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The COVID-19 pandemic caused abrupt and profound changes to teaching and learning. The present study seeks to understand adolescents' experiences of the emergency adoption of online school learning (OSL) during the first national lockdown in Italy. Sixty-four students in their final two years of high school were interviewed and content analysis was performed. The findings describe students' views of the changes related to OSL according to structural, individual and relational dimensions. Schools' lack of organization, overwhelming demands, as well as experience of difficulties in concentration, stress and inhibited relationships with teachers and classmates were among the challenges evidenced in the transition. OSL, however, has also made it possible to experience a new flexibility and autonomy in the organization of learning. The study stresses the importance of fostering adaptation of teacher-student relationships and collaborative learning in order to improve schools' preparedness for digital transitions in and out of emergencies., Author(s): Iana Tzankova [sup.1] , Christian Compare [sup.1] , Daniela Marzana [sup.2] [sup.3] , Antonella Guarino [sup.1] , Immacolata Di Napoli [sup.4] , Alessia Rochira [sup.5] , Emanuela Calandri [sup.6] [...]

The aim of this work was to investigate the role of physical activity in protection from substance use in adolescence, focusing on the interdependence between the different relational micro-systems of the neighborhood, the school, the family, and the peer group. Interviews were conducted with 30 adolescents recruited through a theoretical sampling and divided into two groups (i.e., active and sedentary adolescents). The results of Grounded Theory showed that physical activity promoted the ability to plan and to express desires and emotions in a healthy way, providing protection from substance use. Unstructured activities didn't support adolescents in gaining a sense of responsibility.

This study investigates individual- and community-level factors that affect how people use People-Nearby Applications (PNAs) to meet people in their local communities. We pose that individuals' local social needs stimulate PNAs use, but that this relationship is contingent upon their neighborhood characteristics. A multiple informant methodology was used. 314 Italian and Dutch PNAs users answered an online questionnaire about their local social needs (bridging social capital, loneliness, sense of community) and their neighborhood social and environmental characteristics. Results show that community-related PNAs use facilitates users to meet their social needs when their local community offers opportunities for social interaction. When the neighborhood offers social places, the relationship between PNAS use and loneliness increases, indicating that in such cases people are willing to use PNAS to counter their loneliness. Furthermore, when neighbors are already more supportive, the relationship between sense of community and PNAS use becomes more negative, which may mean PNAS use cannot further add to a sense of community if the neighborhood already provides this; conversely, the one between bridging social capital and PNAS use becomes more positive. In sum, results show that PNAS use is related to local community experiences, albeit contingent upon the specific neighborhood characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 outbreak and the measures needed to contain its first wave of contagion produced broad changes in citizens' daily lives, routines, and social opportunities, putting their environmental mastery and purpose of life at risk. However, these measures produced different impacts across citizens and communities. Building on this, the present study addresses citizens' understanding of the rationale for COVID‐19‐related protective measures and their perception of their own and their community's resilience as protective dimensions to unravel the selective effect of nationwide lockdown orders. An online questionnaire was administered to Italian citizens during Italian nationwide lockdown. Two moderation models were performed using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) path analysis. The results show that the understanding of the rationale for lockdown only associated with citizens' purpose of life and that it represented a risk factor rather than a protective one. Furthermore, the interaction effects were significant only when community resilience was involved. That is, personal resilience did not show the expected moderation effect, while community resilience did. However, the latter varied between being either full or partial depending on the dependent variable. In light of the above, the theoretical and practical implications of these results will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of the first wave of COVID‐19 contagion, citizens all over the world experienced concerns for their safety and health, as well as prolonged lockdowns – which brought about limitations but also unforeseen opportunities for personal growth. Broad variability in these psychological responses to such unprecedented experiences emerged. This study addresses this variability by investigating the role of personal and community resilience. Personal resilience, collective resilience, community disaster management ability, provided information by local authorities, and citizens' focus on COVID‐19‐related personal concerns and lockdown‐related opportunities for personal growth were detected through an online questionnaire. Multilevel modelling was run with data from 3,745 Italian citizens. The potential of personal resilience as a driver for individuals to overcome adverse situations with positive outcomes was confirmed. Differently, the components of community resilience showed more complex paths, highlighting the need to pay more attention to its role in the face of far‐reaching adverse events which hardly test individuals' as well as communities' adaptability and agency skills. The complexities linked to the multi‐component and system‐specific nature of resilience, as well as potential paths towards making the most out of citizens' and communities' ones, emerge. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the impact of an increase in tourism in the Old Center of Naples, Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable town development and encourages participation, has undertaken the participatory action research described in this article. The inhabitants' sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) with regard to the distinctiveness of the area (Puddifoot, 1995) and its representation are also explored. The collection of socioenvironmental data (Arcidiacono, 1999), 15 semistructured interviews with key people, and photodialogue (Legewie, 2003) are followed by relational activities carried out together with local inhabitants and group associations in the area. The inductive analysis of the established categories and networks has been carried out with the aid of Atlas.ti. Our findings emphasize that the distinctiveness of the Center and the pride of belonging felt by its inhabitants are expressed ambivalently and negatively, evidence of the inhabitants' lack of a sense of community. (Contains 2 figures and 2 footnotes.)

The changes in teaching due to COVID‐19‐related restraints generated distress among teachers, putting their job‐related efficacy and satisfaction at risk. This study deepens the community‐related protective and risk factors in teachers' experience. An online questionnaire detecting social distancing burnout, job‐related distress experience, efficacy and satisfaction, and Sense of Community (SoC) was administered to 307 Italian teachers. A multiple mediation model was tested with Structural Equation Modeling. Evidence showed that social distancing burnout could increase teachers' distress rates and, through them, impact their job‐related efficacy and satisfaction; however, its effects on the latter depended on the kind of distress mediating. Conversely, SoC could support their job‐related efficacy and satisfaction, yet no association with their distress rates emerged. The role of social distancing and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)‐related distress as the main threats for teachers stems, along with the one of job distress and the community of belonging as assets on which teachers relied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reconstructed London' (UK) place identity in young Italian immigrants who have settled in this metropolitan city. The aim was to detect their representation of the hosting society and to investigate their migration experience. Interviews to 10 young Italian migrants (mean age: 27.7; SD: 4.084) were collected and analyzed through thematic analysis. The interviews showed that their individual and social identity had been influenced by the attitudes of the hosting context and its specific feature, highlighting the cultural richness of the town and its relational and work opportunities. Their hope for a decent job and the multicultural richness of the receiving town supported their settlement decision. However, their poor knowledge of the language and the little opportunity for effective acceptable decent work together with homesickness made this experience just a long-term temporary solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, scientific literature has highlighted the discomfort and delay of the transition to adulthood of the young generations of southern Italy. This article examines the experience of the current young generation, strongly disadvantaged by structural factors of their environment, like crime and unemployment, and by a familistic culture. This study involved 160 young people (age range = 18-34; sd = 4.242) living in the metropolitan area of Naples. They were asked to describe their emotional relations with their community of belonging, their family bonds and their aspirations for the future. Data were collected qualitatively and analyzed through a psychological textual analysis (Emotional Textual Analysis) aimed at capturing the emotionality through which these youths attribute meaning to their reality and make decisions. Results show a generation left alone with its goals; in fact, the presence of crime inhibits the ability to plan the future, while the family of origin is mostly focused on keeping the younger generations inside to defend themselves against the instability of the outside world. In these circumstances, relations with peers and higher education function exclusively as a condition of pervasive presentification, in which to continue living within the role of eternal young people and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work aimed to explore the building process of couple identity for stepcouples' partners. Fifteen Italian women and fifteen Italian men, engaged in a new couple's relationship after first-union separation or divorce, were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed through a Grounded Theory approach. Results showed that the first-union separation experience plays an important role in the process of stepcouple identity building, as it influences the priorities in individual organization of life, qualities, and expectations about new relationships, the importance attributed to individual, couple, and family boundaries, and the choice of the new partner. New functional stepcouple relationships are characterized by a strong sense of shared projects and purposes. This generative dimension, clearly perceived by interviewees as a fundamental characteristic of stepcouple identity, is a resource, in spite of complexity and challenges of stepcouples' life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article introduces the issue migration in the context: perspectives, methodology, and cultural issues. International migrations and their changing patterns pose new challenges to community social psychologists and new questions to be explored. Community psychologists' attention is necessary to develop a perspective about migration more suitable to effective interventions in global and local communities. Therefore, methods aimed at study migration issues should be implemented at micro-system, community, and national levels. Through this series of papers, we aim to contribute to the debate about how social and community psychologists can engage in community development strategies aimed at improving migrant well-being too. Indeed, they can give relevant contributions to the deepening of migration issues through research, methodologies, and interventions in different contexts and at different levels of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the association between citizens' perceptions of the effectiveness of the institutional response, their connection and responsibility to their community (Sense of Community—SoC; Sense of Community Responsibility—SoC‐R), and their personal and social concerns about the current emergency and their perceptions of a postpandemic future during the first COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown. Another variable considered was the personal reflexivity about the COVID‐19 pandemic. 3925 Italian adults completed an online questionnaire during the first COVID‐19 lockdown. A structural equation model with mediation was tested. Institutional effectiveness was associated with SoC, SoC‐R, current social concerns, and perceptions of a postpandemic future. SoC and SoC‐R were associated with current personal and social concerns, and perceptions of a postpandemic future. Reflexivity was negatively associated with SoC and positively associated with SoC‐R, mediating the relationships between SoC, SoC‐R and current personal and social concerns and perceptions of a postpandemic future. Findings indicate the need to adopt a perspective that considers individual and socio‐political levels and their interaction to better understand the impact of the pandemic during a national lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]