Italian Middle School Research Articles

An intervention on climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviours in Italian young people

Abstract Background The climate crisis greatly affects mental health, often leading to climate change anxiety. In Italy, there is a lack of research and school programs to help manage climate anxiety and other climate-related psychological consequences. The aim of the CAMBIO CLIMA project is to evaluate the levels of eco-anxiety and pro-environmental behaviours (PEBS) in a sample of Italian middle and high school students, before and after a tailored intervention on the climate crisis. Methods The intervention involves one hundred middle and high school classes from three Italian regions. The students will complete a set of surveys, including psychometric scales and questions on socio-demographic factors and climate change awareness. The students will then participate in a two-hour online workshop. A video will be shown at the beginning to raise awareness about climate change. The instructor will ask the students which solutions could be found to solve specific problems caused by climate change. The instructor will then propose and explain a list of PEBS that students can implement to fight against climate change. Finally, students will be invited to put into action these behaviours. A week after the intervention, students will be asked to take part in a post-intervention survey, completing the same set of questionnaires they completed at enrolment. Results Currently, the research team is in the preparatory stage, establishing contacts with schools and organizing materials for the online workshop. The intervention is scheduled for the upcoming school year. Conclusions The intervention, focused on enhancing the sense of self-efficacy, is expected to increase the resilience of adolescents, making them less vulnerable to the impact, both direct and indirect, of climate change on mental health. The project is funded by PRIN: PROGETTI DI RICERCA DI RILEVANTE INTERESSE NAZIONALE - Bando 2022 (Prot. 2022N22J5F). Key messages • Climate change has a disproportionate impact on young people. • It is essential to plan adequate school programs that stimulate the sense of awareness and encourage PEBS simultaneously.

Structural Anti-Roma Racism in Italian Middle Schools

Structural Anti-Roma Racism in Italian Middle Schools

Challenging Stereotypes: A Conversation Analysis Approach to Students’ Narratives about Gender

Creating effective prevention programs is essential for reducing gender-based violence (GBV). Research underscores the importance of addressing GBV during early schooling years (Oliver, 2014), as schools, alongside families, serve as primary socialization environments for children and young people. Building on this context, this article presents a study that used prevention-based class seminars to challenge gender stereotypes and prompt reflection on GBV, gender-based discrimination, and gender stereotyping. The study involved approximately 600 minutes of classroom video recordings from five Italian middle school classes, featuring 112 12-year-old pupils during expert-conducted seminars. Using a Conversation Analysis approach, the data analysis reveals the forms of communication and gender narratives produced by the students during the workshops. While some narratives reinforced gender stereotypes and traditional norms, most narratives promoted equal gender relationships. This study contributes to research on violence prevention in schools, demonstrating how school-based programs can significantly impact students’ reflections on gender stereotypes and violence.

Social support and risk of victimisation: the mediating role of emotional intelligence

ABSTRACT During adolescence, parental and peer support and emotional intelligence (EI) may play a protective role against the risk of becoming a victim of bullying. This study aims to assess the role of perceived parental and peer support in promoting individual EI, reducing the risk of victimisation. The sample consisted of 348 Italian middle and high school students. Victimisation risk, perceived parental and peer support, and EI were measured using questionnaires. A cross-sectional study and a Structural Equation Model with latent variables were conducted to assess the mediating role of EI in perceived parental and peer support and victimisation risk. Results indicated that EI fully mediated the association between perceived parent (β = .20, p ≤ .001) and peer support (β = .10, p ≤ .01) and victimisation risk. These data suggest the need to structure training to promote support in the social and family context to increase students’ EI and thus reduce the risk of victimisation among students.

Supportive error feedback fosters students' adaptive reactions towards errors: Evidence from a targeted online intervention with Italian middle school students.

Although it is well established that students' adaptive reactions towards errors promote learning outcomes, little is still known about the role of error feedback in promoting these reactions. Through a targeted intervention based on an online teaching unit, this study aimed at testing whether supportive error feedback promotes more adaptive students' reactions towards errors and higher learning outcomes. A total of 250 (Mage = 12.18, SD = .89; 46.4% girls) Italian middle school students took part in the intervention. Students were randomly assigned to either a discouraging error feedback condition (n = 124) or a supportive error feedback condition (n = 126). The intervention consisted of an online teaching unit, which students filled in at home, that was divided into pre-test, intervention and post-test phases. During the intervention, students replied to training questions and every time they made an error, informative feedback appeared: supportive smileys and sentences in the supportive feedback condition, and disappointed smileys and sentences in the discouraging feedback condition. Before the intervention, students filled in the pre-test and after the intervention, students reported their reactions towards errors and filled in the post-test. Receiving supportive feedback resulted in more adaptive affective-motivational reactions towards errors, which in turn were related to more adaptive action reactions towards errors. Differently from our expectations, action reactions towards errors were not related to the post-test scores. Our findings can inform the development of online teaching units that promote an error-oriented approach.

A multidimensional approach to the study of school climate and student engagement

Student engagement has been acknowledged as a crucial factor for promoting successful learning. In this study we adopted a multidimensional approach to study the associations between school climate and student engagement. We aimed to test the direct and indirect associations of five concrete (Rules, Student Support, Student Involvement, Positive Teaching and Encouragement) and two abstract dimensions of school climate (Sense of Belonging and Interpersonal Justice) with four dimensions of student engagement (emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and agentic). 1058 Italian middle school students participated in this study (48% female students, 92% born in Italy, Mage = 11.77). Direct and indirect associations were tested with a structural equation model (SEM). Results allowed us to pinpoint specific associations between distinct school climate and student engagement dimensions, offering insights beyond their general association. The findings are discussed for their relevance for research and practice in fostering student participation.

Association of Socioeconomic Factors and Physical Activity with Health-Related Quality of Life in Italian Middle School Children: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) provides a broad assessment of an individual's well-being and can serve as a good prognosticator of life's outcomes later for children and adolescents. Understanding the factors associated with HRQoL is crucial for promoting better health and life satisfaction. This study investigated the cross-sectional association of socioeconomic status, cardio fitness, and physical activity levels with HRQoL in 224 Italian early adolescents attending secondary school in the Emilia-Romagna region located in Northern Italy. In a multivariate path regression model, younger students and females reported a higher quality of life (β = -0.139, p = 0.015, 95% CI: -0.254--0.023 and β = 0.142, p = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.011-0.273, respectively). Having both parents employed and having a higher familiar educational status were also associated with a higher quality of life (β = 0.142, p = 0.013, 95% CI 0.027-0.257 and β = 0.133, p = 0.017, 95% CI 0.022-0.244, respectively). Greater engagement in routine physical activity levels from moderate to vigorous intensity was positively associated with quality of life (β = 0.429, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.304-0.554). Endurance (speed) was positively associated with quality of life (β = 0.221, p = 0.001, 95% CI: 0.087-0.355), and students with longer times on the shuttle run reported less quality of life (β = -0.207, p = 0.002, 95% CI: -0.337--0.077). These relations remained intact even when controlling for socioeconomic factors. The current findings reinforce the importance of promoting regular physical activity among younger children and also addressing socioeconomic status disparities to improve children's well-being. Future studies may want to consider expanding the array of measures used to assess physical activity and include additional measures assessing nutrition, cultural factors, and family functioning, all of which can influence a child's willingness to engage in physical activity and their well-being. The emphasis on fitness and physical activity and their contribution to a child's well-being should be the prime focus for stakeholders who work in the education, public health, and health policy sectors.

Are anthropometric characteristics powerful markers to predict the Cooper Run Test? Actual Caucasian data.

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a powerful marker of cardiovascular health, especially in youth. Several field tests can provide accurate measurement of CRF, the Cooper Run Test (CRT) is generally preferred by physical education (PE) teachers and trainers. The CRT performance in adolescents has been compared to reference distance values, gender and age but the differences among the anthropometric characteristics of youth has not been evaluated. For these reasons, the aim of this study was to develop reference standards for CRT and evaluate possible correlations between biometric measurements and athletic performance. This cross-sectional study involved a total of 9,477 children (4,615 girls) aged 11-14 years, freely recruited from North Italian middle schools. Mass, height and CRT performances were assessed in the morning during PE classes as scheduled (mornings-Monday to Friday). The anthropometric measures were collected at least 20 min before the CRT run test. We found a better CRT result in boys (p < 0.001), however a smaller SD in girls suggested a more homogeneous aerobic performance for girls (i.e., 371.12 m vs 282.00 m). In addition, the Shapiro-Wilk test showed a low p-value (p < 0.001) but the effect size (0.031 for boys and 0.022 for girls) was small enough that the correction on this parameter allows a practical assumption of normality for the distributions. A visual homoskedastic distribution in both sexes is evident for both body mass index (BMI), mass and VO2 peak with respect to CRT results. In addition, there were low linear correlation coefficients for both BMI, mass and VO2 peak compared to the CRT results, with a R2 < 0.5 for every covariate. The only visual heteroskedastic distribution was observed in regression between distance in CRT and age at peak high velocity. Our findings suggested that anthropometric characteristics are not powerful markers to predict Cooper Run Test results in a well-mixed, unpolarized and unbiased pool of middle school boys and girls. PE teachers and trainers should prefer endurance tests over the use of indirect formulas to predict performance.

The Impact of COVID-19 Distance Learning on Students’ Math Anxiety: An Exploratory Study

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift to distance learning worldwide. Although recent research has focused on the impact that this transition had on students’ education and well-being, little has been done in particular on math education and on math anxiety (MA). Since MA is believed to be linked to the teaching methods, it could be hypothesized that the new learning environment affected MA levels. Thus, this study investigated whether students’ levels of MA evaluated before and during the first wave of the pandemic changed as a consequence of the distance learning implementation. Moreover, we were interested in investigating whether students’ satisfaction with the teaching methods, their effort in math, and their academic achievement were correlated to MA before and during the COVID-19 distance learning. Participants were 117 Italian middle and high school students. No significant differences between pre- and mid-pandemic MA were found when considering the entire sample. Analyzing separately, results indicated that high-MA students reported significantly lower MA levels during distance learning, however no difference was observed for moderate- and low-MA individuals. Furthermore, satisfaction with the teaching methods, effort in math, and math achievement were negatively correlated with MA, both before and during distance education.

Distance Learning during the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown: The Experience of Italian Middle School Students

Northern Italy was one of the first European regions to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions which led to school closures and the compulsion to learn from home. This article examines middle school students’ experiences with distance learning to determine what they found most difficult, what they liked most and what they liked least during the 2020 lockdown. A total of 285 students (56% female; 44% male) with mean age of 13 years (±1 year; min = 11; max = 15) completed the online questionnaire. Responses to three open-ended questions were analyzed and coded using content analysis and an inductive approach. SPSS 26 was then used for descriptive analysis based on the frequencies of the categories that emerged: Learning, Device, Relationship, Other, Environment, Nothing, and Time. The results suggest that important aspects of students’ lives during the lockdown had dual meanings. For example, technological devices were experienced as a means of communication, learning, and maintaining relationships, but were also associated with inequities, technical difficulties, and misunderstandings. Student responses support schools’ role as a place to foster technological skills, especially social and emotional skills, in order to develop concrete strategies to assist students and teachers improve their relationship skills and be better prepared for future pandemics.

Equipping Youth to Think and Act Responsibly: The Effectiveness of the "EQUIP for Educators" Program on Youths' Self-Serving Cognitive Distortions and School Bullying Perpetration.

School bullying is a serious public health concern in many countries worldwide. Over recent decades, several effective anti-bullying prevention programs have been developed. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted version of the “Equipping Youth to Help One Another (EQUIP) for Educators” (EfE) program in reducing adolescents’ engagement in school bullying perpetration by correcting their use of self-serving cognitive distortions (CDs). Furthermore, guided by the vantage sensitivity framework, we investigated whether the intervention effects varied depending on the adolescents’ gender and environmental sensitivity. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with a control group design involved 354 Italian middle and high school adolescents (51.7% males; Mage = 14.86, SD = 2.54). Both the control (n = 187) and experimental group (n = 167) completed self-report questionnaires, before and after the intervention. Structural equation modeling revealed a significant moderated mediation effect: highly sensitive males participating in the EfE program decreased their engagement in bullying by reducing CDs, compared to females and those with low- and medium- sensitivity. These findings support the effectiveness of the EfE program in equipping youth to think and act more responsible and shed light on “why” and “for whom” the intervention might work better to counteract school bullying during adolescence.

Positive error climate promotes learning outcomes through students’ adaptive reactions towards errors

Errors are an integral part of the learning process and an opportunity to increase skills and knowledge, but they are often discouraged, sanctioned and derided in the classroom. This study tests whether students' perceptions of being part of an error-friendly classroom context (i.e., a positive classroom error climate) is positively related to students' learning outcomes via students' adaptive reactions towards errors. A total of 563 Italian middle school students from 32 mathematics classes completed a questionnaire on their perceptions of classroom error climate and their reactions towards errors. Students' math grades were used as indicators of their level of learning outcomes. A multilevel model showed that perceived classroom error climate was positively related to math grades via increased adaptive reactions towards errors. Our findings revealed that an error-friendly classroom context is associated with students’ adaptive adjustment to errors and to better learning outcomes in mathematics.

How Do Adolescents Use Social Networks and What Are Their Potential Dangers? A Qualitative Study of Gender Differences.

The rapid development of software applications and the increasing use of the Internet have raised many questions about the impact of this technology on the lives of adolescents, especially on “digital natives.” The advent of social networks (SNs) restructures their relationships in various ways, affecting both adolescents’ development and mental health. The present study aims to investigate uses and dangers of SNs according to a sample of 296 (166 female and 130 male) Italian middle and high schools adolescents (age range 13–18) and build a model of how SNs can turn out to be dangerous. To achieve this, twenty-four audio-recorded focus groups of Italian male and female adolescents were investigated by a Grounded Theory approach, abstracting from the transcripts the main uses and dangers of SNs and proposing a final model for the interpretation of the whole set of categories. The results highlighted two main dangers of SNs: (a) the desperate search for popularity, and (b) the exhibition of violent or offensive behavior facilitated by the sense of protection and anonymity derived from being hidden behind a virtual account. Finally, a psychological model of how SNs can turn out to be dangerous is presented. This study could be useful in developing prevention procedures against the risks of SNs (e.g., cyberbullying, internet addiction) without demonizing the use of social media as such.

A longitudinal study of school climate: Reciprocal effects with student engagement and burnout

AbstractThe literature on school climate, albeit vast, is limited by a scarcity of longitudinal research. This two‐wave longitudinal study aims to bridge this gap by (a) assessing, over two school years, the changes in students’ perceptions of several dimensions of school climate and (b) exploring the reciprocal longitudinal effects of student perceptions of school climate and multiple dimensions of engagement and burnout. The study was conducted with a sample of 243 Italian middle school students (Wave 1: sixth grade, Mage = 11.68; Wave 2: seventh grade, Mage = 12.64; 51.7% girls). Analyses of variance showed, in the second school year, a decrease in students' satisfaction with various school climate dimensions. With a latent cross‐lagged model, better school climate perceptions were found to predict higher emotional engagement and lower symptoms of burned‐out exhaustion a year later. The practical implications of these findings are considered in the discussion and conclusion.

What Teachers Tell Us About the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Public Education in Italy

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) state of emergency has brought about a radical change in the way of teaching. In a questionnaire, we asked 120 teachers from Italian Primary, Middle and High Schools about the advantages and disadvantages of online teaching, the students’ conduct during lessons and the methodologies applied to students with special educational needs. Primary School teachers most strongly reported an increase in boredom and distraction, and disagreed that online teaching helps students’ learning and that it makes them more active. The main advantage of online teaching was the technical and methodological innovations, while the main disadvantage was the lack of relationship with students. In the case of students with special educational needs, many teachers reported that they used simplified procedures and personalized meetings. Overall, teachers appear to think that online teaching has many drawbacks, though it also has some positive aspects that need to be appreciated and exploited.&lt;/p&gt;

The Emotional Response to Pandemic of Middle- and High-School Students of an Italian Northern Province: The ERP Study.

The COVID-19 outbreak variably affected people’s mental reactions worldwide but was only episodically investigated in healthy Italian teenagers. Our aim was to investigate the emotional responses of Italian middle and high school students to the pandemic. An anonymous 10-item questionnaire was distributed in pre-selected school samples. Responders had to score their perceived extent for each reaction from 0 (lowest perception) to 10 (highest perception). A group of adults was selected as control. Generalized linear models were used to estimate differences among adults and students, high school (HS) and middle school (MS) students, and urban (U) and rural (R) MS students. Comparisons were presented as mean difference (Δ) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 1512 questionnaires (635 adults, 744 HS, 67 UMS, and 66 RMS) were analyzed. Students appeared more indifferent (Δ = 1.97, 1.52–2.41), anxious (Δ = 0.56, 0.07–1.04), aggressive (Δ = 2.21, 1.72–2.70), and depressed (Δ = 1.87, 1.40–2.34) than adults did, and claimed a higher loss of interest in their activities (Δ = 1.21, 0.72–1.70). Students were less disbelieving (Δ = −0.93, −1.50–0.35) and feared for their loved ones (Δ = −0.89, −1.40–0.39). MS students were less affected by the outbreak than HS students were. Furthermore, R-MS students were significantly less aggressive and depressed, but more indifferent and disbelieving than U-MS. Female sex was an independent factor associated to almost all the questionnaire domains. The pattern of the psychological responses to the pandemic in Italian students proved multifaceted. In addition to anxiety, loss of interest in activities, and depression, aggressiveness emerged as the most characterizing mental attitude in response to the pandemic.

Music as a Tool to Express Emotions: Remembering the Quarantine Soundscape at the Middle School

This paper aims to illustrate the results of a pilot study carried out with 20 students attending an Italian middle school after the lockdown. In the first phase of the research, the music teacher collected data about the personal memories of the students related to the soundscape of quarantine. The thematic analysis showed that while most students identified listening and making music as relaxing and positive activities, others had trouble remembering the sounds heard during the lockdown. After that, the students were asked to describe the seasons of quarantine through a multimodal approach, which combined music, words, and pictures. The students used Google Classroom and mobile apps to meet, discuss and share ideas. Most of the notes of the students were referred to positive affects. This demonstrated the value of the music lesson as a space to express emotions in stressful conditions, like those caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students’ Mathematics Achievements: A Comparison between Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a shift from face-to-face to online and distance learning. Teaching methods and assessing strategies changed, as well as grading standards. The focus of this paper is to address the differences between pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic mathematics grades and, in particular, to investigate the possible differences between mid-term and end-term grades in Italy. To this end, 231 Italian middle and high school students’ grades were analysed. Using the Wilcoxon rank test (a non-parametric statistical test) the results showed a statistically significant difference in pre- and post-COVID-19 quarantine grades. End-of-year grades were higher than those before the COVID-19 confinement. Furthermore, the results indicated that more than half of the students in the sample achieved a higher grade at the end of the school year. Gender differences in mathematics grades were examined, since the literature about gender gap in mathematics achievement is not coherent about whether boys outperform girls or vice versa. Statistically significant differences at the end of the first semester were reported, in favour of female students although gender differences were not detected at the end of the school year. The findings suggest that greater caution should be paid in interpreting students’ grades pre- and post-COVID-19 confinement, since it cannot be excluded that such students’ achievements are inflated. Excessively high students’ grades that do not represent their actual knowledge and competencies could give educators and legislators misleading and even false information about the quality of distance learning and students’ knowledge.

Intrapersonal, social, environmental-societal influences and career development learning during childhood

ABSTRACT Recent trends in developmental psychology and developmental systems theory have opened child career development learning (CCDL) to new perspectives. This study adopts a Systems of Influences perspective with the aim of highlighting the development of systems of influences characterising students attending an Italian primary and middle school. Two levels of analysis emerged, addressing (1) the ability to identify influences and (2) the self and social awareness characterising the personal systems of influences developed by participants. This study underscores the relevance of a diachronic and systemic perspective in understanding age-specific systems of influences and their meaning for CCDL and related educational actions. It also provides insights into the meaning of the current complex challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluating class and school effects on the joint student achievements in different subjects: a bivariate semiparametric model with random coefficients

This paper proposes an innovative statistical method to measure the impact of the class/school on student achievements in multiple subjects. We propose a semiparametric model for a bivariate response variable with random coefficients, that are assumed to follow a discrete distribution with an unknown number of support points, together with an Expectation-Maximization algorithm—called BSPEM algorithm—to estimate its parameters. In the case study, we apply the BSPEM algorithm to data about Italian middle schools, considering students nested within classes, and we identify subpopulations of classes, standing on their effects on student achievements in reading and mathematics. The proposed model is extremely informative in exploring the correlation between multiple class effects, which are typical of the educational production function. The estimated class effects on reading and mathematics student achievements are then explained in terms of various class and school level characteristics selected by means of a LASSO regression.