INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH Resilience and emotional Intelligence

In the framework of Positive Organizational Behavior, the construct of Psychological Capital identifies four psychological capacities that affect motivation and performance in the workplace: self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Emotional Intelligence, then, addresses self-regulatory processes of emotions and motivation that enable people to make adjustments to achieve individual, group, and organizational goals; Emotional Intelligence is strongly correlated with individual advancement and success in an organizational setting and with individual performance. Moreover, Emotional Intelligence is considered an antecedent to resilience. The present study aims to investigate the role of resilience and emotional intelligence in achievement motivation, verifying if emotional intelligence mediates the relationship among resilience and achievement motivation. Participants are 488 Italian workers, aged between 18 and 55 years. The findings confirm the significant role played by emotional intelligence on resilience and on motivation to achievement. RESUMEN Palabras clave: Comportamiento positivo organizacional, capital psicológico, inteligencia emocional, resiliencia, motivación al logro. En el marco del Comportamiento Positivo Organizacional, el constructo de Capital Psicológico identifica cuatro capacidades psicológicas que afectan la motivación y el desempeño en el trabajo: autoeficia, esperanza, optimismo y resiliencia. La inteligencia emocional entonces, se dirige a los procesos de autorregulación emocional y la motivación habilita a las personas realizar ajustes para alcanzar metas individuales, grupales y organizacionales; la Inteligencia emocional está fuertemente correlacionada con el progreso individual y el éxito en un entorno organizacional, y el rendimiento individual. Por otra parte, la inteligencia emocional se considera un antecedente de la resiliencia. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo investigar el papel de la resiliencia y la inteligencia emocional en la motivación al logro, verificando si la inteligencia emocional media la relación entre la resiliencia y la motivación al logro. Los participantes fueron 488 trabajadores italianos, con edades entre 18 y 55 años. Los resultados confirman el rol significativo que juegan la inteligencia emocional en la resiliencia y en la motivación al logro. Resilience and Emotional Intelligence: which role in achievement motivation Resiliencia e Inteligencia Emocional: qué rol tienen en la motivación al logro R e s e a r c

Relationships between personality and burn-out : an empirical study with helping professions' workers

Stress-related illnesses, such as burnout, had an increase over the last decade, even though not every employee, in the same workplace, shows burnout symptoms, suggesting that individual factors may contribute to this phenomenon. In fact, even though research on burnout generally has tended to explore the organizational factors associated with this condition, which play certainly an important role, however we cannot ignore the relationship between burnout and personality. This study explored the relationship between personality and burn-out in 144 helping professions' workers. Personality was measured by the Big Five Questionnaire; burn-out was measured by the Link Burn-out Questionnaire. Results confirm a relationship between the two constructs, partially supporting previous research that explained burn-out not only by organizational factors, but also by individual dimensions

Self-efficacy in Learning and Scholastic Success: Implications for Vocational Guidance

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Organizational Justice, Optimism and Commitment to Change

AbstractLiterature stressed that, although change is often essential for organizational success, employees usually find it rather difficult to change. Justice has been shown to be predictive of many organizational dynamics related to change and optimism can also be instrumental to help in dealing with different kinds of job stress, like organizational change. Moving ahead from that, the main aim of the present research was to explore the mediating role of optimism between global justice and continuance commitment to change. Data was collected using a questionnaire. The previously validated measures used included the Perceived Overall Justice Scale – POJ, the Life Orientation Test-Revised LOT-R and the Continuance Commitment to Change subscale. The sample includes 122 employees of Italian companies from different sectors. Data analyses showed high correlations among the considered variables (p <.001) and they confirmed the possibility to test the mediation. Results reveal that organizational justice effect decrease when the mediator was introduced. Namely, optimism have a mediation role between overall perceived justice and commitment to change. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Career Guidance for Unaccompanied Young Migrants. A Report on an Italian Experience

Unaccompanied foreign minors are migrant children without their parents, relatives, or other adults. In Italy, especially in Sicily, an increasing number of young, non-European Union foreigners arrive daily in search of a new life and work opportunities. Despite this increasing phenomenon, interventions to support young migrants in career projects are infrequent and occasional within the host communities. With the aim of developing a career guidance intervention suitable for unaccompanied foreign minors, we propose a case study presenting a career guidance intervention for a group of unaccompanied foreign adolescents. The framework is the life design paradigm. The conductors of the activities were career counsellors, with the support of a cultural mediator and/or an educator. The setting of the interventions was individual and small groups. The instruments and procedures were predominantly qualitative. This paper includes a discussion of the strengths and weakness of this intervention, including the results of the post-intervention evaluation and the follow-up after one year

Towards a multidimensional measure of well-being: cross-cultural support through the Italian validation of the well-being profile

Background The Well-being Profile (WB-Pro) is a multi-item and multidimensional instrument with strong psychometric properties and a solid theoretical grounding. It includes aspects of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being that can be used at the individual and social levels.MethodWe developed the Italian version through back-translation procedures. The aim of this study is to validate the WB-Pro in Italian as well as to better understand its multidimensionality through bifactor analysis. A sample of 1451 participants (910 = women, 62.7%; age range: 18-70, M-age = 32.34, SD-age = 13.64) was involved.ResultsThe 15-factor structure was confirmed with CFA and ESEM and was invariant across gender, age, and education. We examined convergent and discriminant validity and a bifactorial representation. Short versions of the WB-Pro were tested.DiscussionEven though a few items of the Italian version of the WB-Pro might benefit from revision (e.g., clear-thinking scale), this study confirms the theoretical and empirical strength of the WB-Pro.ConclusionsThis study supports the WB-Pro validity and usefulness in studying well-being and for professional psychological applications to assess well-being in both individuals and groups

High-School Satisfaction Scale (H-Sat Scale): Evaluation of Contextual Satisfaction in Relation to High-School Students' Life Satisfaction

Recent literature on positive psychology underlines the crucial role of schools to create a psychologically healthy environment and to set programs and strategies fostering adolescents’ well-being. The aim of the present study is to validate a scale that measures scholastic satisfaction since a scientific evaluation and interventions on school satisfaction can help professionals to support adolescents’ positive development and school adjustment. We adapted the College Satisfaction Scale (CSS) and confirmed the previous five-dimensional structure also in a high school students’ sample (n = 792). The High-school Satisfaction Scale (H-Sat Scale) evaluates five dimensions of school satisfaction: appropriateness of choice (CH), quality of school services (SE), relationships with classmates (RE), effectiveness of study habits (ST) and usefulness for a future career (CA). The questionnaire consists of 20 items; it showed good psychometric features and, consistent with previous literature, confirmed its validity in relation to life satisfaction and quality of life of high school students. Compared with previous scales, the H-Sat evaluates two innovative areas of school satisfaction since it gives a measure of satisfaction in career path (appropriateness of choice and usefulness for future career) could help school counsellors to set interventions in this field

The relationship between subjective risk intelligence and courage with working performance : the potential mediating effect of workplace social courage

Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological point of view; recently, courage has been related with numerous positive individual behaviors and outcomes, such as coping strategies and subjective wellbeing, and an increasing number of studies explore the role of courage in the working and organizational environments. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect that individual courage—together with risk intelligence—and workplace social courage have on working performance; Methods: The participants are 961 Italian workers, balanced by gender; the measures used are: Courage, Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale, Workplace Social Courage Scale, and Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Models; Results: The results show the effect of subjective risk intelligence and courage on working performance, both directly and through the mediation of workplace social courage; Conclusions: Suggestions for further research and practical implications are discussed

An assessment of option B implementation for the prevention of mother to child transmission in Dschang, Cameroon: results from the DREAM (Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition) cohort

Introduction: Scaling up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to HIV+ pregnant women is crucial for the elimination of HIV infection in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of triple ART for Prevention of Mother-to Child Transmission (PMTCT) in Cameroon. Methods: HIV-positive pregnant women attending the DREAM Centre of Dschang, Cameroon for prenatal care were enrolled in a prospective cohort study, and received ART until the end of breastfeeding or indefinitely if their CD4 count was &lt;350mm3. Infants were evaluated for HIV infection at 1, 6 and 12 months of age. Results: A total of 298 women were enrolled. Among them, 152 were already on established ART. Women were followed until 6 months after delivery with a retention rate of 92.6%. Eight women died. Those with a CD4 count &lt;350 cells/mm3 during pregnancy had the highest mortality risk (RR 2.53; 95% CL= 1.86-3.44). The HIV  transmission rate was 1.2% at 12 months with an HIV free survival of 91%. In the proportional Cox regression analysis, the following factors were positively associated with infant mortality: maternal CD4&lt; 350 cells/mm3, no breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life, weight-for-age z score &lt; -2. Conclusion: Results confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation of Option B, with very low rates of HIV MTC  transmission, and potential benefits to the health of mothers and infants with earlier initiation of ART. Breastfeeding again demonstrates to be highly beneficial for the growth and survival of HIV exposed children.Pan African Medical Journal 2016; 2