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COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in societies. In this paper we analyse the categories that have suffered more than others from the pandemic and the restrictions on social life in terms of mental health. We rely on the Serendipity project based on a survey administered between November 2021 and February 2022 to a sample of Italian physicians (n = 1281). The survey aimed to assess the perception of general practitioners, paediatricians, geriatricians, and mental health specialists (psychiatrists, neurologists, child neuropsychiatrists), about changes in the mental health of the population as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown. The strategies implemented by the doctors interviewed in terms of the intensity of the prevention, emergence, and treatment of mental health interventions, and their association with physicians' characteristics and their opinions on patient vulnerability have been illustrated by means of a multiple correspondence analysis. An overall result of the survey is the consensus of doctors on the worsening of mental health in general population, especially among their patients, due to the pandemic and on the onset of new discomforts. The most exposed individuals to the risk of onset or worsening of mental disorders include women, young people, and patients with psychiatric comorbidity. The paper also illustrates the interventions put in place by the physicians and deemed necessary from a public heath response perspective, that include providing psychoeducation to the general population, improving telehealth services, and increasing financial and human resources for community-based care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the dramatic health situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Italy the emergency remote teaching lasted longer than in other countries. The mandatory teaching modalities have required digital transformation processes in a framework where digital-divide is one of the limitations to school modernization. We believe that the experience can promote a deeper formatting of organizational process. The paper shows results of a multitarget research carried out during the Italian lockdown aiming at animating the debate around school from multi-actors perspectives and at supporting policies. The paper aims at showing the potentiality of a multivariate statistical method as a tool supporting school managers in identifying those challenges they have to face to improve the setting up of internal processes. The main result is a model supporting the decision making process at orienting school managers strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the media are often described as critical for the success of the well-being agenda, there is wide dissatisfaction with their current level of interest. However, the media coverage of well-being metrics has been unresearched and, even when studies have been conducted, these employed unrobust methodologies, were limited to newspapers and to restricted samples of metrics. This paper fills such gap, providing also for the first time an analysis of radio and TV coverage of well-being metrics. The research was undertaken using Factiva (for newspapers) and TVEyes (for radio and TV) for the years of 2017–2021 and 2018–2021, respectively. The countries analysed are Scotland and Italy, both pioneers in the measurement of well-being. Findings reveal that media coverage of well-being metrics has been extremely low overall and that this was impacted negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic, which instead impacted positively on the reporting of GDP and related queries, showing that the main concern during the pandemic was the impact that this was going to have in terms of output, rather than in terms of well-being. Most composite indices, whose creation is often thought to help obtain greater media coverage, were almost if not even fully ignored by journalists, whereas metrics that lack an overall composite index but that are overseen by independent institutions and have been institutionalised were among the ones that were reported the most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that individual happiness is not, or not solely, related to material possessions, at least once basic needs are fulfilled. It has been demonstrated that interpersonal relationships and social capital matter too, and people whose values are more centred on material possessions have a greater probability of being less happy. Is this still true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when interpersonal relations, health and economic security are threatened and feelings of insecurity emerge? This is the issue that we address in this paper. We exploited the unique natural situation of the pandemic and lockdown in Italy to investigate the relationship between happiness and relational and material goods. Data collected by questionnaire during the lockdown suggests that the main direct effect of the pandemic on the happiness of respondents was related to the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on interpersonal relationships. Those who declared that COVID and lockdown had jeopardized their interpersonal relationships were significantly less likely to report higher levels of happiness, especially when controlling for other personal and contextual covariates. An important gender, religious and town size effect also emerged. Moreover, relational goods and good health were considered to be the most important determinants of happiness, though people were not so worried about their own health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]