In this study, we tested a theoretical model with moral disengagement, a mediator, and generalized social trust (GST), a mediator and a moderator of the relationship between personality traits and rule-respecting behaviors (i.e., social distancing and stay-at-home), during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Italy. The data were collected on 1520 participants (61% males). General results are threefold: (1) moral disengagement mediated the relationship between emotional stability, narcissism, psychopathy, and social distancing; (2) among components of GST, trust in Government mediated the relationship between psychopathy and social distancing; trust in known others mediated the relationship between emotional stability, agreeableness, and Machiavellianism with total number of exits; trust in unknown others mediated the relationship of emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and psychopathy with average daily number of exits; (3) GST moderated the indirect effect of personality traits on rule-respecting behaviors through moral disengagement. The theoretical and practical importance of these results is discussed.

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Introduction Previous studies examined the trajectory of self‐esteem during critical developmental periods and over the life‐span. However, little is known about how self‐esteem changes during the school‐to‐work transition. Method We examined the effect of beginning a job for the first time on self‐esteem development, using data from 368 adolescents assessed up to six times across a 14‐year time span. Specifically, we analyzed the pattern of self‐esteem change during the transition to work and whether the self‐esteem trajectory varied as a function of several school‐ and job‐related variables, while controlling for important covariates. Results Results revealed linear increases in self‐esteem across the 14‐year study period, with partial support that the rate of increase slowed slightly after the school‐to‐work transition. We found significantly greater variability in the slopes after the transition, supporting the idea that people differ in the way they cope with the developmental tasks associated with important life transitions. We also found evidence for an interaction between college graduation and educational expectations, such that the positive effect of college graduation on self‐esteem change was stronger for those who graduated with low (vs. high) educational expectations. Conclusion School‐to‐work transition has an effect on self‐esteem development. Developmental processes of findings were discussed.

Previous research suggests that early work experiences are associated with young adult personality development (see Bleidorn, Hopwood, & Lucas, 2018). Specifically, work experiences have been linked to changes in conscientiousness (Golle et al.