Mixture polarization in inter-rater agreement analysis: a Bayesian nonparametric index

In several observational contexts where different raters evaluate a set of items, it is common to assume that all raters draw their scores from the same underlying distribution. However, a plenty of scientific works have evidenced the relevance of individual variability in different type of rating tasks. To address this issue the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) has been used as a measure of variability among raters within the Hierarchical Linear Models approach. A common distributional assumption in this setting is to specify hierarchical effects as independent and identically distributed from a normal with the mean parameter fixed to zero and unknown variance. The present work aims to overcome this strong assumption in the inter-rater agreement estimation by placing a Dirichlet Process Mixture over the hierarchical effects' prior distribution. A new nonparametric index $\lambda$ is proposed to quantify raters polarization in presence of group heterogeneity. The model is applied on a set of simulated experiments and real world data. Possible future directions are discussed

The mediating role of scientifical-medical satisfaction between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and vaccine confidence: a two-waves structural equation model

Vaccine confidence has emerged as one of the most relevant psychological factors implied in the worldwide affecting the fight against COVID-19—as well as public trust in doctors, medicine, and science. Indeed, the vaccine confidence is crucial to maximize the trust in vaccines and their use for prevention, with several implications for public health. This study aimed to analyse the relationships among between vaccine confidence, conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19, and satisfaction with science and medicine in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. A longitudinal observational survey was administered to a convenience sample (n = 544; mean age 52.76 y.o., SD = 15.11; females 46.69%) from the Italian general population. A two-waves mediation model—a structural equation model technique—was used. The survey was part of a larger international project (https://osf.io/qy65b/). The model highlighted that the conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 had a negative effect on the satisfaction with medicine and science (β = − 0.13, se = 0.03, p < .001). The latter, in turn, had a positive effect on vaccine confidence (β = 0.10, se = .05, p < .001). Interestingly, the effect of conspiracy beliefs on vaccine confidence was completely mediated by the scientifical-medical satisfaction (β = − 0.02, se = 0.01, p < .05). These results highlight how the scientifical-medical satisfaction can fully mediate the relationship between conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and vaccine confidence. These findings about vaccine hesitancy and confidence and disclose have implications for psychological and social interventions that could promote vaccine confidence by targeting the satisfaction with science and medicine

Does laparoscopic management of deep infiltrating endometriosis improve quality of life? A prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) can affect importantly patients' quality of life (QOL). The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the laparoscopic management of DIE on QOL after six months from treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>It is a prospective cohort study. In a tertiary care university hospital, between April 2008 and December 2009, 100 patients underwent laparoscopic management of DIE and completed preoperatively and 6-months postoperatively a QOL questionnaire, the short form 36 (SF-36).</p> <p>Quality of life was measured through the SF-36 scores. Intra-operative details of disease site, number of lesions, type of intervention, period of hospital stay and peri-operative complications were noted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six months postoperatively all the women had a significant improvement in every scale of the SF-36 (p < 0,0005). Among patients with intestinal DIE, significant differences in postoperative scores of SF-36 were not detected between patients submitted to nodule shaving and segmental resection (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the SF-36 scores at 6 months from surgery between patients who received postoperative medical treatment and patients who did not (p > 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Laparoscopic excision of DIE lesions significantly improves general health and psycho-emotional status at six months from surgery without differences between patients submitted to intestinal segmental resection or intestinal nodule shaving.</p

The network structure of psychopathological and resilient responses to the pandemic: A multicountry general population study of depression and anxiety

Commonly identified patterns of psychological distress in response to adverse events are characterized by resilience (i.e., little to no distress), delayed (i.e., distress that increases over time), recovery (i.e., distress followed by a gradual decrease over time), and sustained (i.e., distress remaining stable over time). This study aimed to examine these response patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety and depressive symptom data collected across four European countries over the first year of the pandemic were analyzed (N = 3,594). Participants were first categorized into groups based on the four described patterns. Network connectivity and symptom clustering were then estimated for each group and compared. Two thirds (63.6%) of the sample displayed a resilience pattern. The sustained distress network (16.3%) showed higher connectivity than the recovery network (10.0%) group, p = .031; however, the resilient network showed higher connectivity than the delayed network (10.1%) group, p = .016. Regarding symptom clustering, more clusters emerged in the recovery network (i.e., three) than the sustained network (i.e., two). These results replicate findings that resilience was the most common mental health pattern over the first pandemic year. Moreover, they suggest that high network connectivity may be indicative of a stable mental health response over time, whereas fewer clusters may be indicative of a sustained distress pattern. Although exploratory, the network perspective provides a useful tool for examining the complexity of psychological responses to adverse events and, if replicated, could be useful in identifying indicators of protection against or vulnerability to future psychological distress

Psicologia del Turismo, nuove forme interattive di consumo

Il turismo si presenta come un fenomeno complesso e multi-sfaccettato, comprensibile solo se si adottano approcci tra loro diversi. Esistono definizioni dette tecniche, che semplificano il ruolo del turista a semplice oggetto dell’industria del settore e definizioni che si concentrano sul ruolo attivo di un soggetto che interagisce con la destinazione e con tutti i servizi in essa inclusi (siano essi turistici o meno), adottando comportamenti e atteggiamenti specifici, attraverso i quali è in grado di modificare sia il contesto che il prodotto stesso. Per questa ragione la psicologia ha fornito contributi importanti in tale ambito di studio, definendo il turismo come una speciale modalità di interazione tra individuo e ambiente. Il turismo diviene un sistema di comunicazione di nuovi bisogni, centrati sulla persona e di valori sociali in continuo e rapido cambiamento. Si sono modificati i modelli di comunicazione, la scelta stessa di diventare turista diviene un atto comunicativo che permette di trasmettere agli altri una particolare immagine di sé. . Stiamo assistendo a cambiamenti nelle motivazioni e nei comportamenti di scelta con l’affermarsi di bisogni sempre più specifici, che caratterizzano una domanda sempre più preparata, turisticamente infedele, più esigente e segmentata che richiede proposte personalizzate. Infine, lo sviluppo e la diffusione del web 2.0 ha rivoluzionato il mondo dei viaggi e del turismo.La domanda turistica è, infatti, in rapido e continuo cambiamento sotto la spinta dell’innovazione tecnologica, dell’accessibilità dell’informazione, dell’apertura di nuovi grandi mercati, della trasformazione di culture, degli stili e delle motivazioni di viaggio. Il turista è al centro del sistema di valorizzazione: tutti i servizi vanno orientati alla piena soddisfazione, in modo da spingerlo a tornare e a influenzare, tramite la sua narrazione, nuove persone

SFIDE COMPLESSE E NUOVA MANAGERIALITÀ PER FORME INTERATTIVE DI CONSUMO

In una società complessa caratterizzata da livelli considerevoli di incertezza e imprevedibilità lo scoppio di una pandemia ha amplificato a dismisura criticità gestionali, finanziarie e organizzative già presenti nel mondo del lavoro, costringendo la totalità degli stakeholder in esso coinvolti a ripensare radicalmente il proprio ruolo. Mentre in passato la domanda era molto più omogenea e meno differenziata, oggi risente notevolmente delle singole soggettività dei consumatori, più inclini a un consumo critico, responsabile e sostenibile. È necessario quindi ripensare ad una offerta turistica che indirizzi la domanda verso forme di turismo sostenibile e responsabile. Ai nuovi manager è richiesta una formazione non più solo tecnica, essi devono infatti essere in grado di: saper cogliere la natura di quello che sta accadendo (pandemia) e di quello che accadrà (post pandemia); saperlo interpretare; saper scegliere un percorso tra i tanti possibili saper convivere con gli imprevisti e gli inevitabili errori di valutazione

THE ROLE OF CONSUMER-BRAND ENGAGEMENT IN TOURISM CONSUMPTION: FROM USER-GENERATED CONTENT TO MY GENERATED CONTENT

With the rise of Web 2.0 and digital content marketing consumers are increasingly interested in sharing their experiences with others by implementing real brand-related citizenship behaviors (e.g., sharing travel experiences or brand-related experiences on social networks). Drawing on the customer engagement ecosystem model (Maslowska et al., 2016), this study aims to highlight the role social aspects of consumption play in predicting consumer brand engagement (CE), specifically, if both expo-sure to others actors’ purchasing behavior (OAB) and social visibility of consumption (SVC) might in-fluence consumers’ brand dialogue behaviors (BDB) through CE. We conducted a cross-sectional sur-vey in which participants (N = 250) completed an online questionnaire about tourism brands. We per-formed a mediation analysis using a structural equation modeling approach. Results suggest that both OAB and SVC might influence BDB, through the mediation of CE. In our model, CE partially media-tes the effect of OAB on BDB, and it completely mediates that of SVC on BDB. Consumers who per-ceive the tourism brand chosen as more socially visible will probably have higher levels of CE, and, in turn, will exhibit more BDB. The more consumers believe that other people choose a specific tourism brand, the more they engage with it and the more they show BDB. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Are anxiety, depression, and stress distinguishable in Italian adolescents? an examination through the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21.

The adolescents' ability to discriminate between different negative emotional states is still under debate. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) serves as a useful tool to unravel this issue, yet the literature on its structural validity in young people is ambiguous. Therefore, this study aimed to expand knowledge on the emotional experience of youth by investigating the factor structure and psychometric properties of the DASS-21 in Italian adolescents. Six hundred fifty-five students (60.6% girls) aged 14-18 (M = 16.3 ± 1.29) completed an online survey containing the DASS-21 and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). To evaluate the factor structure of the DASS-21, several alternative models were tested, also adopting an Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) procedure. Measurement invariance, reliability, validity, and latent means differences were addressed. The ESEM model with three correlated factors of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress yielded the best fit to the data, supporting a hierarchical structure of the DASS-21. In addition, this model was invariant across sex and age groups. The Anxiety scale predicted both positive and negative affect, while Depression predicted positive affect only. Finally, girls scored higher than boys on Anxiety and Depression, but no age differences emerged. Overall, our results indicate that anxiety, depression, and stress are distinguishable in Italian adolescents but, simultaneously, share an underlying condition of general distress, which may explain the comorbidity between internalizing problems. Such findings are discussed in terms of clinical and preventive implications for the adolescent population