The Role of Sexual Prejudice and Aetiology Beliefs in the Italians' Attitudes Toward Adoption by Same-Sex Couples.

Research found that those who believe sexual orientation is inborn have generally positive attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. However, other studies have also found that these beliefs could include negative eugenic ideas. This study aims to investigate the role of people's beliefs about the aetiology of sexual orientation in attitudes toward adoption for both gay and lesbian couples in Italy.

Gender Differences in the Associations Between Perceived Parenting Styles and Young Adults' Cyber Dating Abuse.

Existing literature indicates that parenting styles affect the development of cyber aggression in offspring differently, depending on the gender of children. The present study investigates whether mothers' and fathers' parenting styles show similar gender differences in their associations with a new form of dating violence, i.e.

Omission and Compromise: The Sacredness of Moral Foundations in Political Groups in Italy.

Sacred values are moral foundations that may make public and political debates among groups hard to resolve. A taboo trade-off framework offers the opportunity of measuring the inviolability and the "sacralization" of moral foundations. In this study, moral foundations in a taboo trade-off framework were assessed in a convenience sample of Italians (N = 224) using a new measure to assess sacred values, the Omission as a Compromise on Moral Foundations scale (OC-MF).

Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: The role of stigma and appraisals.

Objectives: This study examines perceived and anticipated stigma towards infected people, threat and impact appraisals of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as distressing personal experiences related to the virus in order to determine the extent to which they directly and indirectly predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Investigated experiences included exposure to COVID-19-related news, having being in close proximity to people with a COVID-19 diagnosis or with COVID-19-like symptoms, having being sick or having suffered COVID-19-like symptoms, having tested negative for COVID-19.

Methods: Adults from northern Italy (n = 326; M age = 29.

The Role of Ethnic Prejudice in the Modulation of Cradling Lateralization.

The left-cradling bias is the tendency to cradle an infant on the left side, regardless of the individuals' handedness, culture or ethnicity. Many studies revealed associations between socio-emotional variables and the left-side bias, suggesting that this asymmetry might be considered as a proxy of the emotional attunement between the cradling and the cradled individuals. In this study we examined whether adult females with high levels of prejudice toward a specific ethnic group would show reduced left-cradling preferences when required to cradle an infant-like doll with ethnical features of the prejudiced group.

Educational Robotics for children with neurodevelopmental disorders: A systematic review.

This paper aims to provide a critical review of the studies dealing with Educational Robotics for children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. We aimed to investigate whether in the literature there is a sound evidence that activities with robots improve the abilities and performances of children with special needs. This paper explores the methodological aspects as well as the outcomes of the selected studies to provide a clear picture of the state-of-the-art on this topic.

Competence and Benevolence as Dimensions of Trust: Lecturers' Trustworthiness in the Words of Italian Students.

Trustworthiness includes at least two dimensions: one dimension captures the authority's benevolence; the other captures authority's competence. This qualitative study explores the representation of the two dimensions of authority trustworthiness: competence and benevolence. We collected free-associations about what lecturers' competence and benevolence actually mean for Italian psychology students ( = 125).

Vaccines and autism: a preliminary qualitative study on the beliefs of concerned mothers in Italy.

: While a large body of evidence has shown that the administration of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a hesitant attitude towards childhood vaccination is still present among the public. In this study, we aim to investigate the mothers' perceptions of the cause of their child's ASD in order to increase our understanding of vaccine hesitancy.: This study draws on the analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews of mothers of children with ASD on the causes of autism.

Well-Come Back! Professional Basketball Players Perceptions of Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors Influencing a Return to Pre-injury Levels.

The psychological factors influencing a return to sport has gained increased research attention. In the current investigation, we explored professional basketball players' perceptions of the psychosocial and behavioral factors facilitating a return to performance equal to or exceeding previous performance standards. We also sought to describe athletes' experiences - both positive and negative - of returning to sport following injury recovery.

Learning Climate and Job Performance among Health Workers. A Pilot Study.

This paper will explore if and how psychological strain plays a mediator role between the learning climate and job performance in a group of health workers. Although the relationship between learning climate and job performance has already been explored in the international literature, the role of psychological strain, which may hamper or deepen this relationship, has yet to be investigated. The research hypothesis is that psychological strain mediates the relationship between the climate toward learning (including also the error avoidance climate) and job performance.

Psychosocial factors affecting uptake of prenatal genetic testing: a pilot study.

Objective: This study aims to explore the psychosocial factors which influenced the undergoing of prenatal genetic testing (PGT) in a sample of pregnant women.

Method: An online questionnaire was emailed to a convenient sample of 105 pregnant women, recruited from among those attending two antenatal education programmes and via snowball sampling.

Results: A minority of respondents underwent chorionic villous sampling and amniocentesis (12 and 11, respectively).

The discourse around usefulness, morality, risk and trust: a focus group study on prenatal genetic testing.

Objective: This study explores the underlying values and beliefs that guide women's reasoning on prenatal genetic test (PGT) uptake, as framed by their own words, during a group discussion, in a Catholic country such as Italy.

Methods: Women's reasoning was explored by means of five focus group consisting of seven pregnant women and 13 new mothers.

Results: The focus group material content was analysed using the Nudist software.

Prenatal genetic testing: an investigation of determining factors affecting the decision-making process.

Despite the increase in popularity of prenatal genetic testing, relatively little is known about the role psychological factors play in the decision-making process. In this analogue study, a sample of Italian female university students was used to investigate determining factors that predict the intention of undergoing prenatal genetic testing. Structural Equation Modelling was used to describe the dynamic interplay between knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and health-related behaviour such as prenatal genetic testing.