Friendship and romantic relationships during early and middle childhood

Ideas about romantic relationships have been studied in adolescents. This article extends this study to younger children. We asked two hundred seventy 5- to 11-year-olds to draw “two children who have a romance” and “two children who are friends,” and we subsequently interviewed each participant about the characters’ relationships. The drawings were coded with three scales of Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (PAIR), an instrument by Bombi, Pinto, and Cannoni. Interviews were categorized by the characters’ age and identity and by the distinguishing features of romance and friendship: location, intimacy, activity, personal characteristics, and emotions. Scale scores were compared with variance analyses, whereas the categories frequencies were submitted to chi-square. Results showed that all participants were able to distinguish the two relationships, even if the descriptions increased in detail with age. Girls provided more information than boys about romance, but were less inclined to talk about their own romantic experience

Indagine sui bambini di 5-6 anni che usano quotidianamente i dispositivi mobili in ambito familiare. Caratteristiche personali e contestuali e problematiche cognitive ed emotive

La diffusione tra i bambini di dispositivi elettronici interattivi (in particolare smartphone e tablet) è un fenomeno recente ma in crescente espansione. In Italia le ricerche si sono concentrate finora sui bambini in età scolare e sugli adolescenti, mentre sono pochi gli studi sui prescolari. Nel nostro studio 473 genitori di bambini di 5-6 anni hanno compilato un questionario che indagava caratteristiche sociodemografiche e familiari, problematiche del bambino, tipologia dei dispositivi tecnologici domestici, caratteristiche dell’uso di smartphone e tablet da parte del bambino, opinioni dei genitori su tale uso. I risultati indicano che metà dei bambini del campione utilizza uno smartphone ed il 48,5% un tablet. Confrontando bambini che usano i dispositivi mobili per almeno 2 ore al giorno (utilizzatori abituali, n=45) con bambini che li usano occasionalmente (utilizzatori occasionali, n=69) emerge che gli utilizzatori abituali hanno padri più giovani, vivono in contesti dove sono maggiormente presenti dispositivi digitali, in cui i dispositivi mobili sono considerati strumenti di conoscenza e di promozione dell’intelligenza e vengono impiegati soprattutto per intrattenere il bambino in ambienti più adatti agli adulti (es. ristoranti). Inoltre, negli utilizzatori abituali sono più frequenti problematiche emotive, di autoregolazione e relative al sonno ed all’alimentazione. Parole chiave: bambini prescolari; tecnologie digitali; dispositivi mobili; problematiche cognitive ed emotive; questionario genitori.The spread of interactive electronic devices (especially smartphones and tablets) among children is a recent but increasingly expanding phenomenon. Research conducted so far in Italy has focused on school-aged children and adolescents, while there are still very few studies on preschoolers. In our study, 473 parents of 5-6 year old children completed a questionnaire on socio-demographic and familiar features, problems of the child, typology of home-based devices, characteristics of the use of smartphones and tablets by the child, opinions of parents on such use. The results indicate that the smartphone is used by half of the children and the tablet by 48,5% of them. Children using mobile devices for at least 2 hours a day (regular users, n=45) were compared with children who only occasionally use them (occasional users, n=69). The results show that, compared to the other group, regular users: a) have younger fathers; b) live in contexts where digital devices are more present; c) have parents who consider mobile devices as instruments of knowledge and promotion of intelligence and allow their children to use them mainly in environments more suited to adults (eg restaurants). Moreover, emotional, selfregulating, sleep and feeding problems are more frequent among regular users. Keywords: preschool children; digital technologies; mobile devices; cognitive and emotional problems; parents’ questionnaire

La didattica a distanza durante il lockdown in Italia: il punto di vista delle famiglie

Lockdown due to Covid-19 sanitary emergency causes a sudden break for scholar, social, cultural activities and sports. The aim of this work was to highlight changes in habits of life for children and teenagers with a particular focus on school activities. An on-line questionnaire was administrated to 5022 parents of children aged from 3 to 18 years. Results showed that secondary schools were able to guarantee at least hours of on-line lessons for half of the ordinary timing of schools. For preschooler and primary school, it seems that the recommended attention to maintain relations between the class group was less respected. So it seems that, during lockdown, children and teenagers were exposed to poverty of education and deprivation of social relationships. Probably due to lack of an adequate training for teachers, distance learning did not favored didactics strategies different from the traditional ones above all for preschool and primary schools

Lo Studio SCoPre (Sviluppo Cognitivo e Prematurità): dati preliminari sullo sviluppo dei “Late Preterms” in età scolare

Background. In Italy, children born Late Preterm (LPs, 34-36 weeks of gestational age) represent about 4% of all births. LPs have a higher risk of mortality, repeated hospitalizations in early life, chronic illnesses and functional limitations, compared to children born at term. Moreover, LPs are more likely to experience difficulties in their neurodevelopment, which may impair adaptation, especially at school. This study explores the developmental and behavioural outcomes of LPs compared to those of “Very Preterm” (VPs) or “Full Term” (FTs) peers. Methods. The paediatricians involved, recruited, among their patients, all VPs and LPs aged 7-10 years and a number of FTs twice that of the LPs. Mothers of children filled in a protocol consisting of a medical history form and three questionnaires. Results. 554 questionnaires were collected and processed (39 VPs, 183 LPs and 332 FTs). The three groups were significantly different in terms of birth weight (p < .001), twin pregnancy (p < .001), type of delivery (p <.001), type of pregnancy (p < .001) and gender (p < .05). FTs show better school achievements than VPs and LPs (p < .001). The LPs showed more symptoms of anxiety (p < .05) and aggressive behaviours (p < .001) than the FTs and, together with VPs, social problems (p < .001). VPs score significantly lower than FTs in the fine motor (p < .05) and in the general coordination abilities (p = .01). Mothers of the LPs reported a lower mental and physical wellbeing than mothers of FTs (p = .06). Conclusions. These data show that preterm children are more vulnerable that counterparts born at term in some developmental areas. Particularly, LPs present more difficulties in school achievements and in some behaviour, compared to FTs, often similarly to VPs. Mothers of the LPs perceive more mental and physical discomfort than mothers of FTs

Luci ed ombre nell’uso dei test grafici proiettivi in età evolutiva

Il lavoro risponde all’invito rivolto da Tressoldi e coll. a partecipare alla discussione "Un'indagine sull'uso dei test in età evolutiva: scelte basate sulla qualità o pratiche condivise?". Nel contributo in particolare viene sviluppata una riflessione sull'uso dei test grafici proiettivi nella psicologia clinica dello sviluppo, illustrandone punti di forza e di debolezza alla luce degli studi empirici condotti sull'argomento