Comprehensive education - prevention of gambling deviant effects among adolescents

Studies, in many countries of the world, have proven that gambling starts in childhood and, more precisely between ages of 10 to 19 years old, which coincides with the main period of their education. This paper aims to shed light on the effects of gambling on children and the deviations of their behavior, and its connection with all comprehensive education looking at it as an important mean and instrument for prevention. This study analyzes the group effects in pre-adolescents and adolescents, and the connection that exists between group, age and gambling, observing children and adolescents in some ofthe places they frequent. This paper aims at the possibility of interfering in the school curricula, especially in the civic education to treat and to know the gambling issues by adolescents, aiming in preventing the deviant effects

Measurement invariance of the nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (IGDS9-SF) across Albania, USA, UK, and Italy

The IGDS9-SF, which assesses Internet Gaming Disorder behaviors, has been validated in a number of countries (Portugal, Italy, Iran, Slovenia), although the psychometric equivalence of the instrument has been assessed only across Australia, the USA, the UK, and India. This research aimed at providing further cross-cultural insights into IGD by assessing the factorial structure of the IGDS9-SF in Albania and investigating its measurement invariance across Albanian, Italian, American, and British gamers. Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analyses were performed on a sample of 1411 participants from Albania (n=228), USA (n=237), the UK (n=275), and Italy (n=671). The CFAs confirmed the single-factor structure in the four countries. Measurement invariance supported the configural invariance and partially supported the metric and scalar invariance. Overall, the findings provided evidence for the underlying factor assessing IGD across the countries, although the specific meaning of the construct was non-identical

The Use of Educational Technology to Improve the Quality of Learning and Teaching: A Systematic Research Review and New Perspectives

This paper aims to identify the main topics on which scientific research has been oriented, from 2019 through 2022, about the use of educational technology in teaching and learning. The methodological approach used was qualitative. The sample size was n = 92 (scientific articles from Web of Science, Scopus, Eric, and Google Scholar databases). Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. From the analysis of the data, it has been established that the main topics on which scientific research is oriented are the use of educational technology (1) for the learning environment, (2) as a pedagogical approach, (3) for student assessment, and (4) in support of students with special needs. Some perspectives are also given regarding the orientation of scientific research in this field