Alessia Teresa Virzì

Introduction: Existing studies highlight a positive correlation between pro-environmental (PEB) and pro-social behavior (PB) at the between-person level, yet overlook their reciprocal relations. This study took a within-person perspective to explore their day-to-day relations and the moderating role of self-transcendence values in strengthening such associations.Method: We employed a daily diary design and recruited 60 Italian young adults (Mean Age = 25.8; SD = 3.6; Women = 58%) who reported their behavior once a day over 21 days.Results: Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling, we found no significant day-to-day spillover effect of PB and PEB. However, we identified significant same-day positive associations, namely, on days when individuals engaged in PB, they also showed higher than usual levels of PEB. Additionally, we found positive carryover effects in both PB and PEB, suggesting that young adults are likely to persist in their daily prosocial and pro-environmental efforts. No significant cross-level interaction between self-transcendence values and the spillover effect from PB to PEB was found.Conclusion: The findings provide new insights into young adults’ daily engagement in prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors, highlighting the role of day-to-day within-person changes, while accounting for stable, between-person differences in behavioral and motivational tendencies.Keywords: Pro-environmental behavior, Prosocial behavior; Young adults; Experience Sampling Methods; Spillover; Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling.

Objective: Neurobehavioral disturbances often follow acquired brain injuries. Patients and family members may perceive these anomalies differently, and these discrepancies are difficult to interpret due to methodological constraints. We explored the differing perceptions of behavioral alterations in patients with severe acquired brain injury (sABI) and their caregivers using the Latent Difference Score (LDS) analysis. We also examined the relation between the behavioral ratings and demographic, injury, and functional variables. Method: Data from 154 patients with sABI in the post-acute phase and their caregivers were retrospectively analyzed. The BIRT Personality Questionnaire was used to assess behavioral disorders. Results: We examined four subscales: Lack of Motivation (LoM), Lack of Emotion Regulation (LoER), Negative Emotionality/Reactivity (NE), and Lack of Social Skills (LoSS). Patients generally tended to underestimate their problematic behaviors compared to their family members. Sex predicted patient/caregiver discrepancies in the LoM and LoER subscales, with male patients perceiving themselves as higher functioning than female patients. The scale measuring physical disability was not associated with patient/caregiver discrepancies, except for LoER, with family members' judgments of greater severity correlated with lower functional scores. Conclusions: Notable gaps emerged between subjective and family perceptions, particularly in motivation and social skills. The discrepancies were associated with sex differences. LDS is a promising tool for examining patient/caregiver discrepancies in patients with ABI.

The present chapter examines individual differences in emotionality and emotion regulation from a developmental perspective, considering the dispositional and endogenous characteristics of emotion-related processes and specific emotion regulation behaviors. Individual differences represent psychological, cognitive, and emotional aspects of individuals’ characteristics through the life span, developed from biological (i.e., heritable aspects) and contextual (i.e., non-heritable aspects) factors. Addressing individual differences in thinking, behaving, and experiencing emotions is crucial for studying psychological adjustment because these differences can explain how and why people follow adaptive or maladaptive pathways during their lives. Dispositionally, individual differences in emotion regulation conceive temperamental characteristics of emotionality, particularly negative emotionality tendencies, defined as individual differences in susceptibility to negative emotions (sadness, anxiety, fear, anger, or frustration) and the frequency of negative emotional responses. Another aspect that plays a fundamental role is individuals’ beliefs, conceptualized as self-efficacy beliefs, the ability to be a proactive actor in the context. Self-efficacy in emotion regulation is a complex process of initiating, avoiding, inhibiting, maintaining, or modulating internal feelings and different emotion-related components (i.e., physiological processes, cognition, and behavior), which can influence individuals’ adjustment. Regulatory emotional self-efficacy can mediate and affect the expression and modulation of emotions.

Self-regulatory self-efficacy belief (i.e., SRSE) represents a fundamental factor for adjustment in adolescence, as a vehicle to promote positive behaviors and protect youths from transgressions and maladjustment. Research attested that, during adolescence, boys are more vulnerable to externalizing behaviors than girls, especially when they perceive themselves as scarcely capable of managing and orienting their behaviors and when they possess impairments in impulsivity. Previous studies firmly supported the crucial role of SRSE, especially in the offline context in adolescence. Still, very few studies investigated its impact in the online context, although nowadays, the Internet represents one of the most significant environments for youths’ daily lives. Thus, we aimed to examine the protective moderating role of SRSE in online and offline aggressive behaviors beyond youths’ temperamental vulnerabilities, such as high impulsivity. A sample of 318 Italian adolescents (M_age = 15.21; SD = 0.51; 57% boys; 40% girls; 3% third gender) were asked to complete the Impulsivity Scale at Wave 1, online and offline aggressive behaviors scales at Wave 2, and SRSE at Wave 2. The multiple-group-by-gender moderation model evidenced that, for what concerns online aggression, beyond the direct effects of impulsivity in boys and girls, SRSE directly affected online aggression and mediated the effect of impulsivity in girls. In contrast, impulsivity significantly affected offline aggressive behaviors only indirectly through the impact of SRSE, and SRSE directly influenced these behaviors in both genders. These results hold for the effects of youth’s age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and years of education completed. This work preliminary evidenced that, contrary to previous studies which focused mainly on the vulnerability of boys to aggressive conduct, impulsivity had direct effects on online aggressive behaviors in girls, and SRSE can protect adolescents of both genders in the online context by predicting low online aggression and represents a protective factor from the indirect effects that impulsivity impairments can also have in the offline context.

Self-regulatory Self-efficacy belief (i.e., SRSE) represents a fundamental factor for adjustment in adolescence, as a vehicle to promote positive behaviors and protect youths from transgressions and maladjustment Bandura et al., 2003; LaRose et al., 2010). Research attested that, during adolescence, boys are more vulnerable to externalizing behaviors than girls, especially when they perceive themselves as scarcely capable of managing and orienting their behaviors, and when they possess impairments in impulsivity (Bandura et al., 2001; Muris, 2006). Previous studies firmly supported the key role of SRSE especially in the offline context in adolescence, but very few studies investigated its impact in the online context, although nowadays Internet represents one of the most significant environments for youths’ daily lives (LaRose et al., 2010; Favini et al., 2023). Thus, we aimed to examine the protective moderating role of SRSE in online and offline aggressive behaviors, beyond youths’ temperamental vulnerabilities, such as high levels of impulsivity. A sample of 318 Italian adolescents (Mage=15.21; SD=.51; 57% boys; 40% girls; 3% third gender) were asked to complete the Impulsivity Scale at Wave1, online and offline aggressive behaviors scales at Wave 2, and SRSE at Wave 2. Multiple-group-by-gender moderation model evidenced that, for what concerns online aggression, beyond the direct effects of impulsivity in boys and girls, SRSE directly affected online aggression and mediated the effect of impulsivity in girls. In contrast, impulsivity significantly affected offline aggressive behaviors only indirectly through the effects of SRSE, and SRSE directly influenced these behaviors in both genders. These results hold for the effects of youth’s age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and years of education completed. This work preliminary evidenced that, contrary to previous studies which focused especially on the vulnerability of boys to aggressive conduct, impulsivity had direct effects on online aggressive behaviors in girls, and SRSE can protect adolescents of both genders in the online context, by predicting low online aggression, and represent a protective factor from the indirect effects that im-pulsivity impairments can have also in the offline context.

Background: Youths' online problematic behaviors, such as smartphone or social network sites (SNS) addiction, gained increasing attention nowadays, due to their impact on concurrent and later adjustment, such as emotional and/or behavioral problems, academic impairments, or relational issues.Aims: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot school‐based intervention to contrast online addictive behaviors while fostering adolescents' self‐regulative abilities.Materials & Methods: The intervention started in January 2022 in an Italian junior high school located in Rome, and consisted of four meetings with students. A total sample of 462 15‐year‐old adolescents (M_age = 15.2; SD = 0.50; 41% females; N_control = 214; N_intervention = 248) was considered. Within the latent difference score framework, we examined short‐term changes from the pre‐to‐the‐postintervention levels of SNS and smartphone addiction, and self‐regulatory self‐efficacy (SRSE) beliefs as a possible booster of the intervention's effectiveness.Results: Results showed a significant decrease in both online addictions (SNS and smartphone addiction), controlling for age, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status, because of the short‐term efficacy of the project. The buffering effect of SRSE beliefs was further supported.Conclusion: These findings emphasized the usefulness of promoting youths' self‐regulative beliefs to contrast problematic tendencies, according to a Positive Youth Development perspective which focused on resources rather than only on the prevention of negative outcomes for youths' adjustment.