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The context of contemporary work scenarios features constant change and innovation in the field of information and communication technologies, which result in frequent work transitions and job insecurity. Such circumstances are highly threatening to the wellbeing of workers. Moreover, the instability and precariousness of the labour market are aggravated by the current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals are facing increased critical life and professional challenges and are being asked to take personal responsibility for the direction of their personal and work lives. In this complex context, career counseling needs to be revitalised in strength-based prevention perspectives. Life Project Reflexivity (LPR) addresses future professional and life plans and represents a critical construct for career counseling. The present study among Italian university students in transition to the labour market analysed the relationships between LPR and well-being while controlling for the 'Big Five' personality traits. The Big Five Questionnaire, the Life Project Reflexivity Scale and measures of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being were administered to 278 university students of the University of Florence. LPR and its dimensions of authenticity, no acquiescence and clarity/projectuality explained the incremental variance beyond personality traits with respect to both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, with specific reference to meaning in life. Among the three dimensions of LPR, authenticity was the most promising in this study. These results offered new perspectives for career counseling by supporting a strength-based prevention process for constructing sustainable decent work and life.

The aim of the present article is to purpose new career counselling perspectives for vulnerable workers in the time of COVID-19 recession. We summarize perspectives on vulnerable workers following a recently advanced taxonomy on the work precarity framework characterized by three broad categories: precarity of work (i.e. fear and concern associated with the continuity of employment), precarity at work (i.e. psychosocial or physical safety at work, including discrimination, harassment, and unsafe working conditions), and precarity from work (i.e. uncertainty and insecurity due to maintaining employment that does not satisfy the basic needs of workers). These three facets of precariousness are frequently experienced by vulnerable workers, and they are related to poorer mental and physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exacerbated this trend for vulnerable workers. Thus, suggestions for mitigating the impact of the current crisis are presented. Our perspective deals with the psychology of sustainability, sustainable development, and the psychology of working theory. In this framework, vocational psychologists could reform and reorganize specific career counselling practices for vulnerable workers, promoting sustainable and decent work and inclusivity. This could be achieved by applying four key points: (1) Enrich career counselling interventions with the processes of self-identity, reflection, and reflexivity on what constitutes actual sustainability for vulnerable workers in terms of professional and personal development; (2) Promote the use of an evidence-based methodology in accordance with the accountability principles for the 21st century; (3) Advocate to enrich available services with positive primary preventive strength-based actions and interventions through timely differentiated career counselling strategies; ( 4) Encourage applied research and practices to find new ways to balance resources with evidence-based efficacy; for example, by using the power of the audience in group-based life design counselling.

Rooted in the decent education as a precursor to decent work, this study investigated via network analysis the relationship between the work as meaning inventory for university students (WAMI-U) (positive meaning, meaning-making through study, greater good motivations) and the humor styles questionnaire (HSQ) (health-promoting styles: affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor; health-endangering styles: aggressive humor, self-defeating humor) in 371 Italian university students. Central nodes and bridge nodes between WAMI-U and HSQ were calculated. Positive meaning, meaning-making through study (WAMI-U), and self-enhancing humor (HSQ) had high centrality. Affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor (HSQ), and positive meaning (WAMI-U) had bridge function. The high centrality and bridge function of self-enhancing with all dimensions of WAMI-U, followed by the bridge function of affiliative humor in relation to meaning-making through study (WAMI-U) confirmed them as health-promoting styles. Negative associations between maladaptive humor styles and positive meaning (WAMI-U) confirmed their standard as health-endangering styles. Implications for research and prevention are discussed.

To cope with the challenges of 21st-century careers, the research on psychology of sustainability and sustainable development complements the psychology of work perspective with an emphasis on factors that foster the workers' well-being, decent work, and decent lives in healthy organizations. In this framework, individual eudaimonic well-being (EWB) is among the most relevant factors that may enhance decent and sustainable life projects and careers. Human capital sustainability leadership (HCSL) constitutes a resource for positive relatedness in organizations being linked to EWB. Innovative behaviors (IBs) are crucial for the sustainable development of organizations. This study investigated the relationships between IBs and EWB, testing the mediating role of HCSL in 353 Italian workers, controlling for participants' age and gender. HCSL fully mediated these relationships and emerged as a promising resource in linking IBs and EWB, supporting workers to achieve sustainable careers, decent work, and decent and healthy lives.

This study presents a cross-cultural validation of the recently developed Resiliency Scale for Young Adults (RSYA) with a sample of 289 Canadian university students and 259 Italian university students. The RSYA demonstrated good internal consistency across the two samples and acceptable retest reliability for the Canadian sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor, 10-facet structure of the RSYA, and comparison of the two country samples found metric invariance. As expected, positive correlations also emerged between resiliency and trait emotional intelligence in both samples. Finally, correlations with personality variables were explored in both samples. The present findings provide further support for the RSYA as a valid and reliable measure of personal resiliency for both Canadian and Italian young adults, and for the cross-cultural generalizability of the three-factor model of personal resiliency upon which it is based.

Giftedness is a lifelong journey; gifted adult workers need specific career counselling. The Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development enhances the value of positive psychological resources for gifted and talented workers to sustain them in their careers and life projects. The study implemented a latent profile analysis (LPA) in adult workers (n = 311) to identify profiles according to self-rated job performance and work engagement as proxies for gifted and talented learners. Other crucial resources were also considered. A tree-profile (A, B, C) solution best fits the data. Among these, Profile C (n = 77; 24%) showed high job performance and engagement. It could represent an "eminence" profile. Profile C also showed high levels of emotional intelligence, positive affect, satisfaction with life, meaning in life, flourishing, job satisfaction, meaning at work, flourishing at work, workplace relational civility, acceptance of change, and low levels of negative affect. This profile includes crucial ingredients that could be useful to pay attention to during career construction counselling and innovative career counselling for gifted and talented learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the relationship between attitudes and behaviors (Frymier and Nadler 2007 (See CR24)), perceptions toward the environment are of concern in shaping environmental behaviors. Accordingly, understanding how to improve people's connection to nature may be a vital research area linked to sustainability efforts. To further this understanding, the present study examined the contribution of empathy in mediating the relationship between personality traits and connectedness to nature. The Big Five Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Connectedness to Nature Scale were administered to 230 Italian workers. The results indicated that the relationship between the personality traits of agreeableness and openness and connectedness to nature is mediated by empathy, in particular by perspective taking and empathic concern. Given that empathy is amenable to training, compared to more stable personality traits, the results suggest that empathy may be a promising area for further research and intervention with the goal of increasing connectedness to nature and valuing of the environment among adults in the workplace., Author(s): Annamaria Di Fabio [sup.1] , Maureen E. Kenny [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.8404.8, 0000 0004 1757 2304, Department of Education and Psychology (Psychology Section), University of Florence, , Via [...]

Climate change has emerged as a tough challenge affecting the world's society and economy in the twenty-first century. Furthermore, it has been determined that global warming and climate change have detrimental effects on human health both physical and psychological. In this framework, eco-anxiety has emerged as a new construct to assess the distress in relation to climate change and its effects. In the current article, after a study of the literature regarding both eco-anxiety and generativity related to environmental issues, in the search for a healthy response to eco-anxiety, we propose the construct of eco-generativity as a sustainable development-related concept for the health of planet earth and people in the present and in the future. Accordingly, we explore the definitions of generativity in relation to the ecological environment, examining the development of the concept in accordance with the most recent research. Subsequently, according to the lens of psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, we propose key elements of eco-generativity in terms of construct and measures. Finally, a research agenda for future research and intervention on eco-generativity is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eco-Generativity Scale (EGS) is a recently developed 28-item scale derived from a 4-factor higher-order model (ecological generativity, social generativity, environmental identity, and agency/pathways). The aim of this study was to develop a short-scale version of the EGS to facilitate its use with university students (N = 779) who will determine the future of our world's ecosystem. Data analyses included removing misfitting items and assessing the psychometric properties of the EGS short form. The Eco-Generativity Scale-Short Form (EGS-SF) showed a good fit for a higher-order model composed of four factors and sixteen items (four items for each factor). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the factor structure and the psychometric properties of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) in a sample of 1,515 Italian (females = 60.26%, males = 39.74%) adolescents and young adults (M[subscript age] = 17.6 years, SD = 1.21). Results confirmed the unidimensionality, good reliability, and concurrent validity of the Italian version of the SWLS supporting its use in the Italian context.

Drawing from career construction and positive youth development perspectives, this study explores, among 254 Italian high school students, the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and support from friends and teachers with indices of adaptive career development. Results from the full canonical correlational model revealed that dimensions of EI and teacher support were positively associated with resilience and self-perceived employability. These results suggest that EI and teacher support warrant further investigation as factors that may contribute to adaptive career progress among youth.