The fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" grouped specific learning disabilities in the single diagnostic category of specific learning disorder (SLD), with specifiers for impairments in reading, written expression, and mathematics. This study aimed at investigating the intellectual profile,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an Italian training program on the re-employment probability of young unemployed workers. The program consists exclusively of workplace training and is coordinated by employment centers, even if it is fully implemented by firms. Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors develop a…

Digital skills are increasingly important for labour market outcomes and social participation. Do they also matter for academic performance? This paper investigates the effects of digital literacy on educational outcomes by merging data from the Italian National Assessment in secondary schools with an original data-set on performance tests of…

The present study examined an international sample of adults from the Survey of Adult Skills administered by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009) to assess (1) how specific individual and country-level characteristics predict adult readiness to…

Aim of this work was to explore the impact of alexithymia on art works appreciation, to examine the influence of emotion regulation on art judgment. While observing a painting, the viewer's cognitive structure contains several types of information (semantic, episodic, and strategic) and is the repository of personal traits, motivations, and…

School tracking is usually criticised as a mechanism for social and cultural reproduction. Evidence from the literature shows a significant effect of early tracking on social inequality. Some studies also show that early tracking has a negative effect on the probability of completing higher education. This study uses PISA 2009 data and the…

The "OECD Skills Studies" series aims to provide a strategic approach to skills policies. It presents OECD internationally comparable indicators and policy analysis covering issues such as: quality of education and curricula; transitions from school to work; vocational education and training (VET); employment and unemployment; innovative…

The present paper examines the influence of parent's demographics (gender and educational level) and a contextual variable (school grade) on counterproductive parents' behavior during interaction with teachers. Data were gathered by administering the Italian version of the Challenging Parent Standard Questionnaire (Pepe 2010) to a sample of…

In this paper, we analyze class size effects on college students exploiting data from a project offering special remedial courses in mathematics and language skills to freshmen enrolled at an Italian medium-sized public university. To estimate the effects of class size, we exploit the fact that students and teachers are virtually randomly assigned…

This study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and styles of decision making. Two hundred and six Italian high school students completed two measures of EI, the Bar-On EI Inventory, based on a mixed model of EI, and the Mayer Salovey Caruso EI Test, based on an ability-based model of EI, in addition to the General…

Understanding the factors that encourage young people to become active agents in their own learning is critical. Positive psychology is one lens that can be used to investigate the factors that facilitate a student's sense of agency and active school engagement. In the second edition of this groundbreaking handbook, the editors draw together the…

Children in a vegetative state (VS) and a minimally conscious state (MCS) experience severe limitations as a consequence of nervous system deficits and require consistent environmental support. However, disability in VS and MCS children has never been described following a model that accounts for the presence of the symptoms, limitations and the…

We use a representative sample of Italian graduates drawn from the Consorzio AlmaLaurea to assess the impact of individual and family characteristics, university inputs and the labour market on the time taken to attain a degree. Our estimates highlight that all these dimensions drive the outcome analysed. Weak labour market prospects contribute…

This paper deals with an empirical study undertaken at the University of Bologna about the social representations of music held by university students studying to become teachers in nursery, kindergarten and primary education. An open questionnaire was submitted to the university students at the beginning and end of the music education teaching…

The authors employed Latane and Darley's model about bystanders' behavior to explain children's active defending and passive bystanding behavior in school bullying. The three central steps of the model were operationalized by measuring provictim attitudes, personal responsibility for intervention, and coping strategies. Moreover, the role of…