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The present contribution aims at presenting an assessment tool (i.e., the TALK-assessment) built to evaluate the language development and school readiness of Italian preschoolers before they enter primary school, and its predictive validity for the children's reading and writing skills at the end of the first year of primary school. The early literacy competences of 98 preschoolers were assessed and the statistical proprieties (item difficulty level and Discrimination Index, and the factorial structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis) of each subtest of the assessment were presented (Study 1). Results showed that the subtests of the tool have good psychometric properties, with the only exception of the morpho-syntactic comprehension task, and are adequate for use with preschoolers in the school context. Study 2 investigated the early literacy skills of a group of 62 preschoolers and their reading and writing abilities at the end of primary school 1st grade. The scores obtained in the phonological awareness task of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's reading scores 12 months later, at primary school. The scores obtained in the lexical comprehension and morpho-syntactic production (i.e., sentence repetition) tasks of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's writing scores 12 months later, at primary school. The assessment has specific characteristics that make it a valuable candidate for adoption in educational settings, both to identify fragile areas in time to modify the children's developmental paths to literacy and to prevent future language and literacy difficulties at primary school.

This study investigated the enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety of elementary school students and the relations of these emotions with achievement in two domains. Seven-hundred-and-sixty-seven second- and fourth-graders completed an adaptation of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES: Lichtenfeld, Pekrun, Stupnisky, Reiss, & Murayama, 2012) assessing their emotions in their native language and mathematics. The hierarchical model of the instrument was invariant across countries (Italy, Germany, United States), grades, gender, and domains. Anxiety related negatively to achievement, while enjoyment related positively to achievement only in mathematics. Second-graders reported more enjoyment and less boredom and anxiety than fourth-graders. Overall, mathematics resulted in better emotions than native language. The results have implications for future research on achievement emotions in elementary school.

Introduction: Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the present study aimed to validate "The Technical and Administrative Staff Quality of Life At Work" (TASQ@work), a new tool to assess the quality of life at work in academia focused on technical and administrative staff. Methods: This tool was developed by the QoL@Work research team, a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The TASQ@work was elaborated in different steps. The first phase was aimed at the identification of the dimensions of the tool. The second phase was aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the tool. The validation process involved confirmatory analysis and measurement invariance of the various constructs selected. The analyses were performed in a convenience sample of two Italian universities in different regions (one in the Northwest and the second in Central Italy). Results: The sample was composed of 1820 Administrative Staff, comprising 69.4% from University 1 (N = 1,263) and 30.6% from University 2 (N = 557). The TASQ@work presented satisfactory psychometric properties (normality of the items, reliability and content, construct and nomological validity) and measurement invariance across gender, seniority, and Athenaeum. Discussion: The results indicate that the tool can be considered a reliable and valid instrument to assess job demands, job resources, and outcomes in the working life of technical and administrative academic staff. In this perspective, the present study represents the first contribution to the debate on the psychosocial risks in academic contexts by presenting a new tool, the TASQ@ work, aimed at contextualizing the JD-R model to understand the role played by psychosocial aspects in affecting the well-being of the academic employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Online multiple‐text comprehension is a key skill of the 21st Century, yet the study of its relations with boredom in young students has been disregarded. Boredom is an achievement emotion expected to be predicted negatively by antecedents like control and value appraisals and to be associated to a negative performance. Notwithstanding its documented domain‐specificity, scarce attention has been paid to investigating these relations with primary‐school students in the reading domain, and specifically for online multiple‐text comprehension, and to how such relations are moderated by basic cognitive abilities. Aims: Considering separately two settings (homework, test), we studied the mediation of boredom in the relation between control‐value appraisals and online multiple‐text comprehension in primary‐school students, focusing on the moderating role of word‐reading fluency. Sample: Participants were 334 fourth and fifth graders. Methods: We evaluated students' reading‐related self‐efficacy and task‐value, reading‐related boredom for homework and tests, word‐reading fluency, and online multiple‐text comprehension. Results: Path analyses revealed negative relations between control‐value appraisals and boredom for homework and tests, and between boredom and online multiple‐text comprehension for tests only. For the latter, word‐reading fluency moderated the relation between appraisals, boredom, and comprehension: Boredom negatively related to comprehension only for students with high word‐reading fluency. Conclusions: Findings are discussed focusing on antecedents of online multiple‐text comprehension as a literacy skill critical in the 21st Century. We underlined their implications for learning in general and specifically for the current educational changes due to the COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Notwithstanding the dramatically increasing frequency of acts of terrorism in Europe and the extent of their media coverage, there is lack of knowledge on people's affective reactions and associated emotion regulation strategies. We explored the affective impact on two cohorts of Italian students (n = 193) possibly exposed vicariously through the mass media to the 2015 Paris or the 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks, respectively. We accessed data from three online questionnaires: one on emotion regulation administered before each attack; one on daily affect administered just before and after each attack; and one on causes of weekly affect and life satisfaction administered at the end of the week in which each attack occurred. The attacks were perceived as relevant for influencing negative affect for 22% of the students. For them, suppression—less frequently used than reappraisal—was associated with an improvement of affect after each attack but negatively related to life satisfaction concerning the week in which the attacks occurred. Our data showed that the recent terrorist attacks occurring in Europe had an affective impact on people at some distance who were vicariously exposed and point to the protective role of emotion regulation as a key resource for individuals' well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness is a crucial part of people's experience in the transition to adulthood. Several developmental tasks, such as the separation/individuation process and exploration in the interpersonal domains connected with identity acquisition, lead adolescents to seek solitary experiences. Adolescents are involved in the redefinition of their relationships with parents and peers, moving away from their dependence on the family. The aim of the present study is to assess the effects of two aspects of autonomy: emotional autonomy (separation and detachment) and autonomous motivation for solitary behavior, on parent- and peer-related loneliness during adolescence. The participants were 977 adolescents (447 males and 530 females), aged between 14 and 20 years ( M = 16.31; SD = 1.57), recruited from Italian high schools. The Italian versions of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents, of the Emotional Autonomy Scale and of the Frequency of and Autonomy for Solitary and Interpersonal Behavior scale were administered to each participant. Structural equation models and path analysis indicate the effects of separation-individuation process dimensions both on parent- and peer-related loneliness. Specific differences emerge between the two dimensions of loneliness. Peer-related loneliness is more influenced by autonomous motivation than is parent-related loneliness, and controlled motivation mediates its relationship with separation. The relationships among the constructs are discussed in the light of the separation-individuation process and with regard to the prevention of maladaptive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study provides evidence for a valid and reliable tool, the Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT), to investigate the quality of life at work in academics within the Italian university sector. The AQ@workT was developed by the QoL@Work research team, namely a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The tool is grounded in the job demands-resources model and its psychometric properties were assessed in three studies comprising a wide sample of lecturers, researchers, and professors: a pilot study (N = 120), a calibration study (N = 1084), and a validation study (N = 1481). Reliability and content, construct, and nomological validity were supported, as well as measurement invariance across work role (researchers, associate professors, and full professors) and gender. Evidence from the present study shows that the AQ@workT represents a useful and reliable tool to assist university management to enhance quality of life, to manage work-related stress, and to mitigate the potential for harm to academics, particularly during a pandemic. Future studies, such as longitudinal tests of the AQ@workT, should test predictive validity among the variables in the tool.