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Regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs (RESE) in managing negative emotions and in expressing positive emotions are believed to play an important role in different spheres of psychological functioning. However, the literature does not offer a quantitative synthesis of the degree of the relation between RESE and indices of (mal)adjustment. The present study is a meta-analytic investigation of the relation between RESE and indices of maladjustment and adjustment. A total of 93 studies from 83 peer-reviewed international articles and 1 doctoral dissertation were included, for a total amount of 48,373 participants. RESE were negatively and significantly related to maladjustment (r = -.24). Conversely, RESE were positively and significantly related to adjustment (r = .35). Results seem not to be affected by publication bias and only a few moderating effects were documented. In conclusion, given the above results, RESE proved to be (among others) a valid marker of overall psychosocial functioning, both in its positive and negative facets., Author(s): Guido Alessandri [sup.1] , Simone Tavolucci [sup.1] , Enrico Perinelli [sup.2] , Nancy Eisenberg [sup.3] , Francesca Golfieri [sup.4] , Gian Vittorio Caprara [sup.1] , Elisabetta Crocetti [sup.4] Author [...]

Although personal resources support adjustment during hard times at work, social resources can have comparable influence in preventing the negative impact of adverse circumstances (Hobfoll 2001 (See CR30), 2002 (See CR31)). This study investigates the contribution of both individual and group level positivity, a personal resource, in perceived intragroup conflict. Data on positivity and perceived intragroup conflict were collected from 140 employees belonging to 14 different groups at two different organizations and were analyzed using the Group Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kenny et al. 2012 (See CR41)). Results showed that, in the case of low others' positivity, high (vs. low) individual positivity led to lower intragroup conflict. However, when others' positivity was high, there was no difference in reported intragroup conflict for high and low positive individuals. Findings highlighted the importance of a positive social environment in determining individual adjustment at work. Future research can address how the beneficial effect of positivity on intragroup conflict may transport on important organizational outcomes. Ultimately, this study suggests that organizations should sustain positivity, at both the individual and the group levels., Author(s): Annalisa Theodorou [sup.1] , Stefano Livi [sup.1] , Guido Alessandri [sup.2] , Antonio Pierro [sup.1] , Gian Vittorio Caprara [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.7841.a, Department of Social and Developmental [...]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a pilot school-based intervention called CEPIDEA, designed to promote prosocial behavior in early adolescence. The study took place in a middle school located in a small city near Rome. The intervention group included 151 students (52.3% males; M[subscript age] = 12.4), and the control group 173 students (50.3% females; M[subscript age] = 13.0). Both groups were assessed at three time points, each 6 months apart. A Latent Growth Curve analysis revealed that the intervention group, compared to the control group, showed an increase of helping behavior along with a decrease of physical and verbal aggression across time. Current results also showed that the increase of helping behavior mediated the decline of verbal aggression in adolescents who had attended the intervention. Participants of CEPIDEA also attained higher grades than the control group at the end of middle school. Overall, findings suggest that promoting prosocial behavior may serve to counteract aggressive conduct and enhance academic achievement during adolescence.

This study examines the role of moral disengagement in fostering engagement in aggression and violence through adolescence to young adulthood in accordance with a design in which the study of individual differences and of their relations is instrumental to address underlying intraindividual structures and process conducive to detrimental conduct. Participants were 345 young adults (52% females) who were followed across 4 time periods (T1 M age = 17 years to T4 M age = 25 years). The longitudinal relations among irritability, hostile rumination, and moral disengagement attest to a conceptual model in which moral disengagement is crucial in giving access to action to aggressive tendencies. Findings suggest that irritability and hostile rumination contributed to the development of each other reciprocally and significantly across time. While hostile rumination and moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between irritability and violence, moral disengagement significantly mediated the relation between hostile rumination and violence.

Building on previous studies that formulated measures for assessing self-efficacy beliefs regarding the management of anger/irritation and despondency/sadness, we developed 3 new scales to assess perceived self-efficacy in managing fear, shame/embarrassment, and guilt. In Study 1, the internal and construct validity of the 5 aforementioned measures were assessed in a sample of 403 Italian young adults. Study 2 was designed to examine the comparability of the aforementioned measures across Italy and the United States and involved the previous sample and a sample of 380 U.S college students. The best fitting model overall, across the sexes and across countries, had the following characteristics: (a) the 5 types of self-efficacy loaded separately on first-order factors; (b) self-efficacy in managing anger/irritation and despondency/sadness loaded on one second-order factor, and self-efficacy in managing shame/embarrassment, and guilt loaded on another; (c) self-efficacy in managing fear and the 2 second-order factors loaded on a common higher order factor. The various modes of emotional self-efficacy correlated in conceptually coherent ways to measures of emotional stability, irritability, depression, shyness, fearful affect, and need for reparation. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

The present study examined the contribution of self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulated learning (SESRL) in predicting academic achievement at the end of junior high school above and beyond the effects of previous academic achievement, gender, socioeconomic status, intelligence, personality traits, and self-esteem. Participants included 170 (87 females) eighth grade students (M[subscript age] = 13.47) in a junior high school located in a small town near Rome (Italy). All measures were administered at the beginning of eighth grade. Hierarchical regression analysis supported the unique contribution of SESRL on academic achievement at the end of the school year. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)

Moral disengagement plays an important role in the routinization of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) as a key mediator. What remains unclear are the factors that could attenuate the power of moral disengagement in this process. Building on social-cognitive theory, we hypothesize the moderating role of moral self-efficacy and suggest the importance of two different dimensions: self-reflective and behavioral moral self-efficacies. While the former should buffer the CWB-moral disengagement path over time, the latter should buffer the moral disengagement-CWB path. After presenting the psychometric properties of the moral self-efficacy scale in two independent samples (Study 1: United Kingdom, N = 359; Study 2: Italy, N = 1308), we test the posited multi-wave moderated-mediated model. Results from a structural equation model supported our hypotheses. Results demonstrate that the routinization of CWB through the mediation of moral disengagement over time is conditionally influenced by the two moral self-efficacy dimensions. Employees high in capability to look back and question the assumptions that affected their behavior (i.e., self-reflective moral self-efficacy) are less likely to morally disengage as a result of previous engagement in CWB. Employees high in capability to morally self-regulate (i.e., behavioral moral self-efficacy) are less likely to engage in CWB as a result of their moral disengagement. Results of the conditional indirect effect suggest that previous engagement in CWB is not translated in future engagement in CWB for those individuals high in both moral self-efficacy dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]