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A key factor to successful secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is optimal patient adherence to treatment. However, unsatisfactory rates of adherence to treatment for CVD risk factors and CVD have been observed consistently over the last few decades. Hence, achieving optimal adherence to lifestyle measures and guideline-directed medical therapy in secondary prevention and rehabilitation is a great challenge to many healthcare professionals. Therefore, in this European Association of Preventive Cardiology clinical consensus document, a modern reappraisal of the adherence to optimal treatment is provided, together with simple, practical, and feasible suggestions to achieve this goal in the clinical setting, focusing on evidence-based concepts.Graphical Abstract

Aim: Healthy lifestyle behaviors and a good adherence to pharmacological treatments are important predictors of lower recurrence rates and better overall outcomes among patients with an established acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The present study sought to investigate the longitudinal trajectories of these behaviors years after the onset of an ACS. Subject and methods: We recruited a sample of 275 newly diagnosed consecutive patients at their first ACS event (mean age: 57.1 ± 7.87 years; 84% males) admitted to a cardiac rehabilitation program from three large public hospitals in Northern Italy. Patients completed a battery of sociodemographic questionnaires, which evaluated healthy lifestyles (smoking status, alcohol intake, diet, and physical activity) and adherence to pharmacological treatments, at five time-points (pre-event, 6-, 12-, 24-, and 36-month follow-ups). Longitudinal trajectories were examined through hierarchical (generalized) linear models, controlling for several demographic and clinical variables. Results: We found significant changes in all healthy lifestyles from pre-event to the 6-month follow-up, suggesting the adoption of healthier behaviors soon after the cardiac event. However, from the 6-month up to the 3-year follow-up, patients experienced small but significant declines in their self-reported levels of healthy dietary behaviors and physical activity. Further, we found that the odds of being at medium risk of non-adherence to the pharmacological treatments significantly increased over the course of 3 years. Conclusion: Given the negative long-term trajectories in specific lifestyles and adherence to pharmacological treatments, cardiac rehabilitation programs are suggested to provide repeated psychological interventions aimed at fostering patients’ capabilities to self-regulate their habitual behaviors.

The main aim of our study is to investigate the role of motivations and mind-reading in a two-level one-shot Ultimatum Game with three players. Our intention is to analyse subjects’ behaviour in both the responder and proposer roles. In the responder role, we found that the difference between the subjects’ expectations and the actual offers was the major factor that influenced their decisions and motivations in receiving money. In the proposer role, our results showed a significant influence of mind-reading, with a positive association between the fairness of subjects’ offers and the subjects’ expectations about the recipients’ willingness to accept. Although a shared concept of fairness exists findings suggest that decisions and motivations seem to depend on expectations, either when they are directly experienced or when they are ascribed to the counterpart.

This study investigates similarities between the ‘self-enhancement’ and ‘self-transcendence’ values of young adults and the corresponding values of their parents and friends, examining both mean level and correlational similarities. Participants included 193 Italian young adults along with their parents and friends (one male and one female) who each reported on their own self-enhancement and self-transcendence values. Results showed that young adults were more similar to their friends than to their parents on mean levels of values. Females reported valuing self-transcendence more and self-enhancement less than males. Considering correlational similarity, male young adults' self-transcendence values were similar to their parents' values, whereas their self-enhancement values were similar to those of friends and parents. Female young adults' self-enhancement values were similar to their parents' values; no similarity to friends was found. Findings suggest the importance of considering gender differences when studying the links between young adults' value orientations and those of parents and friends.

SUMMARYAims– The present study is part of a longitudinal project aimed at identifying the personal characteristics and the developmental pathways conducive to successful adaptation from childhood to adulthood. The study examined the concurrent and longitudinal impact of self-efficacy beliefs on subjective well-being in adolescence, namely positive thinking and happiness. Positive thinking has been operationalized as the latent dimension underlying life satisfaction, self-esteem and optimism. Happiness has been operationalized as the difference between positive and negative affects, as they are experienced in a variety of daily situations. Methods– In a group of 664 Italian adolescents, a structural model positing adolescents' emotional and interpersonal self-efficacy beliefs as proximal and distal determinants of positive thinking and happiness has been tested. Results– Findings attest to the impact of affective and interpersonal-social self-efficacy beliefs on positive thinking and happiness both concurrently and longitudinally. Conclusions– Adolescents' self-efficacy beliefs to manage positive and negative emotions and interpersonal relationships contribute to promote positive expectations about the future, to mantain a high self-concept, to perceive a sense of satisfaction for the life and to experience more positive emotions.Declaration of Interest: none.

Abstract.In the present study, the authors proposed a novel self-report 16-item scale for assessing individual differences in adult prosocialness and tested its measurement properties by employing an item response theory (IRT) analysis of data collected from a sample of 2,574 Italian adults. Prior work employing classical psychometric methods of analysis had already established the reliability and validity of the instrument. The present study furthered this scrutiny by examining whether the different prosocialness items were equally effective in discriminating people and equally informative; it also examined gender differences in the functioning of the items. The results of IRT analyses strongly supported the measurement effectiveness and sensitivity of the 16 prosocialness items, and findings are discussed for their implications in behavioral assessment research on prosocialness.

Abstract.In line with prior work, the present study aimed at examining a conceptual model positing that affective and social self-regulatory efficacy beliefs influence one's cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being, namely, positive thinking and happiness. Positive thinking corresponds to the latent dimension underlying life satisfaction, self-esteem, and optimism. Happiness, instead, corresponds to the difference between positive and negative affect, as they are experienced in a variety of daily life situations. The study was conducted on 683 Italian adults belonging to six different age groups. The findings of the study corroborated the paths of relations linking the examined variables.

Three cross-sectional studies examined stability and change in personality over the course of life by measuring the relations linking age to personality traits, self-efficacy beliefs, values, and well-being in large samples of Italian male and female participants. In each study, relations between personality and age were examined across several age groups ranging from young adulthood to old age. In each study, personality constructs were first examined in terms of mean group differences accrued by age and gender and then in terms of their correlations with age across gender and age groups. Furthermore, personality-age correlations were also calculated, controlling for the demographic effects accrued by marital status, education, and health. Findings strongly indicated that personality functioning does not necessarily decline in the later years of life, and that decline is more pronounced in males than it is in females across several personality dimensions ranging from personality traits, such as emotional stability, to self-efficacy beliefs, such as efficacy in dealing with negative affect. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for personality theory and social policy.