to vote (interpreted as a desire for system change from “old” to “new” politics). We discuss these findings in the context of voting in national elections, and recommend further integration of the voting and social protest literatures.

Previous studies have demonstrated the role of students' school sense of community (i.e., emotional connection and bonds with other students at school and sense of belonging to the school as a community) in predicting well-being (presence of positive feelings and positive functioning in life). Specifically, these studies have found that individual sense of community in the school is associated with well-being. However, individual sense of community in the school does not constitute a school-level characteristic, and the influence of sense of community at the school level on students' well-being was not investigated. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a study investigating the influence of sense of community at the school level on students' well-being, using multilevel analysis. Our sample comprised 1,800 students (age ranged from 11 to 20 years) from public lower and upper secondary schools in Italy. Results showed that higher sense of community scores at the school level were associated with higher well-being scores, while controlling for individual sense of community, gender, and age. These results provide support for a school-level theory of school sense of community (i.e., moving school sense of community theory from the individual to the school level).

Cross-border mobility is one of the most important factors that are assumed to strengthen young people’s commitment as European citizens. However, the existing empirical evidence does not provide consistent support. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that cross-border mobility is associated with a stronger European identification, more positive attitudes toward the EU, and with specific visions of the EU, and that these factors, in turn, have a positive effect on engagement at EU level. Data were collected as part of the multinational research project CATCH-EyoU. Analyses were performed controlling for gender, income, country, and migrant status. Results mostly confirmed the hypotheses among both adolescents and young adults, and for both short-term and long-term mobility. EU level participation and EU voting intentions appeared to be influenced by partly different factors. The implications of the findings, both at theoretical level and for the development of international mobility programs, are discussed.

The aim of the study was to develop and to assess the psychometric properties of the Problematic Support Scale, among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. An online questionnaire was filled in by 344 systemic lupus erythematosus patients with a mean age of 39.66 years. Explorative factor analysis, later validated by confirmative factor analysis, showed the emergence of a two-factor structure in types of support provided: denying/uninformed support and oppressive support. Denying/uninformed support includes offers of support that neglect the disease manifestations and consequences. Oppressive support describes social support offers which are perceived as excessive and oppressive. Results confirm previous qualitative evidence and demonstrate good reliability and concurrent validity of the Problematic Support Scale. Theoretical and methodological implications for the study of social support are discussed.

The presence of young people as engaged active citizens in the political scenario seems to be declining in recent years all over Europe. However, whereas many young people are disinterested in politics and political participation, others are active political actors involved in new patterns of engagement and actions of participation. What are the factors leading some youth to be politically active and others not? There are multiple explanations for this phenomenon, and it is crucial for the future of citizens’ democratic participation to understand the position that young people might take between apathy and participation. The present chapter aims to contribute to this focusing on the psychosocial factors and processes that facilitate and hinder youth’s political and civic engagement with particular attention to the new forms of participation and engagement, including digital ones, that youngsters adopt to have their voice heard at national and European levels.

We assume that emotions (anger, shame and hope) mediate the relationship between perceiving a discriminatory context and civic/political engagement. Results of a survey with 1242 participants (mean age 20.7 years; 53% men; 32.8% migrants) showed that such emotions play a different role according to the type of engagement and the population (native Italians versus migrants). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The aim of this cross-national study was to assess the relationships among sense of community (SoC) vis-a-vis the residential community (i.e., one's home town), identity formation processes, and feelings of loneliness toward parents and peers. The sample included 431 Italian adolescents (59.4% females) and 221 Belgian (Flemish) adolescents (54.3% females) aged 14–23 years. Results indicate that the more adolescents developed firm and sustained commitments, the more they developed positive feelings toward the residential community. SoC toward the home town is lower among youth in less advanced identity statuses. Parent- and peer-related loneliness differentially predicted Italian and Belgian adolescents’ SoC. Results have significant theoretical and methodological implications for the study of SoC, identity, and loneliness.

Research examining youths' political development mostly focused on young people as a general group; comparatively less attention has been devoted to the examination of gender pathways toward citizenship. Two studies were conducted addressing (a) the role of parents' participation and the moderating role of adolescent gender and age group (n = 1419) and (b) the role of adolescent social and civic participation and the moderating role of adolescent gender and type of school (n = 1871). Results confirmed the gender gap in political interest and in the use of the Internet for political participation, while no differences emerged for political activity and voting intentions. Adolescents' political engagement and participation are influenced by parents' participation (especially among girls) and by adolescents' social and civic participation (especially among boys). The impact of adolescents' social and civic participation on conventional participation (voting intentions) is partially mediated by sense of community and institutional trust.

This reprinted article originally appeared in International Journal of Stress Management, 2011, Vol. 18, No. 2, 181–195. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-02944-001.) Fire-fighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians routinely confront potentially traumatic events in the course of their jobs. The mediation role of coping strategies and collective efficacy in the relationship between stress appraisal and quality of life was examined (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout) in a correlational study. Participants were 463 Italian rescue workers (fire fighters and different categories of emergency health care professionals). Participants filled out measures of stress appraisal, collective efficacy, coping strategies, and quality of life. The results showed that emotion and support coping, self-blame coping, and self-distraction mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and compassion fatigue. Moreover, collective efficacy, self-blame coping, and religious coping mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and burnout. Finally, collective efficacy, self-blame coping, and problem-focused coping mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and compassion satisfaction. Cognitive restructuring and denial did not mediate the relation between stress appraisal and any of the quality of life dimensions.

The role of conflict in parent–adolescent relationships is a topic of considerable theoretical debate and empirical investigation; however, limited attention has been devoted to the strategies used by family members to deal with disagreements and their outcomes and how they differ from early to late adolescence. This study explored conflict styles and outcomes in a sample of 302 families with adolescent children (total N = 906), of two age groups (13‐year‐olds and 15‐year‐olds). One hundred sixty‐four adolescents (45.7%) are female. Participants completed the ‘when we disagree’ scales. Results from both adolescents and parents confirmed the intensification of conflict from early to middle adolescence, in terms of conflict style (higher aggression, lower compromise) and outcome (lower intimacy). Age trends differ according to gender; in particular, there is evidence of a more difficult position of older girls, and of the worsening of mother–adolescent relationship from early to middle adolescence.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the parent version of “When We Disagree” scales (WWD), measuring the style of conflict (aggression and compromise) within parent–adolescent relationship. Differences according to adolescent gender and age, and according to perspective (description of self and description of the adolescent) were assessed. Concurrent validity was established by correlations with family communication and parenting self-efficacy. Participants include 302 mother–father dyads with adolescent children (13 and 15 years old; total n = 604). Results confirmed the usefulness of the WWD in assessing conflict styles as perceived by parents. Correlations with family communication and parenting self-efficacy were in the expected direction. There was evidence of a more conflicting relationship between female adolescents and mothers. Adolescents are described by parents as less compromising and more aggressive than self.

This study investigates the relationship between sense of community, civic engagement and social well-being in a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 14–19 year-old high school students (N = 566) from two demographically distinct cities. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing sense of community, social well-being (Keyes, 1998), involvement in structured group activities (group membership) and civic engagement. Results showed that involvement in formal groups is associated with increased civic involvement and increased sense of community. Sense of community predicts social well-being and explains some of the association between civic engagement and social well-being. Findings suggest that, to increase social well-being, it is important to provide adolescents with more opportunities to experience a sense of belonging to the peers' group and promote prosocial behaviours in the community context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The aim of this research was to assess which criteria laypeople use to evaluate the importance of treatments the Italian National Health Service (NHS) should or should not guarantee and the relationship with their degree of importance. A convenience sample of 100 individuals (22–65 years old) were asked to evaluate 52 treatments partly included and partly not included in the Essential Assistance Levels. Results showed that laypeople employ a wide range of criteria, only part of which corresponds to those traditionally investigated in the psychosocial literature. Two main dimensions emerge as organizing principles underlying their judgments, referring to NHS function (prevention vs. treatment) and to the opportunity to focus on the specific health needs of particular categories of citizens (selectivity). Advances in medical research have increased the number and types of effective forms of treatment for conditions that were once considered untreatable, significantly improving patients’ quality of life. The greater knowledge of the progresses of medicine, the awareness of the possible treatments, and the widespread optimistic belief that actual diagnostic-therapeutical possibilities of medicine are almost unlimited resulted in a growing health demand from the general population. However, several treatments are still inaccessible for a large number of people, owing to their cost, lack of accessibility, or complexity. All health systems in Western industrialized countries are facing the need to guarantee

Civic participation in community life and within community organizations is generally considered as associated with positive outcomes for Youth development and well-being. However, supportive empirical evidence on such benefits is still limited, as well as on the processes that may explain such positive outcomes. In this paper, we examined the impact of young people’s participation in different community and youth organizations on Social well-being, and the mediating role of Sense of community (SoC) and Empowerment. The sample comprised 835 adolescents and young adults, aged 16–26 years old (M = 20.8). 414 participants were males (49.6 %) and 421 participants were females (50.4 %). Results confirm that organizational membership of volunteer, youth, and religious associations significantly enhances Social well-being, both directly and through the mediation of SoC and Empowerment. Membership of leisure and recreational associations only marginally and indirectly affects Social well-being through the mediation of Empowerment.

Several studies demonstrated the importance of psychosocial factors, like social support, for understanding the experience of people with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Less information is available on "problematic support"; that is, instances of support that are perceived as non-supportive, even though the provider's actions may be well intended. Aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of problematic support from SLE patients' perspective. Nine women with SLE were interviewed and transcripts were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Three main types of problematic social support were indentified. Oppressive support describes social support offers characterized by excessive worries and unwanted advices. Support denying the illness is characterized by a neglect of the disease or of its consequences. Support based on divergent illness representations is perceived as not punctual and not in line with patients' actual clinical condition. This study confirms the complexity of providing useful support to SLE patients and suggest that also people living close to patients should represent a target of interventions. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The maintenance of an adequate of quality of life (QoL) represents a critical issue in the management of patients in haemodialysis and is also used to assess the effectiveness of health care programmes. The Consumer Direction Theory of Empowerment (CDTE) implies that greater patient direction in policy formulation and services delivery, together with an increased community integration, endorses a process which leads to a better QOL. The aim of the study was to test a contextualized version of CDTE in an ambulatory for patients in haemodialysis. Sixty-nine patients completed a questionnaire measuring the following variables: Patient direction, family integration, self-efficacy in managing the disease, mental and physical health. The results showed that patient direction and family integration have an indirect effect on QoL, through self-efficacy in managing the disease. The hypotheses were thus confirmed, providing support for the potential of CDTE in the context of health services for haemodialysis patients. Implications for the implementation of health programmes aimed at improving QoL of patients in haemodialysis are discussed, including interventions focused on psychological and contextual factors.

The purpose of this research was to explore adolescents' feeling of unsafety associated with living in the urban context, their perceptions of the quality of social relations (social support from different persons) and sense of community, and the differences according to the size of the city and adolescent gender. A second aim was to analyse the antecedents of feeling of unsafety. In particular, we considered the influence of sense of community, perception of social support and personal involvement in negative experiences in the urban environment. A questionnaire was submitted to 823 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years (43.3% male and 56.7% female), living in cities of different sizes in north-central Italy. Results show the presence of differences in feeling of unsafety and sense of community according to the size of the urban context and adolescent gender. Personal involvement in negative situations is a strong predictor of feeling of unsafety, whereas sense of community plays a limited role in reducing it. The picture concerning the effect of social support is mixed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, by means of semi-structured interviews, how families of adolescents perceive and describe their educational styles and the development of adolescent autonomy. Specifically, the results of two different studies will be discussed: the first was conducted with a group of 83 parents (fathers and mothers) of 15- to 18-year-old adolescents, male and female, from different cultural backgrounds (medium-low and medium-high). The second study involved both adolescents and their parents of three age-groups (10 families with 13-, 15- and 17-year-old adolescents, for a total of 90 interviews), half male and half female.

Conflicts between parents and adolescents were explored from the viewpoint of 13- and 15-year-old children (N = 397). There was support for Steinberg's (1989) distancing hypothesis: older children reported more aggression, more frustration and lower intimacy outcomes. There was also support for the hypothesis that the more complex position of adolescent girls (valuing both closeness and autonomy) would result in higher levels of frustration, whereas boys would be more clearly confrontational-producing relatively more escalation. Overall, mothers were experienced as more compromising and as fostering greater intimacy in comparison to fathers. There were differences between family types: those mothers living with a partner were reported as more aggressive than mothers from non-divorcing families, and adolescents living with mother alone reported more frustration and escalation outcomes. In respect of fathers, non-residential fathers and daughters experienced less aggression, lower escalation outcomes and sustained higher levels of compromise in comparison to fathers in non-divorcing families. Boys without their father resident reported the lowest levels of compromise with both mothers and fathers-consistent with others' research suggesting that boys' accommodation to parental separation is more problematic. Finally, effects of parental age were explored.

This paper intends to explore whether and how the quality of participation experiences is associated with political efficacy and the disposition of migrant and non-migrant young people to becoming involved. The sample includes 1010 young people of Portuguese, Angolan and Brazilian origin, aged between 15 and 29 years old. The results reveal that the quality of participation experiences is related to political efficacy and dispositions to becoming involved, but different groups seem to react differently to different forms of political action.

Italy is one of the European countries with the highest levels of gender inequalities (World Economic Forum 2011). The aims of this paper were to understand to what extent the well-documented gender gap in Italian adult society has an impact on both political and civic actions of younger generations, and whether the process of participation assumes specific features according to gender. 835 Italian participants (49.6% males; 50.4% female, aged from 16 to 26 years old; 20% under voting age) completed a self-administered questionnaire. Analyses confirmed general trends (voting at elections is the most frequently performed political action among Italian youth) and showed the existence of a small gender gap (a major orientation of young women toward civic action, while young men are more engaged in manifest political participation). The results confirmed that family cultural capital and normative support are significant predictors of political participation, in particular for girls and young women. The research reported in this document was supported by a grant received from the European Commission 7th Framework Programme, FP7-SSH-2007-1, Grant Agreement no: 225282, Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation (PIDOP), which was awarded to the University of Surrey (UK), University of Liège (Belgium), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Jena (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), University of Porto (Portugal), Örebro University (Sweden), Ankara University (Turkey) and Queen’s University Belfast (UK). For further information about the PIDOP project, please visit the project website: http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/pidop/

In the study of young people’s relationships with residential contexts, it is important to consider the role of developmental tasks (e.g. identity construction, academic and professional choices, etc.) in influencing Place Identity and Sense of Community. Residential mobility may represent an adaptive strategy for modifying some aspects of one’s identity and a contributing factor to the development of autonomy from the family. Limited attention has been devoted to the study of the ways young people deal with their attachments to old and new places within this process. This study involved 203 university students, attending a large university in the North of Portugal. The aim was to investigate Place Identity (PI) and Sense of Community (SoC) related to the home town, and differences according to residential condition (native vs. temporary resident) and year of attendance (I vs. IV). Among students who moved, the role of motives (forced vs. voluntary) and of residential choices after graduation on PI and SoC were assessed. Results indicated that, among students who moved for academic reasons, SoC and PI related to the home town were lower and decreased from the first to the fourth year. SoC was higher among students who experienced the relocation as a forced choice. Students who anticipated to return to their home town after graduation had higher SoC and PI. Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-14T18:09:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1840 bytes, checksum: b2dacd412294e9019fc9af3b4267d4ec (MD5) Cicognani.abstract.pdf: 12594 bytes, checksum: cc3db26f1d363b6b5ff3e456dc9a2d7d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011

Current research on adult-child interaction has stressed the importance of some conversational tactics for the development of communicative competence in children. The conversational device used in the presence of ambiguity and incomprehension is the clarification request (CR), an interrogative utterance by which the speaker asks for explanation, confirmation or repetition of an utterance previously produced by the listener, but which has not been perfectly understood. In this research we analyzed several aspects of nursery school teachers use of the clarification request with children of three different age groups (10–17 months; 21–26 months and 28–37 months). Using audio-recordings of naturally occurring teacher-child interactions, the following features were analyzed: 1) the quantitative distribution of CRs in teacher’s language according to the children’s age; 2) the form of the CRs; 3) their function; 4) the conversational sequences containing CRs. The results suggest that the teacher’s use of CRs is guided by their knowledge and evaluation of the children’s developing communicative competence. The distribution of CRs in the various forms and function that we indentified seem to follow the same general path isolated in the previous studies, collected in a different language and culture, suggesting that the CRs may be a constant feature of adult-child interaction.