Sports, executive functions and academic performance: a comparison between martial arts, team sports, and sedentary children

It is well known that curricular physical activity benefits children’s executive functions and academic performance. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether there is an influence of extracurricular sports on executive functions and academic performance. However, it is less known which specific types of the sport better enhance executive functions in children; to investigate this issue, this study compared the performance on executive functions tasks and academic performance in one hundred and two boys and girls with an average age of 11.84 years recruited from Italian schools and gyms (N = 102), who participated in martial arts or team sports or were sedentary children. Executive functions were measured with the tests: Attenzione e Concentrazione, Digit Span test, Tower of London, IOWA Gambling task BVN 5-11, and BVN 12-18. Results demonstrated that children practicing martial arts showed better executive functioning and higher school marks than those involved in team sports or not involved in any sports. Furthermore, participants aged 12 to 15 years old outperformed in cool and hot executive functions tasks and had a better academic perfor-mance. Thus, the present findings supported the view that regular practice of extracurricular sports enhances executive functions development and consequently influences academic performance

The Psychological Impact of Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Survey on a Sample of Italian Undergraduates

The COVID-19 pandemic created a risk to all educational system levels, ranging from primary to university grades, due to social restriction measures of isolation worldwide. Switching from the traditional educational system to Online Learning (OL) was challenging for many undergraduates due to the lack of Internet connectivity or digital devices and a suitable home study environment. Therefore, a survey study on a sample of 1069 undergraduates (78.5% female; Mage = 21.72; SD = 4.05) investigated the interrelation among psychological skills for managing learning habits and strategies, academic achievement, social interaction, and mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic was performed. Results showed a significant effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on study variables related to online learning due to individual differences in self-efficacy, academic motivation, and anxiety. Moreover, university students reported higher physical and mental health problems since the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant psychological impact. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The Switch to Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Interplay between Personality and Mental Health on University Students

The switching from traditional to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for students, determining an increase in physical and mental health problems. The current paper applied a two-step cluster analysis in a large sample of n = 1028 university students (Mage = 21.10 years, SD = 2.45 years; range: 18–30 years; 78.4% females). Participants responded to an online survey exploring neuroticism, trait/state anxiety, general self-efficacy, academic motivation, fear of COVID-19, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical and mental health, and the help requests. Results showed two significant clusters of students having a Maladaptive Academic Profile (n = 456; 44.4%) or an Adaptive Academic Profile (n = 572; 55.6%). Significant differences were found between the two clusters, where students belonging to the Maladaptive Academic Profile reported higher levels of neuroticism, higher dispositional and situational anxiety, and fear of COVID-19, and lower self-efficacy and academic motivation than students of the Adaptive Academic Profile cluster. In addition, more physical or mental health problems and help requests, mainly to partners during the COVID-19 pandemic, were found in the Maladaptive Academic Profile cluster compared to the Adaptive Academic Profile. Finally, the practical implications of the study’s results in implementing university counseling services as protective measures to contrast psychological distress in the long-term COVID-19 pandemic are discussed

The scale of personal conceptions of intelligence: A comparison of the Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian versions

Background: The aim of this research project was to conduct studies of confirmatory factor analyses of ECPI (Scale of Personal Conceptions of Intelligence) in three different cultural contexts - Italy, Portugal and Romania. We hypothesized a bi-factor structure of the instrument constructed in Portugal by Faria (1990; 2006). Method: 617 subjects, 222 Italian, 200 Portuguese, and 195 Romanian students participated in the study, attending high school, equally distributed according to their gender and socioeconomic status. We administered the ECPI composed of 26 items, of which 15 static and 11 dynamic. Results: In the three cultural contexts the results revealed the existence of 7 items, one measuring the incremental and 6 the static theory, with low factor loadings - inferior to .30. These results convinced us to test a new model eliminating these 7 items. Therefore, even if the fit of the model improved, this could not be considered a satisfactory result. Conclusions: Future research could include more in depth analyses of linguistic properties of items which compose the static sub-scale, in order to find better operationalizations of the static personal conceptions of intelligence. © 2011 Associazione Oasi Maria SS