RISULTATI RICERCA

Le ricerche sui comportamenti sessuali a rischio in adolescenti e giovani si sono concentrate prevalentemente sugli studenti. Questa ricerca si è focalizzata su un campione di non studenti, con lo scopo di indagare i comportamenti precauzionali nei riguardi dell’HIV (uso del condom, intenzioni di usarlo in futuro) e le differenze in base all’età, al genere e all’esperienza sessuale. Si è analizzato anche il ruolo di alcune variabili nell’influenzare le strategie precauzionali: le conoscenze sull’HIV, la percezione del rischio di contagio, gli atteggiamenti verso il preservativo, le stime circa la sua diffusione fra coetanei ed amici, la frequenza di uso del preservativo (nei sessualmente attivi). E' stato somministrato un questionario a 268 adolescenti (14-18 anni) e 190 giovani (19-25 anni), maschi e femmine, non inseriti in percorsi scolastici. I risultati confermano che i non studenti sono un gruppo a rischio di contagio da HIV per il non uso sistematico del preservativo, le scarse intenzioni di proteggersi nei rapporti futuri e un basso livello di conoscenze circa le vie di trasmissione del virus. Le principali determinanti dei comportamenti protettivi sono gli atteggiamenti verso il profilattico e le norme del gruppo di riferimento. Le conoscenze sull’HIV, sebbene non incidano sul comportamento, risultano importanti nell’influenzare le intenzioni di proteggersi, soprattutto nelle situazioni potenzialmente più a rischio.

E' stata condotta una ricerca per valutare l’incidenza di fattori socio-culturali nell’instaurarsi della Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Abbiamo valutato 62 donne affette da BN, 62 donne sane e 55 donne sovrappeso affette da Disturbo da Alimentazione Incontrollata (Binge Eating Disorder, BED). è stato indagato il desiderio di magrezza prendendo in considerazione il peso reale, il peso desiderato e la sottoscala del test EDI Impulso alla magrezza. è stata inoltre somministrata un’intervista semistrutturata da cui sono state ricavate risposte inerenti a cognizioni sull’importanza della snellezza. Il peso desiderato in tutti tre i gruppi è risultato significativamente inferiore al peso reale. I punteggi della sottoscala Impulso alla Magrezza dell’EDI sono risultati significativamente maggiori nelle pazienti con BN sia rispetto ai controlli, sia rispetto alle pazienti con BED. I soggetti con BN e BED, hanno collegato maggiormente il valore personale alla snellezza e si sono mostrati più sensibili alla richiesta sociale di magrezza. Il desiderio di magrezza coinvolge sia soggetti con DCA (disturbo dell’alimentazione) che soggetti sani, in questi ultimi però non ha corrispondenza con valori alterati della sottoscala Impulso alla magrezza.

In questo lavoro si presenta e valuta un progetto realizzato in una scuola elementare che ha avuto l’obiettivo di promuovere l’uso più consapevole e critico della TV nei bambini e nelle loro famiglie, il comportamento prosociale dei bambini e inoltre di migliorare il clima e le relazioni all’interno della classe. L’intervento, realizzato in due quarte elementari (in totale 34 soggetti), si è articolato in diverse attività: incontri di discussione sul blackout televisivo con i genitori; realizzazione parallela del blackout e di una serie di incontri pomeridiani e serali a casa dei bambini; circle time in classe; riscoperta dei giochi antichi all’aperto fuori da scuola. La valutazione dell’intervento, avvenuta utilizzando un disegno quasi sperimentale, ha coinvolto, inoltre, due classi quarte della scuola (34 soggetti). Gli strumenti somministrati, prima e dopo l’intervento, sono stati: un questionario teso a valutare le diverse modalità di fruizione della TV; una scala che rileva la prosocialità; un questionario per rilevare il clima di classe; il sociogramma per rilevare le modalità di configurazione delle interazioni nel gruppo classe. Dai risultati è emerso che l’intervento ha favorito significativamente la prosocialità dei bambini ma non ha avuto effetto sul clima di classe. L’uso della TV e il numero dei bambini isolati è diminuito nelle classi sperimentali.

Viene presentata una ricerca effettuata su 589 studenti (età 11-20 anni) di alcune scuole di Firenze e provincia. Scopo del lavoro è quello di mettere in evidenza possibili percorsi di prevenzione del tabagismo tra pari che si sviluppano spontaneamente senza la supervisione di adulti e professionisti.La ricerca, nello studiare i processi che avvengono spontaneamente nella prevenzione del tabagismo tra pari, ha evidenziato la presenza di due percorsi distinti: il primo, che abbiamo chiamato Formazione personale, è caratterizzato da un impegno individuale ad acquisire conoscenze e ad approfondire l’argomento. Il secondo, che abbiamo chiamato Intervento assertivo, prevede un intervento concreto che si realizza attraverso l’impegno in azioni di dissuasione verso i fumatori e di sostegno verso stili di vita senza fumo. Dal punto di vista di chi realizza interventi di educazione alla salute nella scuola, può dunque essere utile riconoscere questi due diversi percorsi al fine di creare contesti nei quali possano svilupparsi ed essere sostenuti. Riteniamo che il percorso di formazione personale possa essere sostenuto in particolare nella scuola superiore quando la maggior parte degli studenti ha i primi contatti con la sigaretta e, allo stesso tempo, mostra interesse e disponibilità ad acquisire maggiori conoscenze sull’argomento e a discuterne con i compagni. Il percorso di Intervento assertivo può essere sostenuto e sviluppato coinvolgendo quegli studenti sia nella scuola media inferiore che nella superiore, più motivati a dissuadere gli altri a fumare, il cui bilancio decisionale propende verso i vantaggi dell’intervento che percepiscono il fumo come un problema rilevante e che non fumano o hanno iniziato da poco. In conclusione, riteniamo che sia vantaggioso tenere conto delle variabili psicologiche e delle caratteristiche personali emerse come utili predittori al fine di realizzare interventi di prevenzione del tabagismo tra pari più mirati ed aderenti ai processi che spontaneamente avvengono tra coetanei.

Questa ricerca si propone di studiare le motivazioni che inducono alcune persone a intraprendere l’attività di soccorritore volontario sulle autoambulanze. Lo studio vuol inoltre indagare quali sono le esperienze emotive che accompagnano questa attività ed evidenziare eventuali risposte di stress o situazioni di burn-out. Sono stati assunti come riferimento teorico alcuni modelli elaborati dalla psicologia della motivazione e delle emozioni. L’indagine è stata svolta con l’ausilio di un questionario somministrato ad un gruppo di 110 volontari della Croce Rossa Italiana. è emerso che le motivazioni e le esperienze emotive associate all’attività di volontariato si differenziano in base all’età, al sesso e al livello di competenza. Le motivazioni più frequenti si riferiscono all’autorealizzazione, le esperienze emotive all’ansia/paura ed alla tristezza/compassione. I risultati sembrano indicare l’opportunità ed il bisogno di attenti progetti di selezione e formazione; quest’ultima dovrà riguardare l’ambito delle motivazioni, quello delle competenze e non dovrà trascurare una sensibilizzazione nei confronti dei problemi emotivi e comunicativi.

The historical process of urbanization in Spain is a peculiar example of articulation and, at the same time, erosion of the state. Ethnocide, nationalism, tourism, emigration, and immigration have given rise to a confusing mixture of cultures often in chronic competition, overlapping and conflicting in a territory that is ever more diffuse as a state entity. The inclusion of Spain in Europe has had a cohesive effect that is more virtual than real. Citizen mobilization against the Iraq war has made it evident that neither Spain nor Europe are integrated cultural realities.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, post-Soviet Russia began an accelerated political, economic, and social «transition». The housing system, socialized with the October Revolution, was privatized. This paper examines the housing constructed during the Stalinist period (from the 1930’s - 1950’s) in St. Petersburg. This segment of the housing system boasts particular characteristics: the architectural and technical quality of the buildings, functional neighborhood layout, and the social homogeneity of the inhabitants. These characteristics also constitute factors of improvement in the Stalinist segment of the post-communist period. Political changes that concern Russia during the first years of the 1990’s transformed urban space, but did not compensate for the inequality inherited by the socialist regime. From this point of view, Stalin’s housing system constituted a significant legacy.

In the Soviet Union, the development of prefabricated buildings seems to have been a discontinuous process. During the 1920’s the industrialization of the nation, the spread of works by Taylor and Ford, and the presence of foreign technicians opened the debate on prefabrication. During this phase, constructions using large cement blocks and lighter wooden prefabricates were experimented. During the 1930’s the «academic» trends in Soviet architecture clashed with concepts of prefabrication, but not in a particularly radical fashion: technical innovations and theoretical research conserved the objective of prefabrication. The sum of the destruction caused by the Second World War gave rise to the development of industrial methods of reconstruction that were, however, impeded by the formal aspects, as demonstrated by the debate concerning the «visible» joints between prefabricated panels. With Stalin’s death and Nikita Kruschev’s rise to power (1953), the prefabricated buildings were envisioned as a method of solving the extensive housing crisis. For this reason it was explicitly included in the political program of the new party leader. This phase constitutes the second short-term trend in the history of Soviet prefabrication.

The 1935 General reconstruction plan for Moscow is a significant episode in 20th century urban planning and, in particular, of Stalinist urban development. The Plan, due to the importance of the transformations to the urban layout and impact on further evolution of the city, may be considered as the first true Moscow reconstruction project. Due to the radical nature of the planned and partially actuated interventions, such a project was often compared with that designed by Haussmann in 19th-century Paris. This paper focuses on the «socialist reconstruction» of Gor’kij Street (Tverskaja), one of the main communications axes of the Soviet capital. Through a comparative analysis of various plans from various epochs, it is demonstrated that the actuation of the General reconstruction plan for Moscow was much less destructive of the urban fiber of the city than the plan had originally led people to believe it would be. In this case, existing buildings were implemented by the plan and public space gained the appearance of a successful, functional architectural and urban composition. In fact, even if only 5% of the buildings involved in the alignment or demolition plans were effectively demolished, the rubble was totally salvaged and reused in the construction of new housing.

This paper analyzes living conditions in Czarist Russia during the years preceding World War I and housing policies implemented during the revolutionary period of the Soviet Union, between 1917 and the end of the 1930’s. The period being examined finds itself sandwiched between wartime communism and the first five-year plans of the Stalinist era. This study implements first-hand sources and ample Russian and Soviet literature published, above all, following the opening of the archives. Housing construction and its impact, especially in Moscow and Leningrad, is analyzed with particular attention paid to the plurality of the actors involved. The «socialist» city appears as the result of diverse housing decisions where public agencies, private bodies, and building cooperatives were mobilized. The housing policies inspired by «integral socialism» during the three years from 1918 to 1921 are followed by those marked by a return to the market, or the model of mixed urban economy drafted by the New Economic Policy (NEP). During the years of forced industrialization, marked by a rapid growth in urban populations and a worsening of living conditions, the character of the Soviet city of the 1930’s comes into being: anti-egalitarianism, the growing control of industrial enterprises by ministerial bodies, and the establishment of the hierarchy of urban forms.

This article looks at German manifestations of modernization during the complex historical period running from the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Cold War. Taking into consideration that one of the most potent of symbols of modernization was the car, it explores the history of arterial roads in Germany, given its decisive role in the transformation of the city and the countryside. Due to its complex nature, the phenomenon of the arterial road was necessarily at the core of interaction between social, political, economical, strategical planning and formal interests that determined nearly every construction project during that period, regardless of its scale. However, it is essential to take into account the interaction between project cycles and political cycles, each with its own time-frame: during the period of the Weimar Republic, highway planning and regional planning arose in a common context determined by cities’ economical matters rather than national policies. The influence of Italy’s autostrade on German highway planning evidently stretches from those initial projects to the Nazi decade which saw the realization of the Autobahn, Volkswagen, and urban Neugestaltung programs. As a product of centralized state policies, characterized by their implicit national scale, Nazi projects of the thirties deployed all conventional means of spatial intervention: architecture, engineering, town planning, regional planning and landscaping. Given the highly contradictory nature of the socio-political climate, industrial and functional aesthetics had to be reconciled with the desire for a return to national roots, to regional nostalgia, or to a monumental classicism. Having been depleted of this symbolism during the reconstruction period following WW II, arterial roads became a constitutional part of new urban landscapes and reorganized the cities in anticipation of the German economical miracle.

At the beginning of the XX century, France boasted a very advanced motorcar industry. The quality of French roads was a significant asset to the development of this industry. Indeed, at that time the French road network was considered to be the most wonderful in the world. But traditional roads proved inadequate for motorcar traffic. Thus, some projects for special roads for motorcars were proposed around 1905. Nevertheless, for economic reasons, civil engineers chose not to built such roads but to upgrade the existing network. Around 1925, as the number of cars increased phenomenally, some new projects for motorways were proposed. French engineers considered that motorways could be used either to link two distant cities or to facilitate traffic around cities. But none of those projects ever materialized and French administration continued upgrading the existing network. This was a demonstration that this network had sufficient capacity to absorb the demand of traffic. Around 1935, major cities such as Paris increased by such proportions that it became necessary to institute a regional planning administration. It was within this framework that the first motorway projects were decided. One case in particular was that of the motorway located west of Paris. Work began on this road in 1937 but was interrupted by the war in 1939. It was only around 1960 that a real motorway network would finally be built in France.

Spain crossed the threshold of the twentieth century with the clear conviction that the modernisation of the territory by means of public works was a pending issue. The basic road network had by then been planned, though construction was not yet complete, and local networks were still lacking. The railways did not provide full coverage as regards either connectivity or service, and hydraulic works were seen as being essential to the positive exploitation of territorial resources. At the same time, new patterns of mobility were emerging, giving rise to a considerable increase in the number of goods and persons being transported, along with the evolution and integration of the automobile, which rapidly replaced traditional collective means of passenger transport. As a result, it became necessary to extend overland communication networks as well as modernize them in accordance with this new mobility. The response was divided between decisive action on the existing road system and projects for the first motorways that were formulated in the late twenties, though not actually constructed until forty years later.

Beginning with Piero Puricelli’s first project for the motorway that stretches from Milan to the lakes in the Alpine foothills, about 500 km of motorways were built in Italy between the two wars. The implementation of this network must not be viewed as an isolated event, but as part of the process of growth and modernisation of the Italian road network, from Giolitti’s age until the constitution of the Azienda autonoma statale della strada (Self-governing state road enterprise) in 1928. The building of motorways was meant to create new, long-distance communication axes as happened for the railway network in the nineteenth century. At the same time it was also a purely pragmatic choice aimed at obtaining advantages for various proponents (building contractors, automotive industry, professional associations). The Great Depression of 1929 brought network development to a standstill as the disparity between cost and benefit became more pronounced, especially for countries with a very low motorization index like Italy.

The presentation of this special edition underlines the overall significance of the current European motorway system as the result of projects and of the partial implementation of those projects, which began during the 1920’s and 1930’s. It calls attention to the various differences that characterized the debate and the constructiong of the motorways in four major European countries (Italy, Spain, France, and Germany). This collection of articles is also supported by brief documents relative to the two decades preceding World War II. Some of these documents were published in technical reviews or widely-circulated newspapers, while others remained unpublished and filed away in the government archives of the International Labour Office or in those of the italian state central archive. These documents help to shed light on many previously obscure details of the complex history of European motorways.