The present study aimed to extend understanding about the relationship between career adaptability, courage, and life satisfaction in a sample of Italian adolescents. It was hypothesized that courage partially mediated the relationship between career adaptability and life satisfaction. Specifically, 1202 Italian high school students with an age from 14 to 20 years (M = 16.87; SD = 1.47), of which 600 (49.9%) boys and 602 (50.1%) girls, were involved. Using a multigroup approach across gender, it was found that courage partially mediated the relationship between career adaptability and life satisfaction in boys and girls. Results suggested the relevance of career interventions to promote career adaptability and courage for strengthening life satisfaction in adolescence.Western European societies are characterized by fast modification of work environments, rapid technological changes, economic and social insecurity and instability, unemployment, due notably to the worldwide financial crisis, globalization, and migration flows. As a result of these social phenomena, adolescents tend to perceive their future to be full of risks (Schoon, 2007), and thoughts about the future constitute one of the main fears and concerns among other domains (e.g., relationships with parents and peers). Adolescents can experience anxiety and distress about the future, that might affect their psychological health and their levels of life satisfaction, so that Lange (2013) highlighted that job insecurity, as the perceived risk or fear of future unemployment, has a detrimental impact on personal well-being. This perception may occur especially among adolescents in countries such as Italy, where the rate of youth unemployment and precariousness is higher than other EU countries (EUROSTAT, 2016).The Life Design, developed primarily to help individuals to construct their career life in the current changing societies, is a paradigm for career counseling based on the epistemology of social constructivism and considers career development as the result of a dynamic interaction of person and environment. It stimulates persons to reflexively imagine and construct a life arranged with viable and multiple roles to guarantee well-being and adaptive functioning (Savickas, 2015). Central to the life design paradigm is the concept of career adaptability, that is an essential resource to help individuals plan their uncertain future, face adverse working conditions, adapt to changes of the job market and job conditions, and therefore increase their well-being (Savickas, 2015). In this current socio-economic context, particular relevance is also given to the propensity of individuals to behave courageously and persist despite perceived risks (behavioral courage), as this resource seem to be a strength when making difficult career choices despite fears

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.

College students approaching a university degree can experience a critical period in their career development path that could affect their well-being. The main aim of this study was to examine the role of courage, career adaptability, and professional readiness as protective factors toward life satisfaction and flourishing during the university-to-work transition. These psychosocial resources could be useful to cope with the recent transformations of the labor market. The study involved 352 Italian university students (M = 100; F = 252), aged from 21 to 29 years (M = 23.57; SD = 2.37), attending the last year of their degree course. The results of the mediation analysis showed that courage plays a mediating role between career transition readiness and career adaptability, on one hand, with well-being indicators as outcomes. The results are discussed, providing some suggestions on practical implications for career interventions to support college students during the university-to-work transition.

a b s t r a c tThe lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1), the major receptor for oxidized lowdensity lipoprotein (ox-LDL) in endothelial cells, is overexpressed in atherosclerotic lesions. LOX-1 specific inhibitors, urgently necessary to reduce the rate of atherosclerotic and inflammation processes, are not yet available. We have designed and synthesized a new modified oxidized phospholipid, named PLAzPC, which plays to small scale the ligand-receptor recognition scheme. Molecular docking simulations confirm that PLAzPC disables the hydrophobic component of the ox-LDL recognition domain and allows the interaction of the L-lysine backbone charged groups with the solvent and with the charged/ polar residues located around the edges of the LOX-1 hydrophobic tunnel. Binding assays, in a cell model system expressing human LOX-1 receptors, confirm that PLAzPC markedly inhibits ox-LDL binding to LOX-1 with higher efficacy compared to previously identified inhibitors.

The recent transformation of the workplaces and labor market, characterized by rapid technological changes, social and economic instability, has greatly influenced the construction of people’s career paths. These paths cannot be viewed more as linear, but multifaceted and unstable. In organizational context, the psychological contract has changed from long term to short term. In this scenario, the construct of employability becomes central: people need to maintain and improve their ability to be attractive to the labor market to get or keep a job. The study presents the adaptation of the Self-Perceived Employability Scale to the Italian context. The participants are 660 Italian workers. The instruments used to verify the concurrent validity of the scale were the Employability Scale, the Flourishing Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Organizational Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Results showed good psychometric properties of the Italian version in terms of internal consistency, construct and concurrent validity, with significant correlations with all the other measures. The CFA highlights some dissimilarity in the scale’s structure compared to the UK version, probably due to cultural differences among the samples.