19 research outputs found
The influence of social support on the wellbeing of immigrants residing in Italy: Sources and functions as predictive factors for life satisfaction levels, sense of community and resilience
Moving from one country to another involves not only separation from the country of origin, but also the tiring process of integration into a new physical, institutional, and sociocultural context, which may expose migrants to acculturation stress. The loss of former support networks, or at the very least their transformation, presents immigrants with the need to rebuild their social support systems in the host country, involving an active search for support. Therefore, the aim of study is to analyze the structure of informal social support and its capacity to predict immigrants’ sense of community, resilience, and satisfaction with life. The results confirm that social support predicts satisfaction with life, sense of community, and resilience. Our findings highlight the way sources and frequency of support, and the satisfaction with which they are associated, have different degrees of predictive value on the dependent variables under investigation. In this study, it can be concluded that social support is an important factor in the well-being of migrants and their integration into the host community. The results have an important practical value in promoting interventions that improve immigrants’ support networks and, consequently, increase their satisfaction with life, sense of community, and resilience
Cultural identification, perceived discrimination and sense of community as predictors of life satisfaction among foreign partners of intercultural families in Italy and Spain: A transnational study
The aim of this paper was to analyze how cultural identification, perceived discrimination and the sense of community are related to life satisfaction among foreign partners in intercultural families. The study compared 105 and 95 foreign partners in mixed families resident in Italy and Spain, respectively. The phenomenon in both countries displays similar sociodemographic aspects. In contrast to Social Identity Theory, the results show that in both groups the foreign partner's identification with their own ethnic-‐cultural group is not associated with life satisfaction, nor does it increase perceived discrimination. In turn, increased perceived discrimination leads to a decreased sense of community and life satisfaction among foreigners. Regarding religion, interreligious couples in Italy perceive more discrimination than mono-‐religious couples. Finally, we found that a low sense of discrimination and a strong sense of community is related to life satisfaction among mixed families in both groups. The implications of the study are described and suggestions for future research discussed
Participation as a mechanism to favour psychological empowerment and positive interaction: The “Ágora Infantil” participatory democracy programme
This investigation aims to show the relationship between
participation and psychological empowerment and between
participation and interaction under an institutional
political participation programme. This initiative known as
Ágora Infantil (AI) is characterised by an obligatory draw‐
based deliberative participation methodology with superordinate
goals based on group dynamics, with games
playing a central role. The evaluation was carried out using
a quasi‐experimental design, with quantitative measurements
of the experimental and control groups, along with
systematic observation of the target group. The results
support the hypotheses proposed: Participation in the AI
programme led to an increase in psychological empowerment
and positive interactions between the participants.
These results offer information as to what design should
be used for these types of political initiatives to favour
inclusion and empowerment of children, while at the same
time improving classroom relationships
How to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Abduction is the solution to pseudo-empiricism
Few scholars can be said to have provided the scientific community with such a
clear and simple idea that also has the disruptive power to outline a paradigm shift
in psychology. Jan Smedslund is one of them, having given us the notion of
Pseudoempirical Research (Smedslund 1991; see also 1982, 1988, 1992, 1995,
2016). Pseudoempirical research is the research that empirically tests a hypothesis
that can be known from reasoning on what is conceptually implied by the knowledge
grounding the hypothesis itself.
“The sum of a triangle’s angles is 180°” is a paradigmatic instance of a priori and
noncontingent proposition provided by Smedslund. Research aimed at measuring
the angles of a triangle would be pseudoempirical because it is already known that
their sum is 180° since this is logically implied in the definition of triangle itself