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Backgrounds: Perfectionism is a multifaceted personality disposition characterized by striving for perfection, pursuing exceedingly high standards, and making highly critical self-evaluations. This disposition can impact mental and behavioral health and influence learning behavior in students. Perfectionism can foster a mastery orientation, where students commit to challenges and maintain confidence despite failures, or lead to learned helplessness, where students give up in the face of failure, attributing it to a lack of ability. Perfectionistic pressures from the environment, such as those perceived from teachers, may influence students’ personal perfectionism and learning behavior, and, in turn, their academic achievement. Methods: A structural equation modelling approach with latent variables was used to investigate the sequential mediating role of personal perfectionism (standard, order, and discrepancy) and learned helplessness/mastery orientation in the relationship between students’ perceptions of teacher perfectionism and their school achievements. We hypothesize that a mismatch between teachers’ expectations or evaluations and students’ actual performance (Teacher Discrepancy) may lead to students experiencing a gap between their self-perception and their actual abilities (Personal Discrepancy). This misalignment could result in feelings of helplessness and reduced achievement. On the other hand, if students perceive their teachers as having high standards and maintaining good order (adaptive perfectionism), this could encourage students to develop similar high standards and organizational skills (adaptive perfectionism), fostering a mastery-oriented mindset and ultimately enhancing their achievement. The study included 505 Italian high school students (Mage=16; SD =1.35). The instruments used were the Teacher Almost Perfect Scale, the Italian version of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised, and the Learned Helplessness Questionnaire. Results: The SEM analysis revealed significant indirect effects. From Teacher Standards to school achievement via Personal Standards and mastery orientation (β = .12, p ≤ .01); from Teacher Discrepancy to School Achievement via Personal Standards and mastery orientation (β = -.04, p ≤ .01); from Teacher Discrepancy to School Achievement via Personal Discrepancy and mastery orientation (β = -.04, p ≤ .01). Conclusions: The findings highlight the roles of personal perfectionism (standards and discrepancy) and learning behaviors (learned helplessness/mastery orientation) in mediating the relationship between students’ perceptions of their teachers’ perfectionism and their academic achievement. This suggests that both the positive and negative dimensions of perceived teacher perfectionism can significantly impact students’ learning outcomes, mediated through their own perfectionistic tendencies. This study extends knowledge of factors that can impact students’ mental health, with important practical implications for prevent internalizing psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety.

A positive school climate promotes regular attendance through strong relationships, a sense of belonging, diversity promotion, clear rules, and safety, leading to improved relational and educational outcomes. This study explores how perceived academic and interpersonal competence mediate the relationship between school climate components and absenteeism, using Havik’s(2015) model. A cross-sectionalstudy of 539 Italian high school students employed structural equation modelling with latent variables to examine these mediations. Results indicated that perceptions of interpersonal competence mediated the relationship between Peer Connectedness ( =.16,p

Instagram is an image-sharing social networking service (SNS) particularly enjoyed by young adults. It excessive and problematic use impacts users’ body image (BI). Individuals with negative BI feel dissatisfied with their appearance and body, and perceive a discrepancy between their current and ideal image. Instagram, in contrast to other SNS, focused uniquely on image-based content. As such, it is likely that Instagram differs from other social media in term of mediating processes linking its use to BI, reflecting the need to understanding the relationship between maladaptive Instagram use and body dissatisfaction. The main purpose of this study is to investigate, through a self-determination theory (SDT) framework, the mediating role of basic psychological needs (BPN) satisfaction/frustration and needs-supportive/needs-thwarting interpersonal behaviors on the relationship between maladaptive Instagram use and body dissatisfaction. The results showed the role of BPN satisfaction/frustration (autonomy, competence and relatedness) in the relationship between maladaptive Instagram use and body dissatisfaction. The sample comprised 525 young adults from several Italian university. This study extends the knowledge of the factors that can be related to the BI of young adults, with important application implications.

Background: The purpose of this study is to offer a scientific contribution on the possible role of some individual variables (predisposition to optimism, self-esteem, well-being, and perceived hopelessness) on the quality of life (QoL) perception of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), given the lack of studies that investigate these variables in the Italian context. It was assumed that parents of children with ASD have lower levels of predisposition to optimism, self-esteem, perceived well-being, and QoL and higher levels of hopelessness perception compared to the parents of children with typical development. Furthermore, it was assumed that the QoL perception of parents of children with ASD is positively predicted by their predisposition to optimism, self-esteem, and perceived well-being and negatively by hopelessness. Method: The sample was composed of 172 parents: 84 parents of children with ASD and 88 parents of typically developing children. For the evaluation of the variables considered, the following instruments were used: Life Orientation Test-revised (LOT-r, Scheier e Carver, 1985; Giannini et al., 2008), PERMA-Profiler (Giangrasso, 2018), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965; Prezza, Trombaccia e Armento, 1997), Hopelessness Depression Symptom Questionnaire (HDSQ - Metalsky e Joiner, 1991), and the Quality of Life in Autism Questionnaire (QoLA – Eapen, 2014). Results: The results confirmed the hypotheses; in particular, the regression analysis identified optimism together with the PERMA dimensions of realization and happiness as the positive predictors and hopelessness as the negative predictor of QoL. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need to deepen the research and, consequently, to structure adequate interventions relative to the individual factors that could play a protective role on the QoL of parents of children with ASD.

Background: The literature shows that mathematical achievement can be influenced by affective factors, metacognitive abilities, and personality traits. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between mathematical achievement, mathematical anxiety, perfectionism, and metacognitive abilities in a sample of secondary school students. Method: The sample was composed of 272 students of secondary school, 43.8% males, and 56.3%, with an average age of 12.08 (SD=.89). The Evaluate Metacognition, Negative Attitudes, and Mathematics Anxiety, and the Almost Perfect Scale were administered, while the data on academic performance in mathematics was based on the average scores earned on written tests across all participants during the current school year. Correlational and path analyses were performed. Results: The results showed significant correlations between the variables investigated. Furthermore, mathematics achievement was positively predicted by control in performing, mathematics attitudes, beliefs related to mathematics, and adaptive perfectionism, while it was negatively predicted by math anxiety, and maladaptive perfectionism. Conclusion: This study has important educational implications for teachers as it highlights the role of metacognitive, affective, and personality factors in the learning and achievement of mathematics.

The literature’s interest has been focused on the study of well-being or depression. However, there has been little research that investigates the relationship between well-being and hopelessness (HPL) and the underlying contextual and dispositional variables. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between some contextual (need-supportive interpersonal behavior and need-thwarting interpersonal behavior) and dispositional variables (dispositional optimism, positive/negative affectivity, explanatory style), academic achievement, general well-being, and school HPL in adolescent students. The results showed that general well-being was positively predicted by need-supportive interpersonal behavior, dispositional optimism, positive affectivity, and adaptive explanatory style (attribution to commitment in the school context), while it was negatively predicted by negative affectivity. Meanwhile, school HPL was positively predicted by need-thwarting interpersonal behavior, negative affectivity, dysfunctional explanatory style (attribution to luck in the school context), while it was negatively predicted by attribution to commitment in the school context and academic achievement. These results provide useful data for the implementation of well-being promotion and school HPL prevention. The implications are discussed as follows.

Research has shown a link between specific learning disorders (SLD) and both internalizing (e.g., anxiety and depression) and externalizing problems (e.g., anger and aggressive behavior). However, the predictive factors of these behaviors have not been examined in significant depth. The main purpose of the present study is, therefore, to investigate the possible presence of learned helplessness as the main predictor of the development of internalizing/externalizing problems in students. The present study also aims to verify whether there are differences between pre-adolescent students with and without SLD in terms of learned helplessness in school and the development of internalizing/externalizing problems. The sample consisted of 84 students, with an average age of 12.9 years (SD= 1.42). A total of 52 males (62 %) and 32 females (38 %) were divided into two groups, based on the presence of SLD (44 students with SLD and 40 without). The results showed that students with SLD demonstrated higher levels of internalizing problems. Further, although learned helplessness in a student was not a predictor of externalizing problems in the group without SLD, it was predictive of internalizing and externalizing problems in the group with it. The study’s results, directions for future research, and implications for the psychological wellbeing of students are also discussed.

School refusal (SR) is a complex problem that may be caused by different risk factors such as individual and contextual factors (Kearney, 2007; Maynard et al., 2018; Heyne et al., 2019). These mechanisms can be described in the context of self-determination theory (SDT). For these reasons, the purpose of the present study is investigate the relationship between teacher perceived psychological control and support, psychological basic needs, SR behavior, and academic achievement, on adolescent sample. It is hypothesized that teacher perceived psychological control and autonomy support play a role on need frustration and need satisfaction; in turn, need satisfaction could reduce while need frustration could promote SR behavior and number of absences. Finally, SR behavior and number of absences could reduce academic achievement. 263 students (196 females, 67 males) with an average age of 16.14 (SD = 1.35; range 13–20 years). SEM analyses with observed variables have shown that the final model fit well the data, χ2(8) = 16.34, p = 0.04, CFI = 0.96, SRMR = 0.04, RMSEA (90% CI) = 0.06 (0.01; 0.10), showing the following significant path: need satisfaction was positively predicted by perceived teacher support and negatively predicted by teacher perceived psychological control; need frustration was positively predicted by teacher perceived psychological control; number of absences was negatively predicted by need satisfaction; SR was positively predicted by need frustration; school achievement was negatively predicted by SR and number of absences. These results have several implications for the school context and the deepening of the construct of SR and absenteeism.

During adolescence, parental and peer support and emotional intelligence (EI) may play a protective role against the risk of becoming a victim of bullying. This study aims to assess the role of perceived parental and peer support in promoting individual EI, reducing the risk of victimisation. The sample consisted of 348 Italian middle and high school students. Victimisation risk, perceived parental and peer support, and EI were measured using questionnaires. A cross-sectional study and a Structural Equation Model with latent variables were conducted to assess the mediating role of EI in perceived parental and peer support and victimisation risk. Results indicated that EI fully mediated the association between perceived parent ([beta] = 0.20, p[less than or equal to] 0.001) and peer support ([beta] = 0.10, p[less than or equal to] 0.01) and victimisation risk. These data suggest the need to structure training to promote support in the social and family context to increase students' EI and thus reduce the risk of victimisation among students.

The aim of the present research is to compare phonological abilities and visuo-spatial abilities in Chinese dyslexic children (CDC) vs. Italian dyslexic children (IDC). Specifically, 10 CDC, 10 IDC, 10 Chinese and 10 Italian children with typical development (TD) were administered instruments to assess reading, writing, visual-perceptual, and visual-spatial memory abilities. CDC showed lower performance in the reading task, in the text and sentence dictation tasks, in the visual-perceptual, visual-motor integration, and visual-spatial memory tasks, as compared to Chinese TD. IDC made more errors in the reading task and more phonological errors in the text and in the sentence dictation tasks, as compared to the Italian TD, but no significant differences emerged in visual-perceptual, visual-motor integration and visual-spatial memory abilities. The most important result is that CDC made significantly less errors in the reading task and in the phonological dictation task, despite they performed worse in the visual-perceptual, visual-motor integration and visual-spatial memory tasks, as compared to IDC. Indeed, CDC’ perceptual deficits do not appear to impair learning of reading and writing in a language with transparent orthography, despite those perceptual deficits represent a fundamental component of Chinese dyslexic children’s profile. Educational and practical implications are discussed.

Literature on school refusal has shown a link between school refusal and poor school performance. However, there has been little investigation into the individual underlying factors, and specifically factors directly related to the learning process, such as the learning goals of students and their expectations of success and/or failure. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of Learned Helplessness (LH) and learning goals on school refusal. We hypothesized that LH and learning goals exert a unique role in predicting school refusal above and beyond the roles of academic achievement, age, and gender. The sample consisted of 201 Italian students with an average age of 11.93, with both low (57.2 % of students) and high (42.8 %) academic achievement. School refusal, LH, and learning goals were measured by means of questionnaires. The results confirm the hypothesis of this study; in fact, we found that learning goals and, above all, LH play a more predictive role of school refusal than academic achievement. These results extend previous studies on school refusal and, for the first time, they provide additional knowledge about this problem, analyzing the relationship between school refusal, learning goals, and LH, still neglected in the literature. Implications on the psychological well-being of students are discussed.

Learned helplessness (LH) is defined as a passive behavior characterized by an inability to learn that may affect the academic success of students. Conversely, students who show good motivation skills, optimism and perseverance are more focused on tasks and ‘mastery oriented’ (derived from Mastery Orientation, MO). The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measurement of LH and MO - the Learned Helplessness Questionnaire (LHQ) - for the Italian scholastic context. We translated and adapted a student self-evaluation register, the Student behaviour checklist, and administered the questionnaire to Italian students in order to provide a preliminary factor structure. Exploratory factor analyses conducted support a two-factor model and acceptable internal reliability of the Italian LHQ.The results encourage the conduction of further analysis to assess the psychometric characteristics of the LHQ in depth.

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.

Recent studies showed that children with learning disabilities present significant difficulties in learning as well as in social skills (Siperstein, 2009).Therefore, it was observed how it is difficult for these children to establish adequate relationships, especially to advise coping strategies to face interpersonal conflicts (Oliva & LaGreca, 1988). Accordingly to this argument and with reference to Agaliotis e Kalyva (2004, 2009), this study examines the preferences for strategies to solve an hypothetical conflict on a sample of children with LD in comparison to typical developing peers. They used the method of social story to conduct this research. In fact, researchers asked to the children, after they have listened a short story describing an interpersonal conflict interaction between adult and peers, which strategies they would have chosen if they were in the same situation and the strategies that would be most appropriate to resolve a conflict. Results obtained from the experiment corroborated literature data and demonstrated that children with LD, in comparison to typical developing peers, use and prefer dysfunctional coping strategies, aggressive or passive, also in relation to the partner interaction (adult or peers) to face interpersonal conflict.

The central coherence involves the processes of perceptual coding and attention mechanisms, highly deficient in children with ADHD (Booth & Happé, 2010). According to this theory, also children with autism are overly focused on details to the expense of a global perspective, and this negatively affects their ability to integrate environmental stimuli into a coherent whole (Happé, Booth, Charlton, Hughes, 2006). The aim of this study was to determine differences in central coherence of children with high functioning autism (ASD; n=10), children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n=10) and typically developing peers (n=10). Individuals with ADHD exhibit significant deficits in perceptual skills and problem solving, failing also in mental states understanding tasks. While the children with autism spectrum disorder show impairments in making pragmatic inferences. Future research should therefore concentrate on the investigation of the cognitive and psychological mechanisms underlying these effects.