The present study aimed at verifying the relation between factors of resilience and perceived self-efficacy in life skills, considering a sample of 302 Italian early, middle, and late adolescents, recruited from State Junior and High Schools of the Eastern Sicily, Italy. We used the Perceived Self-efficacy in Life Skills Scales (PSES_PE/NE: Empathic Self-efficacy Scale; PSES_PS: Problem-solving Self-efficacy Scale) and the Resiliency Attitudes and Skills Profile (Italian-RASP) composed of five factors (sense of humour, competence, adaptability, engagement, and control). Results demonstrated that the factors of resilience were strongly (adaptability and engagement) and moderately (sense of humour and competence) related to perceived self-efficacy in the analysed domains; consequently, adolescents who perceived themselves as highly efficient in empathy and in problem-solving were more resilient than those who perceived themselves as lowly efficient in the same domains. Future research should investigate these relations in other life skills expressed by children and adults.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships of positive affect with dimensions of resilience and perceived self-efficacy in life skills in a sample of 147 Italian healthy adolescents. We used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Resiliency Attitudes and Skills Profile (RASP), and the Perceived Self-Efficacy Scales in Life Skills. Statistical analyses indicated that adolescents with high positive affect reported higher levels of perceived self-efficacy in life skills than those with low positive affect; in addition, adolescents with high positive affect reached higher levels of resilience (that is, adaptability and engagement) than those with low positive affect. Given the relationship of positive affect both with dimensions of resilience and perceived self-efficacy in life skills, future investigations could better understand the functioning of protective factors actively engaged in facing up to the transition from childhood to adolescence, in line with the flourishing approach in supporting the promotion of psychological well-being and the increasing of individual's bio-psycho-social skills.

The main purpose of this project will be to increase the psychological well-being, self-efficacy in life skills, and body esteem in a group of Italian preadolescents who will participate in the life skills training. This project will be divided into three phases consisting of a verification of the changes that will take place following the realization of laboratory activities useful to enhance the psychological well-being of students in the scholastic context. For the first phase, an exploratory analysis of the main life skills, psychological well-being and body esteem levels was carried out with 49 participants aged 12 to 14 years recruited from three classes of a Public Junior School in Catania (Sicily, Italy). We used the Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving-CIT (Andolfi et al., 2017), the Perceived Self-efficacy Scales in Life Skills (Sagone & Indiana, 2017), and the Body Esteem Scale (Confalonieri et al., 2008). Results showed positive correlations between perceived self-efficacy in life skills and almost all factors of psychological well-being, as well as positive correlations between perceived self-efficacy in life skills and body esteem; in detail, the weight satisfaction was mainly related with self-efficacy in managing of negative emotions and poorly with self-efficacy in interpersonal communication; in addition, the external evaluation from the others regarding own body image was positively correlated with self-efficacy in managing of positive emotions. In the intermediate phase, these preadolescents will attend the specific training about the life skills during the school time in order to increase these abilities and enhance well-being at school. At the third phase, we will compare the final results with the initial ones to verify the efficacy of the abovementioned training. This project will be useful to deep the role of life skills as me-

In this paper decision-making styles, locus of control, and average grades in exams are examined as correlates of procrastination in a sample of 185 university students (mainly female students) recruited from mandatory courses for degrees in psychology and pedagogy at the University of Catania (Italy). Method: We used the Decisional Procrastination Scale (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995), consisting of five Likert-type items useful for analyzing the procrastination; the Decision-Making Styles (Di Nuovo & Magnano, 2013), chosen for measuring the doubtfulness, delay, proxy, and no problem styles with 15 Likert-type items; the Locus of Control of Behavior Scale (Craig, Franklin, & Andrews, 1984) used to evaluate internal and external loci of control. The data were gathered through an online anonymous questionnaire and were analyzed using the multiple linear regression model to assess how styles of decision-making, locus of control, and average grades in exams affect the decision to procrastinate in university students. The main findings of this study indicate that doubtfulness and delay decision-making styles correlate with high decisional procrastination together with low average grades at university exams. Locus of control is excluded by the proposed model. Conclusions: These findings suggest pursuing a deeper investigation of the various types of procrastination and the measures used for analyzing the academic achievement in university students.

This study aimed to explore interpersonal adaptation, generalized self-efficacy, and metacognitive skills in a sample of Italian adolescents with and without a specific learning disorder (SLD). A total of 564 secondary and high school students (males = 236; females = 328; age range: 11–19; M = 16.14, SD = 1.70) completed a set of standardized tests assessing social and interpersonal skills (non-affirmation, impulsiveness, narcissism, social preoccupation, and stress in social situations), general self-efficacy, and metacognition. Students with SLD reported a lower interpersonal adaptation than students without SLD. Furthermore, students with SLD were more impulsive and had more problems handling social situations. They also reported lower levels of self-efficacy but higher metacognition scores than peers without SLD. The use of compensatory tools was associated with better interpersonal skills and higher levels of self-efficacy in students with SLD. Finally, using these instruments is predictive of high levels of metacognitive skills in adolescents with SLD. In line with the previous literature, this study showed the presence of a gap between adolescents with and without an SLD in terms of interpersonal adaptation, general self-efficacy, and metacognitive skills in the school context. Further studies are needed on the psychological well-being of adolescents with SLD and especially on the protective role of personal, social, and environmental characteristics.