Research has demonstrated the influence of emotional adjustment on the manifestation of problematic behaviors in adolescence, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present research is to investigate the role of self-esteem and relational skills on school performance in a group of middle and high school students during the COVID-19 period. The research involved 392 students, aged between 11 and 20 (M = 13.78; S.D. = 2.56). Participants completed the following instruments: an anamnestic constructed ad hoc questionnaire; the Interpersonal Relationships Test, in order to evaluate the perception of adolescents concerning the quality of their relationships in social, family and school contexts; and the Multidimensional Test of Self-Esteem, structured in six scales, which coincide with the dimensions considered constitutive of self-esteem. The preliminary data have shown how the older girls, attending the high school, tend to manifest a higher level of social competence with peer group and teachers. Furthermore, the perception of a reduced emotional self-efficacy but an elevated environmental control and good interpersonal skills seem to predict the school adjustment. Understanding adolescents’ perceptions of difficulties and their social support networks can offer some insight into how major social changes can be associated with individual well-being, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Occupational stress, as a negative facet, is a pervasive problem with significant implications for organizations, employees, welfare systems and health. The implementation of measurement tools that can capture the different organizational dimensions that determine stress in workers is part of the stress management and troubleshooting strategy that every company must manage daily. The aim of the present study was to adapt and validate the 25-item version of the ILO-WHO stress scale by Ivancevich and Matteson in the context of the Canary Islands of Spain. The tool assesses specific organizational dimensions of work-related stress determinants: organizational climate and structure, leader influence, cohesion, territory, technology and group support. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on a sample of 1510 Canary Islands workers was carried out. The results indicate that the job stress scale revealed adequate psychometric properties, construct validity and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.972), and it can be profitably used to measure stress. At the end of the paper, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Violence exercised by children against their parents has increased significantly, affecting society both directly and indirectly. This type of violence is one of the least investigated and least exposed by the media. The aim of this work is to examine how the media have portrayed this problem, by means of a qualitative methodology and a multidimensional analysis of journalistic and literary texts. News related to violence committed by children against parents published from 2010 to 2020 were sourced from the following Spanish newspapers: El País, ABC, El Día, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, El Periódico, La Provincia, Canarias 7, 20 Minutos, and Diario de Avisos. The text corpus was subsequently analyzed with the open access software IRaMuTeQ. The results show a total of 204232 words (number of occurrences), of which 4561 appear only once (number of hapaxes). The words “violence,” “father,” and “son” are those that appear most frequently in the analysis of the texts and present a strong co-occurrence among them. It should be noted that child-to-parent violence is described as a problem confined to the family environment. The importance of prevention strategies against violence within the family context is shown in this paper.

No abstract

Literature has demonstrated the adaptive function of identity development and family context toward manifestation of problem behaviors in adolescence. The present research investigates: a) the influence of dysfunctional family dynamics on the Internet use; b) the impact that psychological and physical sensations - following excessive Internet use - can have on the quality of family relationships. The research involved 150 Italian students (65 males and 85 females) aged between 14 and 20 years (M =15.99, S.D = 1.94). The research lasted for 1 school year. Participants completed: an anamnestic questionnaire; the Family Assessment Device (FAD) in order to value the family functioning; and a self-report constructed ad hoc questionnaire, named “Adolescents and Digital Technologies” to measure frequency of use of social networks and Internet, the motivation for the use of social networks, the physical and psychological sensation perceived following their use. Data show the influence of gender and age on the general use of Internet; the influence of gender on psychological and physical sensations experienced by adolescent participants while using the Internet; and the predictive role of the family emotional involvement on Internet use. Family is a context for learning models and values that affect the wider social and regulatory context, and for this reason it is considered the privileged context in which to intervene to reduce behavioral problems of adolescents.