Tatiana Begotti

Background. Climate change worry is an increasingly relevant emotional response among young adults. However, less is known about the psychosocial predictors of climate change worry and whether these associations differ by level of environmental activism engagement. Objective. This study examined psychosocial predictors of climate change worry in Italian young adults, focusing on mental health, personality traits, perceived individual and social norms, and individual and collective climate self-efficacy. A secondary aim compared more engaged versus less engaged participants. Method. Using convenience and snowball sampling via social media and word of mouth, 302 Italian young adults aged 18–35 years (M = 24.20, SD = 3.73; 62% female) completed an online survey. Group differences were tested using one-way ANOVAs. Multiple regression analyses were conducted separately in the more engaged (EAMORE) and less engaged (EALESS) groups to identify predictors of climate change worry. Results. EAMORE reported significantly higher climate change worry than EALESS. In EAMORE, climate change worry was predicted by mental health, collective self-efficacy, and perceived individual and social norms. In EALESS, climate change worry was predicted by mental health and perceived individual and social norms, whereas collective self-efficacy was not significant. Conclusions. Climate change worry appears to reflect a combination of well-being and normative/efficacy-related processes, with different patterns depending upon the level of activism engagement. Supporting effective coping strategies may help reduce the emotional burden associated with sustained engagement.

In recent decades, environmental health has become a significant public and policy issues. While adults often show cognitive dissonance towards environmental issues (EIs), young people are most likely to become angry and demand more information. Despite sharing commonalities, young people are not homogeneous; their cognitive and emotional abilities vary by developmental stage, affecting their attitudes towards climate change. Like adults, young people react differently to climate change, influencing their daily pro-environmental behaviour and perceived well-being. Thus, climate threats are not primarily about self-centred concerns but about the well-being of others, such as future generations, people in developing countries, and nature. These concerns can, in the worst case, turn into eco-anxiety, a phenomenon that can be a deterrent factor for pro-environmental behaviour adoption. Education is a key factor in moving towards a sustainable future. Formal and non-formal approaches should be considered. This chapter focuses on youth responses to climate change and explores educational tools that can be used to promote pro-environmental behaviour. The goal of this chapter is to analyse the issues surrounding EIs and examine which educational tools can be used to promote pro-environmental behaviour.

Improving teachers’ knowledge and skills in dealing with adolescent suicidality may be important for prevention. We evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a theatre-based gatekeeper teacher training for adolescent suicide prevention (SPES project). Self-reported changes in knowledge and self-efficacy were also investigated. Based on a quasi-experimental repeated measures design, secondary schools were invited to participate in one of two intervention groups (theatre workshop or attending a theatre performance) or a control group (no intervention). Assessments were conducted prior to the intervention, shortly following it and 3 months later. Attendance and retention were indicators of feasibility. Knowledge and self-efficacy were assessed longitudinally using anonymous questionnaires. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models. 191 teachers (84.3% women; Mage = 46.8, SD = 9.8) participated in the study (63 workshop, 66 performance and 62 control group). Attendance was 92% in the workshop group and 94% in the performance group. The retention rate after three months was 51% in the workshop group and 53% in the performance group. Teachers in both groups reported greater knowledge of adolescent suicide (p < 0.001) and higher gatekeeper self-efficacy (p < 0.05) than the control group. The SPES project was found to be feasible and acceptable. Both the workshop and the performance viewing may improve teachers’ knowledge and self-efficacy in recognizing signs of suicide risk in adolescents.

The aim of this study was to analyze physical and psychological symptoms, anxiety and depression, and coping strategies in a group of Italian Health Care Professional who were victims of stalking. Nurses, who are primarily involved in the physical care of patients, were compared with other types of Health Care Professionals. For research purposes, we queried a database used in previous research between 2014 and 2019. This database was created in collaboration with six hospitals in the Italian territory. 1,971 health professionals between the ages of 18 and 60 who completed an anonymous questionnaire, including 265 self-identified stalking victims (116 nurses), provided the data. The results suggest that Nurses and Health Care Professionals are equally at risk of stalking, with experiences not differing significantly by role. The data collected to date suggests that Nurses are no more likely to be victims than Health Care Professional with other roles. Overall, it appears that all victims suffer from the stalking experience and have negative feelings that affect their ability to deal with the stalker. Health care organizations can assist health care professionals by offering informational courses about the phenomenon. At the same time, strategies could be offered to address potential misconduct that, if not prevented, may lead to an escalation in the number and severity of behaviors.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between different coping strategies and physical and emotional consequences, depressive symptoms, state anxiety, and trait anxiety, distinguishing between victims with previous offline victimization experiences (e.g., bullying, domestic violence) and those without such experiences. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed in a snowball system to more than 700 young adults in Italy. A total of 689 individuals completed the instrument. Of these, 305 participants (44%) reported having been victims of at least one form of cyberstalking. A total of 201 participants (66% of victims) reported having experienced both cyberstalking and other forms of victimization in their lifetime, while 89 (29% of victims) reported having experienced only cyberstalking. Overall, the results of this study show that victims with previous victimization had significantly higher scores on physical, emotional, depressive, and anxiety symptoms than victims who had never been victimized. In addition, results showed that victims who have been victimized before are more likely to use all three strategies (proactive, avoidant, passive) to stop cyberstalking than victims who have never been victimized. The results of this study may be useful in developing interventions to mitigate the effects of cyberstalking and prevent future victimization.

Suicide is a leading cause of death all over the world. Suicide prevention is possible and should be pursued through a variety of strategies. The importance of the arts for positive health outcomes has been increasingly evidenced. This scoping review aimed to identify the possible role of the performing arts—defined as a type of art performed through actions such as music, dance, or drama executed alive by an artist or other participant in the presence of an audience,—in suicide prevention programs. PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ProQuest Psychology Database, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched using terms in English for publications of original studies that included performing arts in suicide prevention programs. Thirty-five studies conducted between 1981 and 2021 were identified, of which only five were randomized clinical trials and four quasi-randomized studies. Interventions used different performing arts to improve awareness, self-efficacy, and soft skills relevant to suicide prevention. Studies were addressed mainly to gatekeepers but also directly to at-risk populations. While the study designs do not allow inferences to be drawn about the effectiveness of performing arts in preventing suicide, the review found that performing arts have been successfully implemented in suicide prevention programs. Research to evaluate the possible therapeutic benefit is warranted.

Cyberstalking is a behavior in which an individual, group, or organization uses information technology to harass one or more people, with possible consequences for the victims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of cyberstalking in terms of physical and emotional consequences, depression, anxiety symptoms, attitudes toward telling of cyberstalking experiences, and coping strategies, comparing young adult victims of known cyberstalkers with those harassed by strangers. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 689 individuals. Of these, 242 victims were included in the analysis: 115 victims of unknown (UC) and 127 of known cyberstalkers (KC). The results emphasize that victims of KC more often reported fatigue as a physical symptom and sadness and lack of trust in others as emotional symptoms. In addition, scores for depressive symptoms and anxiety did not differ significantly between the two groups, whereas significantly higher scores for trait anxiety were found among victims of KC. Finally, victims of KC were significantly more inclined to use alcohol and drugs, reduce social contact with friends, buy a weapon, and try to reason with the cyberstalker, while victims of UC were more inclined to block online contact and ask a social network administrator to intervene. Implications of the findings were discussed, such as the need to intervene immediately and to promote victims’ ability to seek help.

The climate crisis poses a serious threat to the health and well-being of individuals. For many, climate change knowledge is derived from indirect exposure to information transmitted through the media. Such content can elicit a variety of emotional responses, including anger, sadness, despair, fear, and guilt. Worry and anxiety are especially common responses, usually referred to as “climate anxiety”. The main objectives of this study were to analyze how exposure to climate change through the media relates to climate anxiety and individual and collective self-efficacy, and to evaluate the relationship between climate anxiety and efficacy beliefs. A total of 312 Italian university students (aged 18–26 years) participated in the research by filling out an anonymous questionnaire. Participants reported being exposed several times per week to information about climate change, especially from social media, newspapers, and television programs. Moreover, the results showed that the attention paid to information about climate change was not only positively related to climate anxiety, but also to individual and collective self-efficacy. Most notably, participants’ efficacy beliefs were found to be positively related to climate anxiety. This somewhat controversial finding stresses that, in the context of pro-environmental behavior changes, a moderate level of anxiety could engender feelings of virtue, encouraging people to rethink actions with negative ecological impacts.

The study is aimed at examining the relationship between emotional and self-regulated learning self-efficacy, subjective well-being (SWB) and positive coping among adolescents and youths, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. 485 Italian students (74% girls; mean age 19.3) filled in an online questionnaire during the lockdown period. The hypothesized model in which both the forms of self-efficacy were predictors of SWB and positive coping, and SWB partially mediated the relation between self-efficacy measures and positive coping was tested by means of Structural equation modeling. Results largely supported the hypothesized relationships and suggested paying special attention to adolescents’ self-efficacy in regulating basic negative emotions, in order to promote positive coping strategies to face challenges coming from everyday life and from non-normative events.

Aims: In the last decade, the use of smartphones, computers and devices has progressively increased, and prolonged use of technology and the internet has generated new arenas (and tools) for victimization. The first aim of this study was to analyze the use of coping strategies in young adult self-declared victims of cyberstalking. The coping strategies were categorized as proactive behavior, avoidance tactics and passivity. To better understand these strategies, they were analyzed in light of the experience of victimization in terms of incurred misconduct. The second aim was to analyze the coping strategies and the consequences (in terms of depression and anxiety) that occurred in victims; a comparison was made between males and females. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to over 433 young adults living in Italy. The questionnaires were filled out by 398 (92%) subjects, 41% males and 59% females. Their ages ranged from 18 to 30 years (M = 23.5, SD = 2.76). Respondents took part on a voluntary basis and did not receive any compensation (or extra credit) for their participation. Results: Findings from this investigation confirmed that among victims, females were more prone than males to experience cyberstalking (respectively, 65% and 35%), with females experiencing a higher percentage of more than one form of cyberstalking behavior than males. Young adult male victims used the internet principally for online gaming, and for this activity, they experienced more cyberstalking behavior than females. In most cases, the perpetrator was a male, and the victim–cyberstalker relationship was a friendship or an acquaintance. For the coping strategies adopted, the findings indicated that the victims were more prone to use avoidance tactics than proactivity behavior and passivity strategies. Young adults involved in this investigation mainly used avoidance tactics to cope with the stressful situation, which implies that they preferred to decrease the use of the internet or stop online contact than collect evidence and try to contact and reason with the cyberstalker or increase the misuse of alcohol of psychotropic substances. Moreover, females were less prone to use proactive behavior than expected. Our findings suggested that males were more prone than females to adopt passivity strategies, while females were more prone to adopt avoidance tactics. Moreover, the data showed that proactivity behavior was adopted more in the case of online contacts and online identity fraud, while passivity strategies were adopted in the case of online threats. Conclusion: Findings from this investigation show the importance of improving the knowledge about the coping strategies that could be suggested to victims and the impact on their psychological health.