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Conceptualizing affect as a complex nonlinear dynamic process, we used latent class extended mixed models (LCMM) to understand whether there were unobserved groupings in a dataset including longitudinal measures. Our aim was to identify affect profiles over time in people vicariously exposed to terrorism, studying their relations with personality traits. The participants were 193 university students who completed online measures of affect during the seven days following two terrorist attacks (Paris, November 13, 2015; Brussels, March 22, 2016); Big Five personality traits; and antecedents of affect. After selecting students whose negative affect was influenced by the two attacks (33%), we analysed the data with the LCMM package of R. We identified two affect profiles, characterized by different trends over time: The first profile comprised students with lower positive affect and higher negative affect compared to the second profile. Concerning personality traits, conscientiousness was lower for the first profile compared to the second profile, and vice versa for neuroticism. Findings are discussed for both their theoretical and applied relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides responding to the need to develop a version of the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (AGQ-R, Elliot & Murayama, 2008) in the Italian language supporting its construct and criterion validity, this work aimed at testing its measurement invariance across a variety of factors and providing new data on cross-sectional age, gender, and domain differences, particularly to extend the understanding of mastery-avoidance goals. The participants were 365 fourth, seventh, and eleventh-graders, who completed two versions of the AGQ-R referred to Italian and mathematics. We also examined responses of the American participants involved in the development of the original instrument. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the goodness of the hypothesized model, characterized by scalar invariance across country, metric invariance across class level, and uniqueness invariance across gender. Structural equation models showed that first-term performance positively predicted the four goal types, while mastery-approach goals positively predicted second-term performance and pleasantness. Achievement goals, higher for Italian for eleventhgraders and females, decreased at increasing ages. Notwithstanding limitations, our data support the validity of this version of the AGQ-R with primary and secondary school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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., (Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)