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The 21st-century world of work complexity is considered a health risk factor for young people. Due to the economic crisis, globalization, and challenges of post-industrial society, 28.8% of Italian young people experience the NEET condition. The study aims to understand the psychological factors associated with the NEET status, specifically the self-perception of transition to adulthood, the future time perspective, and the effects on health in terms of internalizing and externalizing problems. To this end, 450 young people (150 students, 150 employees, 150 NEET) were involved. Moreover, the study has also highlighted that socio-demographic characteristics can play a role in the relationship between the NEET status and these outcomes. The results show that the NEET condition is associated with a negative vision about the future, a low self-perception of transition to adulthood, and internalizing and externalizing health problems. Starting from findings, implications regarding intervention models and future research directions are discussed., Author(s): Anna Parola [sup.1] [sup.3] , Jenny Marcionetti [sup.2] , Luigia Simona Sica [sup.1] , Lucia Donsì [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/05290cv24, grid.4691.a, 0000 0001 0790 385X, University of Naples [...]

University dropout represents a serious problem across the world. Past research has suggested the merits of studying both additive and multiplicative effects among the variables that affect the intention to drop out. In the present study, we tested the potential moderating effect of friendships at university, on both the association between self-regulated learning self-efficacy and intention to drop out and the associations between different motivations for attending university and intention to drop out. A sample of 404 Italian university students (M.sup.age = 21.83; SD = 2.37) completed an online questionnaire. The outcomes showed that having friends at university was a protective factor in the relationship between self-regulated learning self-efficacy and intention to drop out. Students with a high number of university friends and low self-efficacy were less likely to intend to drop out than students with few university friends and low self-efficacy. Thus, having friends at university appears to protect students from developing the intention to drop out., Author(s): Mara Morelli [sup.1] , Antonio Chirumbolo [sup.2] , Roberto Baiocco [sup.3] , Elena Cattelino [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.7841.a, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza [...]

The current study aims to examine the influence of personality traits (alternative Zuckerman model) and driving anger in the explanation of risky driving style in individuals convicted for road safety offences (N = 245), using as a basis an adaptation of the context-mediated model. This is a transversal, descriptive study designed to be implemented by means of surveys, in which took part 245 men convicted of road safety offences from five prisons in Galicia (a region in northwestern Spain) took part. The average age of the participants was 38.73 years (Sx-9.61), with a range between 18 and 64 years. All participants had three or more years of driving experience. Our data shows that the Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) personality trait had a direct and positive effect on dangerous driving, while the Activity (Act) trait had a direct but negative effect. The Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Host) trait, in turn, influenced the risky driving style, but not directly, but by raising driving anger levels, so it acted as a powerful mediator between the Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Hos) trait and the risky driving style. In general, our research partially replicates and expands previous findings regarding the model used, the aggression-hostility personality trait (Agg-Host) was placed in the distal context, driving anger in the proximal context, while age and personality traits Activity (Act) and Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) were direct predictors. The results of this study may have practical implications for the detection and rehabilitation of offenders and penalties for road safety offences., Author(s): José María Faílde-Garrido [sup.1] [sup.2] , Yolanda Rodríguez-Castro [sup.1] , Antonio González-Fernández [sup.1] , Manuel Antonio García-Rodríguez [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6312.6, 0000 0001 2097 6738, University of Vigo, [...]

Despite the growing interest on the notion of academic engagement (AE) and its relevance for students' success, a few valid and reliable instruments on AE have been developed. Moreover, most of the available measures consider AE as a student's trait rather than a relational and situated dynamic process. This study presents the development and validation of a new instrument, the SInAPSi Academic Engagement Scale (SAES), which was developed within a project coordinated by the SInAPSi center of the Authors' University and it aims to measure AE. The main sample was constituted by 680 students and a convenience sample of 312 biology and biotechnologies students was also involved to perform the confirmatory factor analysis of the initial factor structure of the SAES. Construct validity was assessed using the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI), while criterion-related validity was established with the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), the students' confidence in one's own preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. Results show that the SAES presents a robust factor structure, a good convergent and discriminant validity, and satisfactory psychometric properties. Furthermore, the SAES shows a positive correlation with the USEI and the AMS, the students' confidence in their preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. The results indicate that the SAES can produce valid and reliable data on AE and it may have strong implications for assessing AE and implementing intervention programs for university students., Author(s): Maria Francesca Freda [sup.1] , De Luca Picione Raffaele [sup.2] , Giovanna Esposito [sup.1] , Giancarlo Ragozini [sup.3] , Italo Testa [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4691.a, 0000 0001 0790 [...]

Adolescents' self-development processes, the problems they encounter, and the way they overcome these problems tend to vary based on the culture they are a part of. As internal migration is a phenomenon that brings change to the culture, this study explores adolescence self-construals, adjustment problems, and coping styles in the context of internal migration. A cross-sectional and correlational design was employed in the study. The study data was collected from 979 adolescents. Of those, 410 were internal migrants, whereas 569 were non-migrants from Turkey. 46% of the participants were female and 58% were male. The age range of the participants was 14-18. Results showed that heteronomous-related self-construal was observed more commonly among non-migrant adolescents who used social support to cope with stress more than their peers. There was no difference between non-migrant and internal-migrant adolescents in terms of their adjustment problems. However, there were statistically significant relationships between adolescents' self-construals, adjustment problems and coping styles in the context of internal migration. The study results and implications were also discussed based on the related literature., Author(s): Faruk Bozdag [sup.1] , Filiz Bilge [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.506076.2, 0000 0004 1797 5496, Division of Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Depermant of Educational Sciences, Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty [...]

Higher education institutions are striving to lower student dropout rates to increase the number of academically qualified persons in the labour market and decrease misguided investment. Researchers generally acknowledge that students who are firmly decided on their studies tend to drop out of their studies less frequently. Building on the extended expectancy-value model via the cost component, this longitudinal study investigates changes in and the impact of students' motivation on career decidedness and intention to drop out. We analysed data from 351 first-year university students aiming to become teachers across three measurement points, finding that the task effort of students and, to a lesser degree, their interest value was related to career decidedness and, indirectly, to the intention to drop out after the first year in higher education. Moreover, the results revealed that these students' ability beliefs increased and interest value decreased from the beginning to the end of the first year at higher education. Accordingly, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications taken from these findings., Author(s): Carina Bargmann [sup.1] , Lisa Thiele [sup.1] , Simone Kauffeld [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6738.a, 0000 0001 1090 0254, Department of Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, TU [...]

This study aims to determine the views of students with refugee status who have emigrated to Turkey for various reasons and are continuing their education in secondary and high schools about the Turkish education system. A total of 149 students (76 male, 73 female) in two different groups, who were attending grades 5-8 and 9-12 in the 2018-2019 academic year, participated in the study which used descriptive research and the survey model in conjunction with each other. The results showed that although the education staff welcomed refugee students, they could not make academic adaptations to suit the unique characteristics of these students. While it was found that the majority of students (51%) had adapted to school in Turkey, some (30%) were not actively attending school, and some (27%) had difficulty meeting their basic needs. The results regarding communication and cooperation showed that while these students could easily express themselves to their classmates and teachers, around 20% experienced undecidedness. Data obtained directly from refugee students in this study are crucial for developing policies and projects to give them access to education, enable them to adapt, and guide future studies. More studies are needed to monitor whether the inclusive practices used in Turkey and throughout the world indeed meet what is intended. Keywords: Refugee, refugee student, student views, inclusive education, Introduction Immigration is generally defined as a displacement of significant impact occurring during a certain time interval (Erder, 2000). Beter (2006) states that children who are forced to migrate and [...]

Previous studies suggest that tasks dependent on the mental number line may be difficult for Williams Syndrome (WS) and Down Syndrome (DS) groups. However, few have directly assessed number line estimation in these groups. The current study assessed 28 WS, 25 DS and 25 typically developing (TD) participants in non-verbal intelligence, number familiarity, visuo-spatial skills and number line estimation. Group comparisons indicated no differences in number line estimation. However, the WS group displayed difficulties with visuo-spatial skills and the DS group displayed difficulties with number familiarity. Differential relationships between number line estimation and visuo-spatial/number familiarity skills were observed across groups. Data is discussed in the context of assessment of skills in neurodevelopmental disorders., Author(s): V. Simms [sup.1] , A. Karmiloff-Smith, E. Ranzato [sup.2] , J. Van Herwegen [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.12641.30, 0000000105519715, School of Psychology, Ulster University, , Coleraine, UK (2) grid.15538.3a, [...]

It has been reported that approximate number sense (ANS) task performance is impaired in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS). Research with infants has suggested this impairment is caused by sticky fixation in WS and sustained attention deficits for those with DS. This study examined looking patterns of older children and adults with WS (n = 24) and DS (n = 23) during an ANS task compared to typically developing controls matched for chronological age and those matched for mental age. Results showed that, although there were no group differences, looking patterns changed with chronological age for both the WS and DS groups. Looking behaviour related to ANS performance only in the WS group. Implications for interventions are discussed., Author(s): Jo Van Herwegen [sup.1] , Erica Ranzato [sup.2] , Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Victoria Simms [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000121901201, grid.83440.3b, Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education, [...]

Addition and multiplication facts are retrieved from a network-like structure, as shown by data from number-matching tasks. Even if several evidences (e.g., cross-operation confusion effect) suggest that these networks are interrelated, the interdependency between addition and multiplication networks could be influenced by the type of task used (e.g., verification task). The present study aimed to investigate whether the addition and multiplication networks were interdependent or separate using a number-matching task. Eighty participants were divided in four groups. The Groups A (x, x, x) and B (+, +, +) performed the task in which only one arithmetic interference effect was implemented through three sessions (pure condition). The Groups C (x, x, +) and D (+, +, x) performed the same task in which the same arithmetic interference effect appeared in the first and second sessions, while a different arithmetic problem was presented in the last session (mixed condition). In the last session, the interference effect in the mixed condition was higher than that in the pure condition. The results argued more for an independency of addition and multiplication networks than for their interdependency., Author(s): Marco Fabbri[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Viale Ellittico, 31, 81100, Caserta (Ce), Italy Introduction Simple mental arithmetic (e.g., 4 x 9) is an [...]

It is known that number and space representations are connected to one another in numerical and arithmetic abilities. Numbers are represented using the metaphor of a mental number line, oriented along horizontal and vertical space. This number line also seems to be linked to mental arithmetic, which is based partly on arithmetic fact retrieval. It seems that number representation and mental arithmetic are linked together. The present study tested the effect of spatial contextual congruency between stimulus presentation and response key arrangements in arithmetic fact retrieval, using number-matching and addition verification tasks. For both tasks in Experiment 1, a contextual congruency effect was present horizontally (i.e., horizontal presentation of stimuli and horizontal response key alignments) but not vertically (i.e., vertical presentation of stimuli but horizontal response key alignments). In Experiment 2, both tasks showed a contextual congruency effect for both spatial conditions. Experiment 1 showed that the interference and distance effects were found in the horizontal condition, probably because of the spatial congruency between stimulus presentation and response key arrangements. This spatial congruency could be related to the activation of the horizontal number line. Experiment 2 showed similar interference and distance effects for both spatial conditions, suggesting that the congruency between stimulus presentation and response alignment could facilitate the retrieval of arithmetic facts. This facilitation could be related to the activation of both horizontal and vertical number lines. The results are discussed in light of the possible role of a mental number line in arithmetic fact retrieval., Within the conceptual metaphor theory, there is the general idea that space is often used to convey meaning (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The importance of visuospatial metaphor in grasping mathematical [...]

Stroop tasks (Stroop, 1935) present stimuli having two dimensions, and participants respond to one dimension whilst ignoring the other. The two dimensions are made congruent, incongruent or neutral with respect to one another. Many claim that 'Stroop interference' is higher in children than in adults. However, taking interference as the difference between the incongruent condition and the neutral condition, with interference within the congruent condition itself termed the 'incongruity effect' then surprisingly few studies directly address this issue. Also, there is recent debate as to whether the 'facilitation effect' (the contrast between the congruent and neutral conditions) is just the opposite of interference. The present investigation (N = 31) concerned a direct comparison between children and adults. Although the incongruity effect reduced with age, interference did not. However, facilitation was far higher in children than in adults. The groups' opposite facilitation/interference asymmetry was used to examine the recent claim that these derive from inadvertent word-reading and suppression of semantic activation, respectively; rather than solely from the latter., In the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), participants are presented with stimuli having two dimensions, and are required to attend to one dimension whilst ignoring the other (Everatt et al., 1999; [...]