No abstract

This study explores the interrelationship among goal orientation, self-regulatory mechanisms and error orientation with a view to predicting performance in a management task involving decision making at a furniture factory in an uncertain situation. The sample was randomly assigned as a control group and an experimental group, but only the participants in the latter group received fictitious information about job insecurity in the furniture sector. Successive self-assessments evaluated their judgments about self-efficacy and emotional state during the task. The results show that, initially, the setting of uncertainty negatively affects selfregulatory mechanisms and performance; this effect disappears with time, while affective state and a positive error orientation guarantee better long-term performance.

In adapting to the host society, immigrant adolescents may have problems negotiating the challenges of acculturation. The factors that promote and those that hamper psychological adaptation may not play the same role in all ethnic groups. Our study focuses on psychological adaptation of two main immigrant groups in Spain that differ in cultural distance to the host society and level of societal acceptance: adolescents of Moroccan and Ecuadorean origin. Our findings show, first, that mainstream cultural orientation is positively related to psychological adaptation, whereas perceived ethnic discrimination is negatively associated with adaptation. Second, the relationship between ethnic cultural orientation and psychological adaptation and between length of residence in Spain and adaptation is stronger for the Moroccan youth than for their Ecuadorean peers. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. This manuscript was prepared and written while the first author was affiliated to the University of Cordoba in Spain and financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation within the framework of a National Program of Human Recourses' Mobility (I+D+I 2008-2011). Data collection was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (I+D BSO2003-09222).

Although adolescence has been defined as a stage of vulnerability, due to the biopsychosocial changes that happen throughout this developmental stage, it is also one of growth. Some of the core personal competencies that have been identified to promote positive development at this stage while simultaneously preventing risks are: (1) a positive sense of self, (2) self-regulation, (3) decision-making skills, (4) a moral system of belief, and (5) prosocial connectedness. There are many factors and contexts that influence adolescent development. The school climate, for example, has the capacity to promote positive development and life satisfaction, yet on the other hand, it is a context within which different forms of violence, such as bullying, can occur. The principal aim of this study, therefore, is to analyze the influence that bullying has on one’s life satisfaction, while taking into account participants’ socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., gender and developmental stage), their core personal competencies (i.e., problem solving strategies, empathy, emotional repair, self-esteem, and values), and the school climate. To obtain data, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with a sample of 647 Spanish students (53.3% female), ranging in age from preadolescence (10–13 years old; 60.3%) to mid-adolescence (14–18 years old; 39.7%), and belonging to diverse socio-economic contexts (15.3% rural) and schools (32.1% public). After gaining informed consent from both the participants and their parents, students completed the survey voluntarily, and under anonymity. Initially results show that gender, developmental stage, and having been bullied were predictors of participants’ levels of life satisfaction. When the core personal competencies were also considered in data analysis process, self-esteem, emotional repair, and social values were those demonstrating significant effects on one’s life satisfaction; moreover, being bullied was a significant predictor too. Finally, after taking school climate into account, only this variable as well as self-esteem and emotional repair were significant predictors of life satisfaction: the other assessed variables were no longer found to be significant predictors (i.e., gender, developmental stage, being bullied, and social values). These results have important implications for education objectives, methodologies, and school functioning: school climate, self-esteem and emotional repair seem to be particularly important for promoting student life satisfaction and for preventing the negative consequences associated with being bullied.

Residential satisfaction is an antecedent to perceived quality of life. Physical and social factors help to explain residential satisfaction as a dynamic process of interaction which the individual constructs in relation to their surroundings. Furthermore, some of these factors condition place attachment. This study aims to analyze the relations and differences between residential satisfaction and place attachment in a sample of 704 people living in a university city, approximately half of whom are living in student flats. Participants completed a survey to rate their level of satisfaction with various characteristics associated with the place in which they live. The findings show that both groups of residents provide the same explanatory model of residential satisfaction, in which neighbourly relations, quality of housing and the intention to move home act as predictors. Residential satisfaction and place attachment are positively correlated; however, quality of housing does not have a direct effect on place attachment. Length of residence has a positive effect on place attachment.