Paola Magnano

This study examined the effectiveness of a career counselling training program designed to promote sustainable career development among university students. Grounded in a multidimensional view of sustainable careers, the intervention aimed to enhance key personal and contextual resources for sustainable career and its domains: health, happiness, productivity and social empowerment. A quasi‐experimental pre‐post design with follow‐up and a control group was used. Results demonstrated significant improvements across the resources supporting all four domains for participants in the training group. A significant multivariate Group × Time interaction confirmed the comprehensive and progressive gains associated with the intervention. Findings indicate that university‐based career counselling can effectively support student well‐being, integration and future‐oriented career planning, highlighting its value as a preventive and developmental approach for fostering sustainable career trajectories.

Background/Objectives: Hope plays an important role in coping with difficulties and is predictive of resilience, improving the skills necessary to sustain life plans and well-being, and overcoming stressful situations in adulthood and especially in older age adults. We hypothesised that the dimensions of hope, including spirituality, are connected to personal, educational, and contextual conditions, and play a mediating role in fostering resilience and well-being after stressful events; this mediating role might differ in adulthood and among the elderly. Methods: The sample consisted of 100 adults without severe pathologies and living in their own homes, aged between 50 and 86 years (M = 66.08; SD = 8.48). They completed an online survey that included the Stress Event scale, the Comprehensive State Hope Scale, the Resilience Scale for Adults, and the Well-being Profile. The data were analysed using SPSS and JAMOVI software, applying the following statistical tests: t-test, ANOVA and mediational model. Results: Stressful events influence resilience and well-being differently in adulthood and old age, with non-significant differences due to gender and living conditions. Hope mediates between stress resulting from negative life events and resilience and well-being, but this mediation involves different hope components for adults (trust) and older adults (self-realisation and perception of social support in interpersonal relationships). Spirituality is a non-significant mediator in both age stages. Conclusions: Appropriate psychological and psychosocial supports are needed to enhance the mediating potential of hope between stressful events and resilience. The results of our study help clarify which components of hope specifically promote resilience in different conditions of normal old age, differentiating them from those more beneficial for adults.

Sense of community has emerged as a pivotal factor in enhancing well‐being. Universities are small communities where students develop academic skills and personal networks, and where the degree of integration and perceived support significantly influence various aspects of the educational experience. However, little consideration was given to the measure of the specific sense of community of university students. While existing instruments assess communities at the school classroom level, they often overlook the broader university context. Literature provides a Scale of Sense of Community in university online courses (SSC‐UOC), but its applicability to face‐to‐face environments remains untested. The present study aims to adapt the SSC‐UOC for measuring university students' sense of community in face‐to‐face university contexts (Study 1) and to examine how the sense of community relates to well‐being, satisfaction and risk of drop‐out (Study 2), addressing a key gap in understanding the role of community in shaping university experiences. A sample of 439 Italian university students was involved. The results demonstrate the validity and reliability of the specific University Students' Sense of Community Scale (US‐SoC) and reveal that academic satisfaction mediates the relationship between the sense of community and outcomes, including well‐being, intentions to withdraw and stress among university students. Finally, the study emphasises the importance of considering the relationships between psychosocial variables such as the sense of community and academic success in actions aimed at supporting the well‐being of university students.

Nowadays, the economic and social environment is characterized by changes and unstable global conditions that lead individuals to actively adapt to frequent changes. Although the impact may vary across sectors and geographical areas, current global conditions affect decent work. The Life Design paradigm and the Career Construction Theory emphasize the role of career resources, such as career adaptability, to help individuals advocate for themselves and their communities in their search for decent and meaningful work and promote their life satisfaction. This study examined the relationship between career adaptability and life satisfaction through the mediational role of decent work and meaningful work. A total of 706 Italian adults (269 males and 437 females), ages ranging from 18 to 53 years (M = 24.48; SD = 4.01), were involved. Results demonstrated that career adaptability was directly and indirectly linked to life satisfaction through the mediational role of decent work and meaningful work. The results highlighted the relevance of career interventions on career adaptability to positively impact decent and meaningful work and, in turn, life satisfaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic was marked by restrictions on interpersonal contact, both at work and in the personal sphere, and significantly impacted the psychological health and subjective well-being of the global population. Among the risk factors, COVID-19 exhaustion negatively influenced well-being. Among the protective factors, adopting a future-time perspective correlates with positive well-being indicators in the literature. Our study aimed to assess whether 'psychological long COVID-19' may exist 2 years after the pandemic's onset. Participants were 649 young Italians aged 18–35 years. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that, in 2023, COVID-19 exhaustion still influences the intention to maintain social distancing and life satisfaction. Furthermore, a positive future orientation negatively predicted COVID-19 exhaustion, suggesting that the former may be a protective factor for the pandemic’s negative biopsychosocial effects. The findings underscore the role of promoting personal resources from positive psychology in enhancing protective factors in adverse situations and improving psychosocial well-being.