Excellence gaps are differences in advanced education outcomes among student groups. This study replicates and extends an earlier study on the prevalence and magnitude of excellence gaps based on student sex and immigrant status using Grade 8 TIMSS data. Data were included for the 12 countries that have participated in each TIMSS administration…

With the development of technology, security, a core human concern throughout history, has changed and branched out into new areas. Novel security concepts, including environmental security, economic security, and cybersecurity, have emerged as a result of these expanding areas. The importance of cybersecurity has increased in the linked world of…

Climate change worry (CCW) is a specific worry about climate change, involving thoughts about changes that might occur in the climate system and their possible effects. Nowadays, it is growing especially among adolescents. As there is a lack of measurement tools with adequate psychometric properties to assess CCW in this age group, we investigated…

This study aims to explore the effect of cultural capital on the perception of parental involvement policies offered by schools in various countries. Using PISA (2018) data, a multilevel model is implemented for each participant country to adopt a comparative perspective. While the results suggest a complex effect, moderated by idiosyncratic…

Understanding predictors of parents' willingness to vaccinate their children appears fundamental to promote vaccine acceptability, especially in a pandemic scenario. The present study aimed to investigate the role of conspiracy beliefs and absolutist thinking in parental attitude toward COVID-19 vaccine, and the predictive role of parents'…

Background: Previous research, although scarce, has indicated that the general public is still relatively unaware of developmental language disorder (DLD), one of the most common (neuro)developmental disorders. Raising awareness would increase timely involvement in intervention procedures. Aims: To examine public awareness of DLD in the…

Effective communication is a fundamental aspect of children's daily living, enabling interaction with adults and peers. A rich literature suggests that communicative abilities develop with age, while little is known about cross-cultural differences and similarities. This study presents a comparison of the communicative performance of Finnish (n =…

Several factors might affect outdoor play (individual and family aspects, neighbourhood environment, policy and socio-cultural factors). The Covid-19 lockdowns became a barrier to outdoor play and had a greater impact on children with disabilities. This study describes the outdoor activities and play and the contextual factors that affected them…

Objectives: The consumption of whole grains is widely recognised as healthy and included in several national dietary guidelines. Despite that, the consumption of whole grain products remains sub-optimal. Methods: We developed a questionnaire investigating perceptions of price, taste, positive and negative health effects, sustainability and…

Prior studies suggest a multifaceted relationship between creativity and psychopathology, indicating that mild psychopathology might enhance creative behavior. Moreover, similar brain regions may be implicated in both creativity and psychosis. Although aberrant salience (AS) is often associated with psychotic disorders, it could also enhance…

This study tested factorial structure, reliability as well as gender, age, and cultural measurement invariance of the Brief Inventory of Thriving (BIT). Data were collected from 981 Italian, Portuguese, and Chinese emerging adults. Results showed that BIT scores were reliable, mono-dimensional, and suitable to assess thriving across different…

The extent to which Theory of Mind (ToM) performance is influenced by cultural and gender differences remains a subject of debate. A sample of 324 Dutch and 511 Italian children (52% boys; 2.8-11.7 years; 50% boys; 2.6-10.3 years; respectively) was administered the ToM Storybooks. Analysis focused on indicators of nonlinearity: moving standard…

Empathy is important for interpersonal communication, social emotion, and social cognitive abilities throughout the lifespan. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) in a sample of 472 Italian children and early adolescents aged 8-13 years.…

Research on the effects of nursery school attendance still presents divergent results: a possible explanation is that the effects of child care on development outcomes can be modulated by individual characteristics, such as gender or temperament. In the present study, gender differences in nursery adaptation (evaluated by social skills and…

The current study seeks to shed light on social-cognitive resources that mitigate master students' experience of dysfunctional career-related worry before graduation. Based on the career self-management model (CSM; Lent & Brown, 2013), we investigate concurrent and time-lagged direct and mediated relationships between career planning,…