Perfectionism measures developed in English-speaking populations have become frequently used in many non-English contexts, including in Italy. Establishing structural and measurement equivalence of instruments between Canadian and Italian samples is therefore important in establishing the validity of these concepts and instruments in Italian…

This project developed and examined the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Courage Measure, the reduced version composed of six items as suggested by Howard and Alipour (J Posit Psychol 9:449-459, 2014). Two studies were conducted with independent samples of Italian adults, providing psychometric support for the Italian…

We aimed to validate a long and a short version of the popular SDO6 scale for children, by testing their reliability and factorial structure, as well as divergent and criterion validity. Italian fourth- and fifth-graders (N = 271; 49.45% female) were administered the Child SDO6 scale, composed of 16 items, along with a series of personality and…

Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care…

This study conducted on a sample of 295 Dutch and Italian undergraduate and graduate students aims to investigate how psychopathic personality traits (meanness, boldness and disinhibition) may lead to cheating behavior, and to study whether there are correlations between psychopathic traits, motivation, moral disengagement, the perception of…

The instability resulting from major changes in recent decades has fostered a climate of uncertainty and risk that has had repercussions in terms of unemployment, social inequality, and precariousness. To cope with this phenomenon, especially in the context of career transitions, individuals have had to activate multiple psychological resources.…

The State-Trait Cheerfulness Inventory--Trait Version (STCI-T60) measures the temperamental basis of sense of humor involving theoretically derived personality dispositions of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood. The reliability and validity of the newly developed STCI-T60 Italian version were assessed in a sample of Italian speakers (N =…

The present study addressed an area of research not yet sufficiently investigated: the environmental sensitivity trait in relation to perceived marginalization in the classroom, dropout intentions, and the quality of teacher-student relationship. Adopting a psychosocial perspective and based on a single study survey with a group of Italian…

In this article, I connect two topics that are relevant to debates in educational studies today: an understanding of how educational discourses and practices convey and produce a definite kind of future, and the debate on what has been defined as the 'turn to character'. I do so by means of interviews with secondary school teachers in Sardinia…

The aim of this manuscript is to examine the perceived parental perfectionism in undergraduate Italian students. Study 1 aimed at exploring the factorial structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Italian version of the Family Almost Perfect Scale (FAPS). The aim of Study 2 was to cross-validate the FAPS structure with a different…

In order to evaluate the effect of a policy or treatment with pre- and post-treatment outcomes, we propose an approach based on a transition model, which may be applied with multivariate outcomes and accounts for unobserved heterogeneity. This model is based on potential versions of discrete latent variables representing the individual…

This study aimed to examine the main predictors of employability, building on a recent conceptual model on employability developed by Lo Presti and Pluviano (Organ Psychol Rev 6(2): 192-211, 2016). Survey based data were collected from a sample of 263 Italian job-seekers through a longitudinal study. The results revealed that employability was…

Decisions to invest in human capital depend on people's time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data -- Facebook interests -- to construct novel regional…

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt adoption of online learning worldwide challenging students' scholastic engagement and their ability to self-regulate their learning. Under these unexpected conditions, adaptability (one's capacity to adjust thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in new and uncertain situations) might have sustained students to…

We use three studies to develop and validate the new concept of playful study design -- the cognitive-behavioral orientation towards study tasks with the aim to make these tasks more fun and/or more challenging. Based on play and proactive motivation theories, we propose that playful study design can be assessed by items indicating two dimensions:…