Psychological Well-Being and Self-Efficacy in Life Skills among Italian Preadolescents with Positive Body Esteem: Preliminary Results of an Intervention Project

Abstract

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-

Resilience and perceived self-efficacy in life skills from early to late adolescence

“…Babakhani, 2011;Rezayat & Nayeri, 2013). Likewise, Sagone, De Caroli, Indiana, & Fichera (2018) found that, after the life skills training about self-image and sociorelational competences, preadolescents enhanced their self-efficacy only in the managing of negative emotions and some factors of psychological well-being. We will address future investigations towards the improvement of psychological well-being, resilient resources, optimism, coping strategies, and assertiveness in children and adolescents with disability (sensorial, intellectual, or behavioural disability) or social disadvantages through the life skills training performed in school context, defining the array of activities useful to refine on the quality of life of each student.…”

Changes in Weight, Body Image Perception and Self-Efficacy: A Study on Italian Adolescents during the Pandemic Period

“…The component of body experience and selfassessment with respect to one's own body has its own relevance on the aspects of psychological wellbeing linked to self-efficacy. In fact, it has been demonstrated that self-efficacy, both general and specific, in daily life is linked to the psychological well-being of individuals (Sagone et al, 2018). In this particular age group, high self-efficacy is also associated with better school performance (Fortman, 2006).…”

“…On the basis of what has emerged, it is desirable that in this phase of post-pandemic recovery, good practices, also promoted by school systems, are taken into consideration to activate students' resources. To this end, it may be useful to activate programs aimed at enhancing physical activity to promote healthy lifestyles and encourage body knowledge/awareness and satisfaction (Sagone et al, 2018). Training aimed at working on self-esteem at the physical/body level and on self-efficacy to promote positive development and a state of psycho-physical well-being, rebalancing the stressful situations experienced during the pandemic period.…”

“…Research suggests that the perception of one's body image is a powerful construct that influences selfevaluation. Therefore, self-efficacy, a specific type of self-evaluation such as self-esteem, is influenced by body image (Fortman, 2006;Sagone et al, 2018). But whereas self-esteem offers an affective evaluation of self, self-efficacy captures a motivational belief (or evaluation) about task ability.…”

“…Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as "beliefs in one's ability to organize and execute actions necessary to manage future situations" (Sagone et al, 2018, p. 3). These beliefs depend on the ability to express positive emotions while managing negative ones (Caprara et al, 2001;Sagone & Indiana, 2017), interpersonal and social communication (Pastorelli et al, 2001), and the ability to solve problems divergently and creatively (Sagone et al, 2018).Understanding how socialization experiences can influence both body image and selfefficacy is important in explaining how body image can be a predictor of self-efficacy. Bandura's (1997;1977) explanation emphasizes the impact of socialization experiences on the development of self-efficacy.…”