LIBRI DI GIOVANNA PETRILLO

Antecedents of sporting activity in adolescence: the role of intentions and self-efficacy perceptions in the HAPA model process view ABSTRACT: The regular practice of physical activity contributes to increase young people’s physical, psychological and social well-being (see Donizzetti, 2008 for a review). However, notwithstanding the recognition of its protective role for the health, there is a very high inactivity rate. Because of the difficulty in the passing from a sedentary to an active life-style and the maintenance of the latter, several studies analyzed the factors intervening in the different phases of the behaviour change process. Among the theorized models, the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) by Schwarzer (1992) presents a dynamic framework of the process through which people decide to act, by assuming that this process implies the passing across some temporally and qualitatively distinct phases. A study was conducted involving a sample of 682 physically active adolescents. The purpose was to investigate the variables predicting sporting behaviour during the maintenance phase. According to the theorized hypothesis, the results illustrate that self-efficacy and the intention to increase physical activity predict sporting behaviour. Further, they show the existing of gender and attended class differences.

La comunicazione di crisi: il caso dell'influenza aviaria - This study analyses the Italian government institutional communication’s strategies to face "avian phenomenon", in order to assess the efficacy of communication by different messages with reference to the supplying subjects’ declared purposes and the target range. Four different initiatives, implemented during the period November-December 2005, were considered: an informative booklet, a placard, a spot and a press release. According to Fabris’ model (1992), the different communication strategies were analysed, by heeding the medium specificity, with reference to: content; accessibility; graphic aspect; potential impact on the target range. On the whole the strategies missed their goal. In fact, while the placard was positively assessed, the other strategies had some negative elements, that is the complex language and the low clarity of the press release and the booklet, and the too ironic content and the long duration of the spot.

As the results of some previous researches showed (Petrillo et al., 2004) the self-efficacy perceptions (Bandura, 1992) work into a more complex network of variables, which are prominent to health and act as the most important predictors both of the intention to carry out healthy behaviours and of their fulfilment (Schwarzer, 1992). Starting from a presupposition that the quality of life is both an individual and a social matter, this work was aimed at verifying the positive role of the personal and collective efficacy in the adolescence’s health promotion (2003 funds-Regional Law n. 5/02). For this end, we constructed some scales of measurement of personal self-efficacy with reference to different spheres of health’s protection and one scale of measurement of the school efficacy on health. Together with other tools, these scales were proposed to 1107 first and fourth class-students of Naples’s and Neapolitan area’s upper secondary schools. The results here illustrated are pertinent to: 1) the validation both of the new scales of school efficacy in the health promotion, and of the self-efficacy scale related to sexual behaviours, and alcohol and tobacco consumption; 2) the relations among the different perceptions of efficacy, the healthy behaviours and the well-being.

Viene presentata una attività di ricerca-intervento sulla promozione della salute, secondo l’approccio biopsicosociale proposto dall’OMS (1983), particolarmente rivolta agli adolescenti, assumendo che proprio in adolescenza possono manifestarsi alcuni comportamenti problematici (alimentazione scorretta; consumo di alcol e fumo di sigarette; sesso precoce e non protetto; vita sedentaria); che anche la scuola ha un ruolo essenziale da svolgere nella promozione della salute; e che la mera informazione non ha un effetto significativo per la promozione di una cultura della salute e per l’adozione di un consono stile di vita. Ad un intervento informativo è stato affiancato anche un processo formativo, teso all’acquisizione di specifiche life skills. Prodotti testuali e multimediali definiti ad hoc sono stati proposti ad adolescenti (356 soggetti), in un piano di ricerca di tipo quasi-sperimentale. Tramite un questionario, utilizzato nella fase di pre- e post-test, sono stati rilevati: atteggiamento verso la salute, conoscenze, abitudini, intenzioni, percezioni del rischio, locus of control, autoefficacia e benessere. I risultati evidenziano una tendenza a riferire abitudini sane e valori elevati per tutte le variabili, tranne che per la percezione del rischio. L’intervento in-formativo nel suo insieme ha prodotto un aumento nella percezione del rischio e nell’autoefficacia, con una diminuzione di internalità del controllo della salute e della sola dimensione psicologica del benessere. Relazioni positive sono state riscontrate tra il benessere e le altre variabili rilevate, tranne nel caso della percezione del rischio, con cui sussiste una relazione negativa. Di una certa importanza si sono dimostrate anche le differenze tra i soggetti per genere, età e formazione.