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A multidimensional model of emerging adults’ subjective financial well-being was proposed (Sorgente and Lanz, Int Journal of Behavioral Development, 43(5), 466–478 2019). The authors also developed a 5-factor scale (the Multidimensional Subjective Financial Well-being Scale, MSFWBS) intending to measure this construct in the European context. To date, data using this instrument have been collected in nine countries: Austria, Canada, Finland, India, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey. In the current study, data from these countries were analysed to test the validity of this model internationally. In particular, using an international sample of 4,475 emerging adults, we collected the following kinds of validity evidence for the MSFWBS: score structure, reliability, generalizability, convergent, and criterion-related evidence. Findings suggest that the MSFWBS (1) yields valid and reliable scores, and (2) works well in individualistic and economically developed countries, producing comparable scores. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Although studies have highlighted the role played by couple and parental relationships for children's psychosocial adjustment, especially in challenging situations, research on these two relationship domains has largely developed separately and mostly focussed on negative couple processes. However, Family Systems Theory highlights how these subsystems are interconnected, and studies inspired by this theoretical framework provide evidence of how the quality of the interparental relationship predicts the parent–child relationship. This study focussed on the association between two relational resources (dyadic coping and parent–child relationship quality) and children's emotional difficulties during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Five hundred ninety-one Italian parents filled in an online self-report questionnaire. A path analysis model was estimated to test the mediating role of parent–child relationship quality in the association between partner positive dyadic coping and children's emotional difficulties. The findings showed both a direct effect and an indirect effect of partner positive dyadic coping on children's emotional difficulties, because parent–child relationship quality partially mediated this association. Enhancing parents' ability to cope together with stress and the quality of the parent–child relationship might contribute to decrease children's vulnerability to emotional difficulties in challenging times.

Nudges are changes in choice architecture (i.e., the environment in which people make decisions) aiming to steer a person's decision to a particular choice, without restricting alternative options or changing financial incentives. These strategies have been extensively used to promote healthy eating, above all among youths, whose behaviors can still be easily shaped compared to older people's. The current paper describes two studies aiming to investigate the effectiveness of nudging interventions in promoting healthy eating among university students. The first study consisted of a systematic review mapping all the published studies which describe the effectiveness of this kind of intervention worldwide. Twelve eligible records were selected after a search of three different databases. Information about the publication of the record, the adopted research methods and the described intervention was retrieved from each selected record. Based on this review's results, a new nudging intervention was developed to promote healthy food choice among Italian university students. The intervention aimed to modify students' choice for each of the Italian meal courses: first course (pasta, rice or soup), second course (meat, fish, cheese or cured meat), side dish, bread, and fruit. An Italian university cafeteria was observed in two phases: a pre-intervention phase (baseline) and a post-intervention phase (nudging strategies were implemented in the cafeteria's architecture). The applied nudging intervention was effective in promoting healthy choices in relation to the second course, the side dish, and the bread, but it did not significantly affect choices related to the first course or the fruit. Implications of these results and suggestions for future interventions are discussed.

Davanti alla sconvolgente e inaspettata pandemia da COVID-19, è importante comprendere su quali risorse le famiglie abbiano potuto contare. Il supporto familiare è una promettente risorsa relazionale ancora poco indagata rispetto a questa complessa situazione. Attraverso un approccio longitudinale, che ha previsto una rilevazione dei dati in tre distinti momenti della pandemia (N = 4.184; 55,4% donne), il presente studio ha evidenziato la presenza di tre diversi profili per quanto concerne il supporto familiare ricevuto durante la pandemia. Emergono quindi le persone con “supporto familiare stabile”, caratterizzate da un supporto sempre nella media, le persone che hanno percepito un “supporto familiare assente”, sempre mancante in tutte le fasi della pandemia, e le persone con un “supporto familiare oscillante”, in cui il supporto è fortemente variato nelle diverse fasi. Tali profili di supporto familiare sono tra loro molto differenti per quanto concerne variabili come il senso di coerenza, la positività, il benessere, la soddisfazione familiare e la percezione di cambiamenti familiari, con un’immagine fortemente a favore delle persone con “supporto stabile”. Questi profili non si differenziano invece per quanto concerne le variabili connesse alla pandemia, come lo stress da essa generato. Vengono discusse le implicazioni operative dei risultati.

La pandemia ha cambiato profondamente la vita quotidiana e il modo di lavorare delle persone. Le misure di distanziamento per contenere la diffusione del virus hanno aumentato i tassi di disoccupazione e portato a livelli senza precedenti il lavoro da casa. Inoltre, il drammatico spostamento della responsabilità di cura dell'infanzia e di didattica dalle istituzioni formali alle famiglie ha messo i genitori sotto un enorme stress. Per i genitori che lavorano, l'aumento del carico di lavoro educativo e di cura ha portato cambiamenti radicali nei confini tra lavoro e famiglia, risultando in una sovrapposizione unica di ruoli genitoriali e lavorativi. Non sorprende dunque che i tassi di natalità si siano abbassati drasticamente e che i tassi di occupazione rilevino un numero record di genitori che lasciano il lavoro o pensano di farlo (McKinsey, 2021). Risulta dunque fondamentale capire come sostenere i genitori lavoratori. Questo contributo presenta i dati di alcuni studi quantitativi e qualitativi condotti a partire da Marzo 2020 sui lavoratori in Italia, in seno al progetto CAREER (CARE for womEn woRk). Particolare attenzione è stata posta sulle differenze di genere in quanto studi provenienti da paesi diversi attestano un impatto differenziale del Covid-19 nelle donne e in particolare il pesante costo pagato dalle madri lavoratrici. Il quadro che ne emerge è complesso e non privo di ambivalenze, ma ciò che risulta fondamentale è ripensare in questo mutato scenario al complesso rapporto tra famiglia e lavoro, non più in termini di bilanciamento, ma piuttosto come un intreccio complesso di ambiti i cui confini sia fisici che psicologici sono ora del tutto annullati

The relationship between an individual’s financial behavior and financial satisfaction is well known. Less evidence is available about how these two constructs interplay within couples. This considered, the current paper aims to (a) examine whether individuals’ financial satisfaction is influenced by their own financial behavior (actor effect) and their partner’s financial behavior (partner effect); (b) examine whether these two effects vary between husbands and wives; and (c) verify how couples’ bank account status (i.e., only joint bank accounts, only separate bank accounts, both joint and separate bank accounts) moderate these effects. The current study draws 1,475 heterosexual early married couples from Couple Relationships and Transition Experiences study and modeled dyadic data through an Actor Partner Interdependence Model. Results indicate that actor’s financial behavior is associated only with one’s own financial satisfaction (actor effect) and not one’s partner’s financial satisfaction (partner effect). This holds for both wives and husbands. Furthermore, individuals who hold only joint bank account(s) are more likely to have financial behaviors similar to their partner than individuals who hold only separate bank accounts or both joint and separate accounts. Couples who hold only separate accounts are more likely to engage in less positive financial behavior than their counterparts. Implications for relationship therapists and financial professionals are discussed.

Transition to parenthood represents a critical experience as it entails profound changes, which, in turn, can lead to negative consequences on the individual and relational well-being of new parents. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an additional stressful event that can exacerbate the potentially negative effects of such transition. During the first lockdown (March-May 2020), 575 pregnant women or new mothers completed an online survey with the aim of investigating their psychological well-being. Both the new and the expectant mothers were administered a series of questionnaires to investigate anxiety (state and trait) and depression. In addition, pregnant women completed a questionnaire assessing fear of childbirth. Childbirth experience and Postpartum Traumatic Disorder, on the other end, were only assessed with regards to the new mothers’ subsample. Results show that the presence of certain stressful variables can affect the well-being of pregnant and postpartum women and have an impact on their subjective experience of childbirth. More specifically, having had previous pregnancies as well as having suffered from one or more clinical disorders in the past proved to have a negative impact on both new and expectant mothers’ well-being, especially with regards to measures of anxiety and depression. Giving birth during the COVID-19 outbreak meant, for the women, experiencing an additional stress during a particularly delicate time; in this respect, the likelihood of their partners not being allowed to assist them during labor and delivery caused an increase in both anxiety and fear of childbirth scores. Overall, this study clearly highlights how the presence of support (either formal or informal) in the immediate postpartum and during labor and delivery is a crucial protective factor in preventing women from developing anxious or posttraumatic symptoms. We believe these findings may prove particularly useful, especially in informing clinical practice and formalizing c

Since the 2008 economic crisis, research on financial well-being has grown exponentially. Most of the studies have investigated the predictors of financial well-being, but there is still no consensus on the conceptualization of financial well-being itself. As of yet, little is known about the relationship between subjective financial well-being and subjective financial stress. Some scholars believe those two constructs are two sides of the same coin, while others consider them to be two different phenomena. The current study aims to contribute to disentangling the construct of financial well-being from the construct of financial stress. We conducted an intensive longitudinal study, collecting data for 14 consecutive days from 158 emerging adults. Participants had to report their level of financial well-being and financial stress each evening. Findings suggest that the two constructs are not coincident for the following reasons: they exhibit low-to-moderate associations at both the within- and between-level and they were not similarly affected by the same predictors. Furthermore, we showed that subjective financial well-being and subjective financial stress fluctuate considerably from one day to the next. Further research is needed to determine the source of this daily variability.

The DNA damage response (DDR) coordinates DNA metabolism with nuclear and non-nuclear processes. The DDR kinase Rad53CHK1/CHK2 controls histone degradation to assist DNA repair. However, Rad53 deficiency causes histone-dependent growth defects in the absence of DNA damage, pointing out unknown physiological functions of the Rad53-histone axis. Here we show that histone dosage control by Rad53 ensures metabolic homeostasis. Under physiological conditions, Rad53 regulates histone levels through inhibitory phosphorylation of the transcription factor Spt21NPAT on Ser276. Rad53-Spt21 mutants display severe glucose dependence, caused by excess histones through two separable mechanisms: dampening of acetyl-coenzyme A-dependent carbon metabolism through histone hyper-acetylation, and Sirtuin-mediated silencing of starvation-induced subtelomeric domains. We further demonstrate that repression of subtelomere silencing by physiological Tel1ATM and Rpd3HDAC activities coveys tolerance to glucose restriction. Our findings identify DDR mutations, histone imbalances and aberrant subtelomeric chromatin as interconnected causes of glucose dependence, implying that DDR kinases coordinate metabolism and epigenetic changes.

This study conducted among Muslim first and second generation immigrants living in Italy is based on intergroup theory to examine the relationship between three identity dimensions (religious, ethnic, and national) and affective ratings of multiple religious subgroups (Catholics, Jews, non-believers and Buddhists). 204 Muslim immigrants participated in structured interviews, and a series of mixeddesign analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The findings showed clear differences between first and second generation: compared to second generation, the former reported higher levels of religious and ethnic identity and more negative feelings towards other religious groups (in particular, Jews, non-believers, and Buddhists). Muslim first and second generations do not differ in the affective ratings of Catholics. Furthermore, all three identity dimensions were significantly associated with feelings towards religious outgroups: 'total' Muslim identification and high ethnic identity were linked to more negative ratings of religious outgroups (Jews, non-believers), while high level of national (Italian) identity was linked to positive feelings towards outgroups among second generations. The results are discussed within the tradition of social identity theory, highlighting the salience of religion as an identity marker for intergroup relationships.

Sviluppare programmi di educazione finanziaria che siano realmente efficaci è indubbiamente un compito piuttosto sfidante. Essendo ormai pressoché superata la fase delle proposte trasversali (modello “one-size-fits-all”), rivelatesi poco funzionali, occorre, da parte degli enti che a diverso titolo si occupano di queste iniziative, individuare modalità adeguate a favorire l’effettivo potenziamento di competenze economico-finanziarie. La vera sfida è stabilire strategie differenti adatte alle diverse caratteristiche del target di popolazione a cui questi percorsi sono specificamente rivolti. L’approccio “one-size-doesn’t-fit-all” implica la necessità di progettare e sviluppare interventi, di volta in volta, “cuciti su misura”. Il presente contributo intende: (i) proporre alcune linee guida che possano essere utili agli operatori nell’orientare la progettazione di interventi di educazione finanziaria “su misura”; (ii) presentare 2 distinti programmi che esemplifichino differenti modalità in cui le linee guida possono essere applicate.

Financial well-being is a positive financial condition that has an objective (e.g., income) and a subjective (e.g., financial satisfaction) side. Much research has examined financial well-being using cross-sectional and classic longitudinal designs. More recently, researchers have begun to examine financial well-being using intensive longitudinal designs, collecting data in a repeated (at least five measurements) and intensive (short time interval between measurements) way. The goal of the current study was to systematically review all published research on financial well-being using intensive longitudinal methods, summarize themes from this work, and suggest future research directions. Searching three databases (Scopus, PsycINFO, Econpapers), we found nine articles that respected inclusion and exclusion criteria. From each selected article, we extracted information about (1) research field diffusion, (2) data collection methods, (3) financial well-being’s definition and operationalization, (4) research questions addressed and (5) data analysis. Findings showed that most of the studies adopted an interval-contingent research design, collecting data once a day; that both the objective and subjective sides of the construct were assessed, and that, most of the time, the construct was conceptualized as financial stress (lack of financial well-being). Different kinds of research questions were addressed across studies and these were often analyzed using multilevel analysis. In the discussion section, future research directions are suggested.

Financial identity formed during emerging adulthood is important for the regulation of youth financial behaviors, decisions, and long-term financial goals. This three-wave short-term longitudinal study investigates how youth develop a distinct manner of approaching and managing personal finances and reveals the structure and dynamics of financial identity development during emerging adulthood. Using the cross-lagged panel model analysis, it also investigates longitudinal reciprocal associations between financial identity processes, financial behaviors, and financial well-being of emerging adults. The sample consists of 533 Lithuanian higher education students (56.8% women; Mage = 18.93, SDage = 0.71) who took part in three assessment waves. The findings support the use of the three-factor model of financial identity formation and show that financial identity formation is shaped by emerging adults’ financial situation and contribute to the formation of financial behaviors and financial well-being. Practical implications of study results are also discussed.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the factor structure, reliability, inter-rater agreement and convergent validity of the child and parent Italian versions of the paediatric quality of life inventory multidimensional fatigue scale (PedsQL-MFS) in paediatric inpatients with obesity and one of their parents. Methods: 100 pairs of children/adolescents (64% female, mean age = 15.34) with obesity and one of their parents completed the PedsQL-MFS and the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) or the Youth Self Report. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated that the three correlated first-order factors model corresponding to the published subscales demonstrated acceptable fit and achieved strict invariance across parent and child informants. Bifactor Analysis supported the multidimensionality and the reliability of the total and subscale scores as multidimensional composites. Parent–child agreement was low with latent means higher for parent reports. PedsQL-MFS total scores were strongly correlated with Somatic Complaints scores on the CBCL, and moderately associated with anxiety, depression, social problems and school problems. Conclusions: Total scores of the child and parent Italian versions of the PedsQL-MFS demonstrated good reliability and convergent validity in paediatric inpatients with obesity and their parents, and are complementary rather than interchangeable. Level of evidence: No level of evidence.

The present study, adopting an intensive longitudinal design, aims to describe (1) the daily change in financial well-being; (2) the relationship between the sub-dimensions of financial well-being – cognitive, behavioural, social, materialistic, tempo965 ral – and the relationship they have with financial stress; (3) the relationship that financial well-being and financial stress have with life satisfaction. Measures of financial well-being, financial stress and life satisfaction were administered to 158 Italian young adults (70.3% women) aged between 20 and 30 years (M = 25.09; SD = 2.46) over the course of 14 consecutive days. The descriptive analysis (indices, correlations, graphs) of the collected data made it possible to (1) prove that all dimensions of financial well-being have fluctuations from day to day; (2) recognize that financial stress should be considered as a sub-dimension of financial well-being; (3) demonstrate that both financial well-being and financial stress are related to life satisfaction.

Objective: The current study was aimed at exploring Italian parents' perceived negative and positive changes in family life during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account the role of the stage of the family life and family size. Background: During the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of families drastically changed their daily life and routines. Little evidence exists on how family characteristics, such as family size or presence of children, are related to families' experience of family change. Method: A large sample of 1,407 Italian parents (70.1% mothers) filled in an anonymous online survey during the third week of the lockdown period (between March 30 and April 7, 2020). Results: Results showed that parents reported perceiving more positive changes than negative ones, especially in terms of feeling more emotionally close to their children and spending more fun time with them. Interestingly, parents with two or more children reported more positive changes in family life compared with parents who had one child, showing a greater relational regenerative capacity in the face of COVID-19 lockdown. Conclusion and Implications: Investing in family relationships, especially for larger families, is an effective coping strategy to deal with traumatic situations and promote positive family changes in stressful situations.

The current study proposed the adaptation of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) to the religious domain as an instrument to measure both individuals' religious identity formation processes (when a variable-centered approach is adopted) and religious identity statuses (when a person-centered approach is adopted). The scale has been tested on a sample of 727 Italian participants aged 13-65 years, by collecting evidence of score structure, convergent, and criterion-related validity. Regarding the score structure validity, we confirmed that religious identity formation consists of three processes (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration of commitment) and that, by using these scores, individuals can be placed into five different religious identity clusters (achievement, diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, searching moratorium). As to the convergent and criterion-related validity, we tested the relationship that the three factors (religious identity formation processes) and the five clusters (religious identity statuses) have with religiousness and subjective well-being, respectively. Results indicate that the instrument is a promising tool to measure religious identity. Future studies should test this scale in other countries and with people from diverse religious traditions.

Nudges are changes in choice architecture (i.e., the environment in which people make decisions) aiming to steer a person's decision to a particular choice, without restricting alternative options or changing financial incentives. These strategies have been extensively used to promote healthy eating, above all among youths, whose behaviors can still be easily shaped compared to older people's. The current paper describes two studies aiming to investigate the effectiveness of nudging interventions in promoting healthy eating among university students. The first study consisted of a systematic review mapping all the published studies which describe the effectiveness of this kind of intervention worldwide. Twelve eligible records were selected after a search of three different databases. Information about the publication of the record, the adopted research methods and the described intervention was retrieved from each selected record. Based on this review's results, a new nudging intervention was developed to promote healthy food choice among Italian university students. The intervention aimed to modify students' choice for each of the Italian meal courses: first course (pasta, rice or soup), second course (meat, fish, cheese or cured meat), side dish, bread, and fruit. An Italian university cafeteria was observed in two phases: a pre-intervention phase (baseline) and a post-intervention phase (nudging strategies were implemented in the cafeteria's architecture). The applied nudging intervention was effective in promoting healthy choices in relation to the second course, the side dish, and the bread, but it did not significantly affect choices related to the first course or the fruit. Implications of these results and suggestions for future interventions are discussed.

The present research examined the association of perceived impact of COVID-19 on emerging adults’ perceptions of their future and the potential mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty on these associations. Specifically, we investigated the associations of perceived financial impact, needed resource impact, and psychological impact on perceptions of future life and financial future. Using online survey data from emerging adults (N = 1768) living in six countries (China, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and USA), we found that the perceived dimension of impact (i.e., finances, needed resources, and psychological) was negatively associated with perceptions of future life and financial future, despite mean level differences by country. The ability to tolerate uncertainty was a significant mediator only for psychological impact. We conclude the article with suggestions for applying our findings in the design of future interventions.

In this study we sought to collect evidence regarding the validity of the Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving (CIT), systematically reviewing studies that tested its psychometric properties (Study 1) and trying to replicate validity evidence collected across previous validation studies (Study 2). We found five studies that tested the validity of CIT scores through the collection of different kinds of evidence (score structure validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, incremental validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability). Results were often inconsistent across studies (especially for the score structure validity evidence). Using a sample of 483 Italian participants (63.0% female; aged 18–71 years), we replicated the tests performed in the previous validation studies. Findings suggest that the best fitting model is the one that (1) adds the overarching latent construct of thriving, which can be measured using the total scale score; and (2) merges the Skills and Flow factors in just one factor, named “Skills for Flow”. At the same time, the different kinds of validity evidence collected both in previous validation studies and in the current replication study indicate high overlap among thriving sub-dimensions and poor validity evidence. We concluded that the CIT in its present form is not an adequate instrument to assess thriving, thus mono-dimensional scales (e.g. Brief Inventory of Thriving) should be currently preferred. Suggestions to develop a multi-dimensional scale measuring thriving (both using a theory-driven approach or a data-drive approach) are discussed.

Several methods are available to answer questions regarding similarity and accuracy, each of which has specific properties and limitations. This study focuses on the Latent Congruence Model (LCM; Cheung, 2009), because of its capacity to deal with cross-informant measurement invariance issues. Until now, no cross-national applications of LCM are present in the literature, perhaps because of the difficulty to deal with both cross-national and cross-informant measurement issues implied by those models. This study presents a step-by-step procedure to apply LCM to dyadic cross-national research designs controlling for both cross-national and cross-informant measurement invariance. An illustrative example on parent–child support exchanges in Italy and Germany is provided. Findings help to show the different possible scenarios of partial invariance, and a discussion related to how to deal with those scenarios is provided. Future perspectives in the study of parent–child similarity and accuracy in cross-national research will be discussed.

The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples’ stress management processes. A couple’s resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals’ psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner’s dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners’ dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples’ coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples.

Self-regulation of learning (SRL) is a key psychological factor that supports young athletes aiming to reach the elite level by promoting their involvement in deliberate practice. We contributed to the validation of the Italian version of the Bartulovic et al. (2017) Self-Regulation of Learning – Self-Report Scale for Sport Practice by testing its factorial structure, reliability, and measurement invariance among elite and non-elite football players, involving 415 male professional, semi-professional, and amateur youth academy players (Mage = 16.2, SD = 1.51). The original six-factor structure (planning, reflection, effort, self-efficacy, self-monitoring, and evaluation) did not fit the data well and a five-factor solution (where self-monitoring and evaluation items load on the same factor, named “self-supervision”) was a better fit. This five-factor solution was measurement invariant across groups of elite and non-elite athletes. We found that elite athletes scored significantly higher than non-elite ones in each SRL subprocess. Implications for future validation studies and for the use of this tool are discussed.

The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures pose considerable challenges to psychological resilience and well-being. Researchers are now forced to look for resources to cope with negative experiences linked to this health emergency. According to the salutogenic approach proposed by Antonovsky, the sense of coherence (SOC) is a major source of resilience. Thus, this study aimed at assessing the role of SOC in moderating the link between illness experiences (in terms of knowing persons diagnosed with COVID-19 and fear of contracting COVID-19) and psychological well-being. 2,784 participants, taken from a large sample of the Italian population (65.4% females) and aged between 18 and 85 years, filled in an anonymous online survey during the 3rd week of the lockdown. Findings supported the moderating role of SOC in shaping the link between illness experiences and psychological well-being. Specifically, participants who knew at least one person diagnosed with COVID-19 showed lower levels of psychological well-being at low levels of SOC. The negative relation between participants’ fear of contracting COVID-19 and psychological well-being was stronger for those who showed higher levels of SOC. This study discusses the implications of these results for interventions aimed at reducing the pandemic’s detrimental effects and promoting resilience.

Current global economic instability has exacerbated the challenges of contemporary emerging adulthood and increased the urgency of examining financial instability as a life condition during this life stage. For this special issue, we assembled eight papers from different countries to examine how emerging adults are navigating financial instability. In the current introduction to the special issue, we identified the main themes that emerged from the collected studies: the role of family, emerging adults’ financial self-agency, financial disruptions and wellbeing, and the processes linking financial factors and positive development. Overall, these studies demonstrate that while the overall processes linking finances and development may be similar in different nations, the specificity of each context highlights the need to consider the important role of cultural norms and attitudes. We conclude this introduction, suggesting future research paths and implications for educators and practitioners that provide financial educators programs.