THE BEHAVE APPLICATION: AN EVIDENCE-BASED TOOL TO MANAGE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES

Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) are a persistent and multiple manifestation of maladaptive behaviours which interfere with the students’ learning, social functioning and development and/or that of their peers. They may become apparent through withdrawn, passive, aggressive or self-injurious tendencies. The prevalence of these disorders is 2-16% of the general population. Children with SEBD, diagnosed or not, are likely to live in social isolation, to receive a poor education, and they risk becoming deviant teenagers, or unemployed adults. A way to approach SEBD with consistent level of educational success is to equip teachers with proper training on practical and proven classroom management strategies, but also with evidence-based tools that can help them to effectively control difficult behaviours with confidence and competence. This contribution presents the web-based BEHAVE application aimed to ease the way for teachers to apply behavioural evidence-based interventions at school. The paper describes the main features of the BEHAVE application: the definition of the behaviour to be observed, the creation and selection of appropriate measures, the collection of behavioural data, and the statistical analysis to evaluate the direction and the power of the effect of the carried-out intervention

THE BASE SYSTEM: A SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT TOOL TO FACILITATE EVIDENCE-BASED DIGITAL INTERVENTION PRACTICES

The Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support system is a framework aimed to introduce a change at school-wide level. It promotes a disciplinary system change process, from a reactive punishment- based strategies of specific student misbehaviours to a proactive system, where different behavioural principles such as the modelling and reinforcement of positive prosocial students’ behaviours are applied to improve school values and to create a positive climate. This paper presents the Behavioural Assessment to improve School Environment (BASE) system and the BASE repository. The BASE system supports evidence-based digital intervention practices for stimulating the academic, social, emotional, and behavioural competencies of all students. The BASE repository is a collection of good practices, tools, and instructional contents. Both of the tools are able to support and facilitate, through the use of mobile devices and a web-based responsive system, different prevention and instructional practices at the three-tiers PBS model. At the first level of prevention (Tier 1) the system allows to the school PBS team to define the Expectation Matrix, a set of positive behaviours grouped according to predefined school values and locations. Moreover, the PBS team members are able to define the list of problem behaviours, classifying them in minor and major. The matrix and the list of minor and major problem behaviours are at the base of the development of a screening tool for identifying behavioural risk problems, the Positive Office Referral and the Office Disciplinary Referral tools. At the target prevention level (Tier 2) the BASE application provides the Check-in/Check-out (CICO) tool, as PBIS recommends. It is addressed to a targeted group of students, resulted unresponsive to the Tier I, and implements the practice of ‘Positive reinforcement contingent on meeting behavioural goals’ throughout a reward system. At the intensive prevention level (Tier 3) the system allows users to perform Functional Behaviour Assessment for students considered unresponsive to Tier I and II and to create customized measurement tools for designing single case studies. The measure can be assigned to the observers able to collect data and organize them in phases. A TAU analysis algorithm is applied to the gathered data for showing the effectiveness of intervention. In the BASE application, each student can access to the system with personal credentials and to visualize his significant progresses into a smart dashboard. The BASE repository represents a hub for digital resources collection concerning both theoretical and methodological aspects of the PBIS approach. The Internet users interested to know the European experience of the involved partner schools, and to enlarge their knowledge about the principles to implement the PBIS in their own school, can find a first set of multimedia contents, webinars, collection of good practices gathered during the lifespan of the European Erasmus+ BASE project. The repository facilitates the finding of high-quality contents and represents a learning corner and an important knowledge repository for teachers and health professionals to understand and apply this approach

Contextual factors predicting compliance behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: A machine learning analysis on survey data from 16 countries

Voluntary isolation is one of the most effective methods for individuals to help prevent the transmission of diseases such as COVID-19. Understanding why people leave their homes when advised not to do so and identifying what contextual factors predict this non-compliant behavior is essential for policymakers and public health officials. To provide insight on these factors, we collected data from 42,169 individuals across 16 countries. Participants responded to items inquiring about their socio-cultural environment, such as the adherence of fellow citizens, as well as their mental states, such as their level of loneliness and boredom. We trained random forest models to predict whether someone had left their home during a one-week period during which they were asked to voluntarily isolate themselves. The analyses indicated that overall, an increase in the feeling of being caged leads to an increased probability of leaving home. In addition, an increased feeling of responsibility and an increased fear of getting infected decreased the probability of leaving home. The models predicted compliance behavior with between 54% and 91% accuracy within each country’s sample. In addition, we modeled factors leading to risky behavior in the pandemic context. We observed an increased probability of visiting risky places as both the anticipated number of people and the importance of the activity increased. Conversely, the probability of visiting risky places increased as the perceived putative effectiveness of social distancing decreased. The variance explained in our models predicting risk ranged from < .01 to .54 by country. Together, our findings can inform behavioral interventions to increase adherence to lockdown recommendations in pandemic conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Predictors of enhancing human physical attractiveness: Data from 93 countries

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from mating market and parasite stress perspectives, in a large cross-cultural sample. We also test hypotheses drawn from other influential and non-mutually exclusive theoretical frameworks, from biosocial role theory to a cultural media perspective. Survey data from 93,158 human participants across 93 countries provide evidence that behaviors such as applying makeup or using other cosmetics, hair grooming, clothing style, caring for body hygiene, and exercising or following a specific diet for the specific purpose of improving one physical attractiveness, are universal. Indeed, 99% of participants reported spending >10 min a day performing beauty-enhancing behaviors. The results largely support evolutionary hypotheses: more time was spent enhancing beauty by women (almost 4 h a day, on average) than by men (3.6 h a day), by the youngest participants (and contrary to predictions, also the oldest), by those with a relatively more severe history of infectious diseases, and by participants currently dating compared to those in established relationships. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviors was social media usage. Other predictors, in order of effect size, included adhering to traditional gender roles, residing in countries with less gender equality, considering oneself as highly attractive or, conversely, highly unattractive, TV watching time, higher socioeconomic status, right-wing political beliefs, a lower level of education, and personal individualistic attitudes. This study provides novel insight into universal beauty-enhancing behaviors by unifying evolutionary theory with several other complementary perspectives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Predictors of enhancing human physical attractiveness: Data from 93 countries

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from mating market and parasite stress perspectives, in a large cross-cultural sample. We also test hypotheses drawn from other influential and non-mutually exclusive theoretical frameworks, from biosocial role theory to a cultural media perspective. Survey data from 93,158 human participants across 93 countries provide evidence that behaviors such as applying makeup or using other cosmetics, hair grooming, clothing style, caring for body hygiene, and exercising or following a specific diet for the specific purpose of improving ones physical attractiveness, are universal. Indeed, 99% of participants reported spending &gt;10 min a day performing beauty-enhancing behaviors. The results largely support evolutionary hypotheses: more time was spent enhancing beauty by women (almost 4 h a day, on average) than by men (3.6 h a day), by the youngest participants (and contrary to predictions, also the oldest), by those with a relatively more severe history of infectious diseases, and by participants currently dating compared to those in established relationships. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviors was social media usage. Other predictors, in order of effect size, included adhering to traditional gender roles, residing in countries with less gender equality, considering oneself as highly attractive or, conversely, highly unattractive, TV watching time, higher socioeconomic status, right-wing political beliefs, a lower level of education, and personal individualistic attitudes. This study provides novel insight into universal beauty-enhancing behaviors by unifying evolutionary theory with several other complementary perspectives

Differenziazione dalle figure genitoriali: il caso dei contenuti degli stereotipi razziali

Differenziazione dalle figure genitoriali: il caso dei contenuti degli stereotipi razziali Gli atteggiamenti di genitori e figli sono legati fra loro durante l\u2019infanzia e l\u2019adolescenza mentre la transizione all\u2019et\ue0 adulta \ue8 caratterizzata da un funzionamento autonomo rispetto alle figure genitoriali. Il presente lavoro \ue8 volto ad indagare la socializzazione all\u2019interno della famiglia, in diverse fasce d\u2019et\ue0, dell\u2019atteggiamento verso alcuni gruppi etnici facendo riferimento al Modello del Contenuto degli Stereotipi. Il modello citato descrive il calore e la competenza come dimensioni fondamentali dello stereotipo. Recenti ricerche hanno mostrato che il calore \ue8 composto da due componenti indipendenti: socievolezza e moralit\ue0. Lo studio fornisce l\u2019occasione per analizzare fattori predittivi e relazioni tra diverse dimensioni dell\u2019atteggiamento intergruppi. Lo studio ha due obiettivi principali: (a) verificare la relazione tra i contenuti degli stereotipi di genitori e figli nell\u2019ipotesi che l\u2019adesione al modello genitoriale si modifichi in funzione dell\u2019et\ue0; (b) analizzare le relazioni tra le tre dimensioni fondanti lo stereotipo, lo status e la competizione attribuita ai gruppi sociali e la risposta emotiva verso di essi, replicando quindi lo studio di Fiske et al. (2002). Il campione \ue8 composto da coppie genitore/figlio (et\ue0 dei figli compresa tra i 11 e i 19 anni) a cui \ue8 stato chiesto di esprimere la propria opinione nei confronti di diversi gruppi etnici tramite un questionario. I dati ottenuti sono stati sottoposti ad analisi correlazionali e di regressione. I risultati confermano parzialmente le ipotesi. Si rilevano relazioni positive di modesta entit\ue0 tra le posizioni espresse da figli e genitori; relazioni che scompaiono all\u2019aumentare dell\u2019et\ue0. Questa tendenza indica che la differenziazione dalle figure genitoriali, tipica dell\u2019approssimarsi dell\u2019et\ue0 adulta, interessa anche i contenuti degli stereotipi verso i gruppi etnici. Per quanto concerne il secondo obiettivo, i risultati mostrano che: la competitivit\ue0 \ue8 un predittore sia della moralit\ue0 che della socievolezza e che le reazioni emotive nei confronti dei gruppi target sono correlate con esse senza differenze particolari. Ci\uf2 permette di asserire che sebbene siano distinte, esse ricadono all\u2019interno della stessa pi\uf9 ampia dimensione concettuale definita \u2018calore\u2019

The Effect of Perspective-Taking on Linguistic Intergroup Bias

In this experiment, we examined the effect of perspective-taking-actively contemplating others' psychological experiences-on linguistic intergroup bias. We asked some participants to adopt the perspective of a character (an Italian or a Maghrebian), while others did not receive similar instructions, and complete a short dialogue comprised of a series of vignettes, resulting in a 2 (perspective-taking: presence vs. control) x 2 (group: ingroup vs. outgroup) between-participants design. We analyzed the texts produced on the basis of the linguistic category model. As expected, participants were more likely to describe the outgroup member using less abstract terms when we asked them to take the perspective of a Maghrebian. Since the level of abstraction of the terms used to describe a person's behavior is considered an index of stereotype use, one might describe Maghrebians less stereotypically when he or she can see the world from their perspective. The results extend previous findings on the role of perspective-taking as it relates to reducing intergroup stereotypes

Experimental tests and thermo-mechanical analyses on the HEXCALIBER mock-up

Within the framework of the R&D activities promoted by European Fusion Development Agreement on the helium-cooled pebble bed test blanket module to be irradiated in ITER, ENEA Brasimone and the Department of Nuclear Engineering of the University of Palermo performed intense research activities on the modelling of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of both beryllium and lithiated ceramics pebble beds, which are envisaged to be used, respectively, as neutron multiplier and tritium breeder. In particular, at the DIN a thermo mechanical constitutive model was developed for both lithiated ceramics and beryllium pebble beds and it was successfully implemented on a commercial finite element code to analyze the experimental results of the ENEA test campaigns on TAZZA, HELICHETTA and HELICA mock-ups. The paper presents the preliminary theoretical–numerical study performed at the DIN to support the experimental investigations on the HEXCALIBER mock-up, a more complex test section set-up by ENEA to investigate the thermo-mechanical behaviour of mutually interacting pairs of beryllium and lithium orthosilicate pebbles beds. In particular, after the descriptions of the HEXCALIBER mock-up and its finite element model, the numerical predictions of temperatures and/or contact pressures in the pebble beds, in the structural materials and in the helium coolant are presented and critically discussed