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Background: Raising a child with developmental disorder is often related to higher stress levels for both mothers and fathers. The aim of the present study was to investigate relationships between resilience, family hardiness, life satisfaction and parental stress among parents of children with and without disabilities. Method: Twenty-eight pairs of parents of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, 15 of a child with Down Syndrome and 25 of a child without disability took part in the study. All parents completed four questionnaires independently. Results: Significant differences between groups emerged in parental resilience, stress, and life satisfaction. Correlational analyses showed that parental hardiness and resilience were negatively related to parental stress through all the three groups. Conclusions: These findings point to increased evidence that the presence of a disability may not directly affect the sense of family hardiness. Practical implications were discussed.

The purpose of this multistudy report was to adapt the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) to the Italian context. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we investigated the dimensionality, reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument in a sample of 544 participants (males = 41%) from 16 to 35 years old. In Study 2, we replicated the results concerning dimensionality in an independent sample of 502 participants (males = 42%) from 16 to 35 years old. Furthermore, we analyzed measurement invariance across gender. Results of both studies showed that comparing a series of competitive factorial models, the 6-factor model had the best fit to the data, assessing 6 different but related dimensions: autonomy satisfaction, autonomy frustration, relatedness satisfaction, relatedness frustration, competence satisfaction, and competence frustration. Moreover, the reliability and convergent and discriminant validity can be considered adequate. Finally, the BPNSFS was shown to be invariant across gender. In sum, the BPNSFS can be considered a promising instrument in the context of self-determination theory-based research for investigating satisfaction and frustration of the 3 basic needs in Italy.

Despite the extensive research on parental psychological control, no study has explored the relation between parental and teacher psychological control, maladaptive perfectionism and learned helplessness (LH). The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) whether perceived teacher psychological control predicts positively LH, (2) whether perceived parental psychological control predicts maladaptive perfectionism, and (3) whether the association between perceived parental and teacher psychological control and LH is mediated by maladaptive perfectionism. In a sample of 433 participants, 268 females (61.9%) and 165 males (38.1%), ranged in age from 13 to 19 years (M = 15.38, standard deviation (SD) = 1.18), it was found that teacher psychological control has a more relevant role in the prediction of LH than parental control. Moreover, maladaptive perfectionism was a full mediator of the relationship between perceptions of teacher psychological control and LH. These results extend previous studies on teacher psychological control and, for the first time, provide evidence for the relation with LH, identifying maladaptive perfectionism as a variable that accounts for the relation between teacher psychological control and LH.

Background: The first aim of the present study was to investigate differences and similarities in perceived parenting styles between fathers and mothers in the same family. Secondarily, this study wanted to verify the relation between parental anxiety and parenting dimensions, assuming differences according to the parental gender. Methods: The 80 parents of 40 school-age children independently completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ), the Parenting Instrument (PI) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results: revealed differences between fathers and mothers in almost all the variables considered, with mothers who reported the highest scores. Significant correlations between paternal and maternal perceptions were found in authoritarian style and in the practices of psychological control (disappointing and shaming). Finally, parental anxiety was associated positively with authoritarian style and inadequate parental practices, and negatively with authoritative style, expressive warmth and supportive involvement: the constructs however correlated in a different way according to parental gender. Conclusions: Independent assessment of both mother’s and father’s parenting styles and, especially, parental practices of psychological control seem to be necessaries both in research and practical settings.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to propose a self-report questionnaire designed to assess the ability of parents to use appropriate educational strategies to manage the behavior of children, based on the principles of analysis and behavior modification. Methods:180 subjects, divided into 3 groups of 60 subjects: parents of Italian nationality, Italian parents with a disabled child, parents with no Italian nationality (including 20 Filipinos, 20 Sinhalese and 20 Moroccans), were invited to fill the questionnaire. Results: The results showed that the instrument has the potential to be very suitable for the evaluation of behavioral educational skills, which are the basis of behavioral parent training programs, but also to have the possibility to check the effectiveness of the training in terms of more competent techniques learned, even after a long time. Conclusions: The results showed that the instrument has the potential to be very suitable for the evaluation of behavioral educational skills. To improve the level of confidence it will need to make some corrections, related to the revision of some item. We consider that further studies should be conducted in this area, so to broaden the range of instruments used for the assessment of educational skills

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The aim of this research was to compare parental stress, coping strategies and social support perceived in families of children with low functioning autism (n = 8), high functioning autism (n = 10), Down syndrome (n = 12) and parents of typically developing children (n = 20). Specifically, the objective was to investigate which variables (coping strategies and perception of social support available) might better predict different stress outcomes in the four groups. Parents were asked to fill in three questionnaires: Parent Stress Index, Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced, and Social Support Questionnaire. Significant differences among groups in all of the variables considered were found. These results suggest the advisability of fostering functional coping strategies and social support received in families of children with disabilities, and especially in those with children with low functioning autism.

To predict floods and debris flow dynamics a numerical model, based on 1D De Saint Venant (SV) equations, was developed. The McCormack – Jameson shock capturing scheme was employed for the solution of the equations, written in a conservative law form. This technique was applied to determine both the propagation and the profile of a two – phase debris flow resulting from the instantaneous and complete collapse of a storage dam. To validate the model, comparisons have been made between its predictions and laboratory measurements concerning flows of water and homogeneous granular mixtures in a uniform geometry flume reproducing dam – break waves. Agreements between computational and experimental results are considered very satisfactory for mature (non – stratified) debris flows, which embrace most real cases. To better predict immature (stratified) flows, the model should be improved in order to feature, in a more realistic way, the distribution of the particles of different size within the mixture. On the whole, the model proposed can easily be extended to channels with arbitrary cross sections for debris flow routing, as well as for solving different problems of unsteady flow in open channels by incorporating the appropriate initial and boundary conditions.

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between decision making styles, self-esteem and self-beliefs about decision- making ability and the differences linked to academic performance. A sample of 100 students split into two groups aged 15-16 years and 17-18 years participated in the study. All subjects compiled the Multidimensional Self-esteem Test (T.M.A. – Bracken, 1993) for the evaluation of academic success and competence of environmental control and How I Make my Choices (H.M.C. – Filippello et al., 2011), a structured interview, specifically designed to measure decision-making styles in two different contexts (school context vs. social context) and decision-making self-efficacy (Low vs. High Self-efficacy in making decisions).The exploratory factor analysis reflects the theorized construction. Age and gender differences were found. Furthermore, as expected, low academic performance was associated with lower self-esteem, lower decision-making self-efficacy and more dysfunctional decision-making styles. Students with a high academic performance, instead, showed higher self-esteem, higher decision-making self-efficacy and more functional decision-making styles.Data encourages the use of H.M.C., not only in the research of personality but also for educational and counseling purposes.