1,721,093 research outputs found
Influenze familiari nello sviluppo delle abilità numeriche precoci
No full textNumerosi studi negli ultimi due decenni hanno dimostrato come fin dall’età prescolare i bambini sviluppino ampiamente tanto sistemi di elaborazione automatica e intuitiva delle numerosità, quanto conoscenze aritmetiche formali. Lo sviluppo precoce di questi sistemi, interconnessi tra loro, predice a sua volta il futuro successo scolastico in matematica. In questo contributo presentiamo i risultati di alcuni lavori recenti che mostrano come attività molto semplici svolte nelle routine genitori-figli – come utilizzare numeri nelle conversazioni, misurare tempi e quantità, giocare con puzzle e blocchi per costruzioni – abbiano effetti positivi a distanza di tempo sullo sviluppo delle abilità numeriche.Research across the last two decades demonstrates that children develop both innate automatic systems for number representation and formal numerical knowledge well before they enter primary school. Early development of numeracy predicts in turn subsequent mathematics achievement in school. In this paper recent findings are described showing how routine activities in parent-child interactions – such as counting, measuring quantities or time, playing with puzzles or building-blocks – exert positive effects over time on the development of early numerical
skills in preschoolers
Weight-based teasing, body dissatisfaction, and eating restraint: Multilevel investigation among primary schoolchildren
Full text linkObjective: Weight-based teasing is a form of weight-based stigmatization that is especially prevalent in middle childhood, and is associated with undesired health outcomes, including body dissatisfaction and eating restraint. To date, this relation has been mainly investigated at individual level only. This study aimed to examine whether body dissatisfaction and eating restraint among primary schoolchildren relate not only to personal experiences of weight-based teasing, but also to the prevalence of weight-based teasing episodes in the classroom. Method: A sample of 744 primary schoolchildren (52.04% girls; M-age = 9.82 +/- .95) from 84 classes completed a survey regarding weight-based teasing, body dissatisfaction and eating restraint. Parent-reported anthropometric data were used to compute standardized Body Mass Index (zBMI). Results: Multilevel structural equation models highlighted that, at the individual level, weight-based teasing is indirectly associated with body dissatisfaction and eating restraint through weight-based teasing. A contextual effect of weight-based teasing at the classroom level also emerged in relation to eating restraint, but not to body dissatisfaction. Specifically, the prevalence of weight-based teasing in the classroom is associated with children's eating restraint-above and beyond personally experienced teasing episodes. Conclusions: Findings showed that weight-based teasing may be negatively associated with health and psychological wellbeing not only among children who experience weight-based teasing episodes, but also among other members of a class in which weight-based teasing is more prevalent. Programs to reduce weight-based stigma in middle childhood should consider the classroom as a primary target of intervention
Early pubertal development and deviant behavior: A three-year longitudinal study among early adolescents
No full textAccording to a life history perspective, deviant behaviors are predicted by fast life history strategies and early sexual maturation is considered a marker of the underlying fast life history strategy. The aim of the present three-year longitudinal study was to investigate the influence of early pubertal maturation on deviant behaviors among early adolescents. A sample of Italian early adolescents (n = 614; 51% were male participants) completed a survey questionnaire three times, in the second term of their first (Mage = 11.31, SD = 0.49), second, and third middle school grades. Using a parallel process latent growth curve model, the results revealed that baseline levels of early pubertal development did not predict change over time in deviant behavior. In addition, the rate of change of pubertal maturation did not predict change over time in deviant behavior. Finally, we found that the relationship between the rate of change of pubertal maturation and change over time in deviant behavior is moderated by baseline levels of deviant behavior. Overall, findings suggest that the notion of a direct relationship between early pubertal maturation and deviant behavior among early adolescents, in general, is not supported
Teachers’ sense of responsibility for educational outcomes. A study on the measurement properties of the Teacher Responsibility Scale in Italian primary and secondary school teachers
No full textLo studio presenta la traduzione italiana della Scala di Responsabilità dell’Insegnante (Teacher
Responsibility Scale, TRS) in un campione di insegnanti di scuola primaria e secondaria (N = 506). Lo strumento, basato su un modello multidimensionale di responsabilità dell’insegnante, comprende quattro sottoscale che valutano la responsabilità per la motivazione degli studenti, per i risultati degli studenti, per i rapporti con gli studenti e per l’insegnamento. I risultati delle Analisi Fattoriali Confirmatorie (CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis) supportano la struttura a quattro fattori della versione tradotta del TRS, con un’adeguata affidabilità per tutte le sottoscale e invarianza metrica del TRS per insegnanti di scuola primaria e media rispetto a insegnanti di scuola superiore. Il TRS italiano risulta quindi essere uno strumento affidabile e valido per valutare la responsabilità personale degli insegnanti per i risultati educativiThe study explored the measurement properties of an Italian translation of the Teacher Responsibility Scale (TRS) in a sample of primary and secondary school teachers (N = 506). The instrument, based on a multidimensional model of teacher’s responsibility, includes four subscales assessing responsibility for student motivation, student achievement, relationships with students, and teaching. Results from a series of Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) support the hypothesized four-factor structure of the back-translated version of the TRS, with adequate reliability for all subscales, and the metric invariance of the TRS for primary and middle school teachers compared to high school teachers. The Italian TRS appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess teachers’ personal responsibility for educational outcomes, both in basic and applied research in teacher evaluation, as well as in the internal school evaluation processes
Evaluating interventions with victims of intimate partner violence: a community psychology approach
Full text linkPurpose. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is one of the most common forms of domestic violence, with profound implication for women's physical and psychological health. In this text we adopted the Empowerment Process Model (EPM) by Cattaneo and Goodman (2015) to analyse interventions provided to victims of IPV by a Support Centre for Women (SCW) in Italy, and understand its contribution to women’s empowerment.
Method. We conducted semi-structured interviews with ten women who had been enrolled in a program for IPV survivors at a SCW in the past three years. The interviews focused on the programs’ aims, actions undertaken to reach them, and the impact on the women’s lives, and were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach.
Results. Results showed that the interventions provided by the SWC were adapted according to women's needs. In the early phases, women’s primary aim was ending violence, and the intervention by the SCW was deemed as helpful to the extent it provided psychological support, protection and safe housing. Women’s aims subsequently moved to self-actualisation and economic and personal independence which required professional training, internships, and social support. Although satisfying the majority of the women’s expectations, other important needs (e.g., economic support or legal services) were poorly addressed, and cooperation with other services (e.g., police or social services) was sometimes deemed as critical.
Conclusions. By evaluating a program offered by a SCW to IPV survivors through the lens of the EPM model, we found that women deemed the program as effective when both individual resources and empowerment processes were promoted. Strengths, limitations and implications are discussed
Exposure to Sexualized Advertisements Disrupts Children’s Math Performance by Reducing Working Memory
No full textSupportive error feedback fosters students' adaptive reactions towards errors : evidence from a targeted online intervention with Italian middle school students
Full text linkBackground: Although it is well established that students' adaptive reactions towards errors promote learning outcomes, little is still known about the role of error feedback in promoting these reactions. Aim: Through a targeted intervention based on an online teaching unit, this study aimed at testing whether supportive error feedback promotes more adaptive students' reactions towards errors and higher learning outcomes. Sample: A total of 250 (Mage = 12.18, SD = .89; 46.4% girls) Italian middle school students took part in the intervention. Students were randomly assigned to either a discouraging error feedback condition (n = 124) or a supportive error feedback condition (n = 126). Method: The intervention consisted of an online teaching unit, which students filled in at home, that was divided into pre-test, intervention and post-test phases. During the intervention, students replied to training questions and every time they made an error, informative feedback appeared: supportive smileys and sentences in the supportive feedback condition, and disappointed smileys and sentences in the discouraging feedback condition. Before the intervention, students filled in the pre-test and after the intervention, students reported their reactions towards errors and filled in the post-test. Results: Receiving supportive feedback resulted in more adaptive affective-motivational reactions towards errors, which in turn were related to more adaptive action reactions towards errors. Differently from our expectations, action reactions towards errors were not related to the post-test scores. Conclusions: Our findings can inform the development of online teaching units that promote an error-oriented approach
Less human and help-worthy: Sexualization affects children’s perceptions of and intentions toward bullied peers
No full textIn Western cultures, the sexualization of children has increased over the past decades. In two studies, we investigated the consequences of children’s sexualization for their peers’ willingness to provide help in a case of bullying. In both studies, children (total N = 396; ages 7 to 11 years) were randomly assigned to view either a sexualized or non-sexualized target and answered questions about the target’s traits and treatment. Our findings provide evidence that early sexualization exposes preadolescent children to the dehumanizing consequences associated with adult women’s sexualization. We found that sexualized targets were perceived as less than fully human in terms of both human nature and human uniqueness (Studies 1 and 2) and that, among girls, human nature ratings mediated the association between sexualization and reduced helping intentions toward both male (Study 2) and female targets (Studies 1 and 2)
The interplay between affective and cognitive factors in shaping early proficiency in mathematics
Full text linkPerforming math tasks is a complex process that requires the recruitment of many cognitive and affective factors.
Research on the interplay between cognitive and affective factors associated with math ability is surprisingly
scarce in primary school children. In the present study, we examined the contribution of both general and mathspecific
anxiety to math performance in a large sample of second-grade schoolchildren, and also their relation
with different measures of both domain-general (i.e., spatial and verbal working memory, intelligence) and
domain-specific cognitive correlates of math ability (i.e., different skills tapping the approximate number
system, ANS). Results revealed a negative relation between general anxiety (but not math anxiety) and math
performance, beyond the contribution of the cognitive abilities. Importantly, specific components of both verbal
working memory (i.e., digit span) and ANS (i.e., approximate addition) mediated the relation between general
anxiety and math performance. The educational implications of these findings are discussed
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