Adolescents\u2019 Coping Strategies Influence Their Psychosocial Well-Being

Aims: Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by many physical, psychological and social transformations, eliciting experiences of emotional arousal that might increase psychopathology risk (e.g. affective and behavioral disorders). The study tested adolescents' use of coping strategies and their psychosocial well-being. Methods: Participants (N 1060) were Italian students, 14 to 21 years old, attending senior high school or first years of university, who completed a survey. Psychosocial well-being, and its relation to coping strategy use, was assessed by measuring subjective health perception, life satisfaction, positive and negative felt affect, emotional and social loneliness. Results: Adolescents were found to use the healthier strategies of Seeking social support, Problem Orientation, and Positive attitude more than the less functional strategy of Avoidance; a Transcending Orientation was also not much reported. Preferences for strategy type formed a coherent pattern - e.g., Problem Orientation was positively associated with Positive attitude. Preferences for strategy type were significantly associated to well-being levels in the expected direction. Avoidance was found to be the most important coping strategy, negatively associated with most well-being indicators, e.g. predicting greater Emotional loneliness, and lower perceived Health; vice versa, Seeking social support and Problem solving were associated with lesser Social loneliness and higher levels of Positive affect and Life satisfaction. Although result patterns were quite similar across age groups and sex, some differences were observed. Conclusion: Preferences for more or less functional coping strategies impact on well-being, suggesting that a better understanding of these processes in adolescence and early adulthood may help us understand individual differences in mental health and adjustment

Gelosia e tristezza: teorie ingenue nella cultura olandese, e loro confronto con quelle espresse nella cultura italiana

Allo scopo di indagare di quali concetti si compongono le teorie ingenue (concezioni) delle persone circa due tipi di esperienze emozionali, la Gelosia e la Tristezza, sono state condotte quattro ricerche parallele con studenti universitari, italiani e olandesi, di et\ue0 media di 24 anni (N complessivo: 961). Ciascun soggetto rispondeva ad un questionario relativo ad un unico evento, \u2018lieve\u2019 oppure \u2018grave\u2019 per le sue implicazioni: Flirt o Bacio per la Gelosia; morte del Nonno (o di un amico/a collega), o morte di un Conoscente (o del proprio cane) per la Tristezza. L\u2019articolo riporta i risultati ottenuti nell\u2019analisi delle risposte dei soggetti a sei domande aperte inerenti quali sono le reazioni immediate del protagonista dell\u2019evento nella specifica situazione, e quali quelle adeguate, perch\ue9 l\u2019evento causa un\u2019esperienza emotiva, per quali cause/motivi vengono condivise oppure no le emozioni provate, e quali sono i motivi per cui il/la protagonista si sente o meno in conflitto e incerto circa le emozioni provate. I risultati mostrano che i soggetti possiedono teorie ingenue complesse che comprendono sia concetti che definiscono la categoria superordinata emozione, sia concetti che sono emozione-specifici. Sulla ricchezza e sugli specifici contenuti delle teorie influiscono in modo notevole lo specifico tipo di evento giudicato, e, in subordine, la nazionalit\ue0 e sesso dei soggetti

Lay theories of emotions (pride, joy, sadness, jealousy, envy, and anger): life-span trends.

The content and richness of lay theories\u201d (LT) of emotion of Italian male and female adolescents (N=154, 14-year-old; N=136 17-year-old), young adults (N=184 ), and mature adults (N=120, about 44 year-old) were studied using a questionnaire that described, in a vignette format, events typical of one of 5 emotion constellations, namely pride, joy, sadness, jealousy, envy. The judged events differed moreover for their degree of \u201csalience\u201d - defined on the basis of results obtained in previous studies. Subjects attributed to same- or to opposite-sex event-protagonists various aspects of the emotional experience, including perceived 'adequacy' of the experience, social sharing of emotions, conflict and uncertainty about felt emotions. Multiple-choice answers were based on lists of cognate items - e.g., for the felt-emotion question, answer categories included \u201cJoy, happiness, euphoria, pride, cheerfulness\u201d, and \u201cAnxiety, fear, anguish, dread\u201d . Results showed that subjects expressed quite rich and complex LT already at the youngest age, but that LT both get richer, and qualitatively different, at later ages. The beliefs subjects hold, and their \u201crichness\u201d, varied as a function of the specific emotion constellation, of its hedonic tone (e.g., LT for negatively toned constellations were typically more articulate than those for positively toned ones), and of salient features of the judged event (e.g., reactions such as attempts at regulation characterized mostly negatively valenced constellations, especially in relation to specific events). Men and women overall expressed similar, \u201cegalitarian\u201d rather than gender-differentiated theories; observed differences, however, tended to be gender-congruent, i.e., stereotypical ones. The extent to which the obtained results are culture-specific rather than \u2018universal\u2019 needs to be further investigated in cross-cultural studies, to single out similarities and differences in lay theories

The influence of using a word processor on children's story writing

In this work we tested the hypothesis that using a word processor for some months might produce a shift in the text production strategies used by fourth grade elementary school children. Children were expecteded to focus more on decisions of higher-order level, and to postpone the lower-order level choices to the revision phase. 51 italian children attending the fourth elementary school grade participated in the study. 28 children formed the experimental group; they used the computer for various activities throughout the school year. 23 children formed the control group -- they simply followed the normal curriculum for that school grade. Comparisons of hand-written Pre-test and Post-test narratives by the two groups showed the existence of significant differences between stories written by the experimental group after the training with the word processor, and by the control group. The results support our hypotheses that experimental children write longer texts but make more grammatical errors than control children. There were instead no relevant differences between hand-written and computer-written stories by the experimental group. This result shows that the shift in strategies induced by the use of a word processor is resistent to a change in setting

Appraisal of intentionality of action and understanding of effects of negative emotion expressions in children

The present study, following the approach used by Jenkins and Ball (2000), examined, with reference to age changes, children\u2019s understanding of different effects of sadness, fear and anger expressions on social interaction, testing whether the appraisal of un/intentionality (Zammuner, 1993) of an agent, in causing a negative event that elicits sadness or anger or fear from a partner (the expresser), contributes to determine different emotional and behavioural reactions in the agent (the recipient) in relation to the nature of potentially elicited emotions. METHOD Subjects. The study tested 2 age groups: 6-7 and 9-11 year-olds; N total: 96. Material and Procedure. Children judged each of 6 vignettes that varied for (i) interpersonal Event (Rejection, Damage, Physical Harm), (ii) agent\u2019s Un/Intentionality (e.g., agent damages an expresser\u2019s object intentionally, vs agent damages object by accident), (iii) expressed Emotion (Sadness, Fear, Anger; N total vignettes 18). For each vignette, children answered open questions about (a) recipient\u2019s reactions in terms of Felt emotions, and Action readiness and Behaviour (the recipient was also the un/intentional agent), (b) expresser\u2019s intention in terms of Power feeling in the relationship, and of Goals. RESULTS The analyses of children\u2019s answers about recipient\u2019s reactions confirmed the relevance of the appraisal of Intentionality. In other words, children\u2019s answers took into account whether the agent had provoked the aversive event intentionally or not, and which were the goals of the agent. When the agent\u2019s behaviour was Intentional rather than Unintentional, expresser\u2019s negative emotion elicited more \u2018positive\u2019 emotions from the recipient (e.g., the recipient - the agent who provoked the damage - feels happy to achieve his/her own goal), and recipient\u2019s Felt emotions varied as a function of Event\u2019s condition and type of expressed Emotion (e.g., Sadness expression elicited more frequently \u2018positive\u2019 emotions from the recipient in the Damage story, but not in the Rejection and Harm stories that elicited \u2018sadness\u2019; Anger expression elicited more anger in all Events than Sadness and Fear expressions). In contrast, results indicated that the expression of Fear and Sadness elicited frequently such behaviours as comfort, apology, and, in part, problem solving from the recipient. In response to Anger, the recipient more likely reacted by attacking the expresser, but only in the Intentionally condition; the likelihood of aggressive behaviours was influenced by type of Event (e.g., in intentional Harm story, Anger expression was associated to recipient\u2019s action of apology). Finally, for all stories, Anger expression was associated with a power position, whereas Sadness and Fear with lack of power. CONCLUSION In sum the results showed that (i) children understand that the expression of sadness, anger and fear have different consequences for social interaction, (ii) children take into account the appraisal of the interpersonal components (agent\u2019s un/intentionality in provoking negative events) to differentiate recipient\u2019s emotional and behavioural reactions to expresser\u2019s emotion, (iii) children\u2019s knowledge varies across age levels. The results also suggest that (iv) children are cognizant of potential discrepancies between emotional internal experiences and socially acceptable behaviours

Increasing emotion awareness differentially affects Emotional Intelligence traits, abilities and competencies.

Despite the recent interest on the operationalisation and measurement of Emotional intelligence, there has been a dearth of research on how Emotional Intelligence abilities or traits at work can be influenced by different training programmes. The existing research has examined mainly the effects of tuition on changes in EI traits. The study tested the possible effects of a self-administered program to increase emotion awareness on emotional intelligence related Traits, Competencies and Abilities. Four hundred and sixty five (465) career starters in five European sites completed assessments of Emotion competencies, traits and abilities in two times, two months apart. A self-administered training program that was designed to increase awareness of emotion in the self and others was introduced and completed by almost half the participants (Training group). Comparing the training group with those that did not receive training, demonstrated significant changes in Emotion Competencies (Self, awareness, Self, management, and social skills), Emotional abilities (Emotion recognition, Managing others emotions, Empathy at work) and frequency of positive emotions and optimism. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in changes in Social awareness (ECI) or any of the Emotion traits. These results point to the differential impact of various traits and competencies, and highlight the limitations of general-self reported emotion scales in tapping subtle changes in emotion awareness

Recognizing emotions in comic strips: results from two reaction times study, and a self-report study

Comic books/strips (e.g., Snoopy, Calvin & Hobbes, Dennis the menace, Wizard of Id) constitute a widely-read emotion-ladden literature genre that is predominantly visual. To assess to what extent 7 different emotions it depicts are recognized by its readers, and on the basis of what features, we carried out 2 Reaction time (RT) studies in which, for each of 138 stimuli (selected from Italian strips published since 1982, designed by several authors) depicting the facial emotional or neutral expression of a strip character, 20 subjects judged either (1) whether the character experienced an emotion (Yes/No), or (2) what emotion it expressed (chosing from a list of 7 emotions, plus 'Neutral expression'). In a questionnaire study 120 subjects judged one of three sets of 38 stimuli (derived from the 138 RT stimuli set), answering a variety of questions about each stimulus. The results overall showed that anger, sadness and fear were recognized most quickly and correctly, whereas disgust and embarrassment were 'slow' and often 'confused' with other emotions; recognition of joy and surprise showed mixed results. Emotion recognition in the RT studies was significantly influenced by Vignette clarity (Clear vs Ambiguous emotional expression; tested in a preliminar study), and in the QS study by the presence of verbal information conveyed in the balloon, and of expressive cues (e.g., tears, a hand covering part of the face). In conclusion, the research showed that in comic books/strips some emotions are more easily recognized than others, and that this is at least in part due to the existence of distinct prototypical facial expressio

Il rapporto con il paziente in ospedale: il lavoro emozionale ed i suoi correlati

Medici, infermieri, tecnici che lavorano in ospedale interagiscono costantemente con altre persone, i pazienti. Come regolano le proprie emozioni i lavoratori di servizi ospedalieri affinch\ue8 esse siano congruenti con le richieste del proprio lavoro? Quali effetti hanno i processi regolatori delle emozioni sul benessere psico-fisico dei lavoratori? Quali variabili influenzano la frequenza, la natura e gli effetti delle modalit\ue0 regolatorie? Per indagare tali questioni, 150 lavoratori di un ospedale pubblico, donne e uomini, medici, infermieri e tecnici, hanno risposto ad un questionario che comprendeva varie scale oltre a domande relative a variabili socioanagrafiche e alle caratteristiche del contesto lavorativo. I risultati - replicati in studi paralleli con popolazioni sia simili sia diverse (Zammuner & Canato 2000; Zammuner & Lotto 2001)- mostrano che la regolazione delle emozioni - processo designato dal termine lavoro emozionale (Hoschschild 1983) - \ue8 un processo rilevante nell'ambito ospedaliero: le interazioni lavorative sono caratterizzate sia da emozioni che gli operatori sanitari vivono spontaneamente in modo congruente alla propria situazione lavorativa - Consonanza emotiva -sia da emozioni che invece vengono alterate in modo funzionale all'interazione stessa - Regolazione superficiale e regolazione profonda. Inoltre, i risultati mostrano che la natura e la frequenza con cui i lavoratori svolgono i due tipi di lavoro emotivo, e/o provano emozioni congruenti al lavoro, sono in relazione sia alle caratteristiche del contesto lavorativo, per esempio il tipo di reparto ospedaliero in cui il lavoratore \ue8 inserito e la durata delle interazioni con i pazienti, sia a caratteristiche di personalit\ue0, quali l'empatia, l'autoconsapevolezza e il self-monitoring. Infine, il lavoro emotivo tende ad avere implicazioni significative, dirette od indirette, sul benessere psicofisico dei lavoratori, in termini di variabili come il burnout, il tono edonico delle emozioni provate, e il livello di soddisfazione circa la propria vita