RISULTATI RICERCA

Interpersonal relationships play a crucial role in the promotion of individual well-being; a number of studies demonstrate that positive relationships with others, especially with family members and the partner, exert a positive influence on physical health and on various aspects of psychological and subjective well-being. Main aim of the present study was to investigate the role of interpersonal relationships in promoting subjective well-being, in terms of life satisfaction, self-esteem, optimism and hedonic balance. 520 men and 493 women, ranging in age from 20 to 87 years old, participated to the study; all they were married or involved in an intimate and stable relationship. Quality of relationships with family members, with the partner, with friends, and membership to various types of associations were used to identify seven types of people; each type was characterized by a specific interpersonal profile. Significant differences among clusters were found in well-being indicators; a low well-being was reported by people belonging to clusters with negative interpersonal profiles, whereas high life satisfaction, self-esteem, optimism, and hedonic balance were reported by people with good interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, relationships with family members and the partner were more important in the promotion of well-being than relationships with friends and the membership to associations.

The aim of the present study is to analyze the influence of different contexts on the development of antisocial behaviours during early-adolescence. We analyzed different contexts such as family, peer group, school and neighbourhood. The sample was composed by 1.155 students (51.3% males) from 5 middle schools in Veneto Region. A multiple regression and a cluster analysis were used to analyze different interrelation among contexts’ perceptions. Results show that antisocial behaviours are more frequent among older students, males and youths living in an industrial suburban area. Higher level of monitoring, peer support and positive relationship with teachers play the role of protective factors while autonomous decisions and, especially, deviant peers can be considered highly dysfunctional. Significant interactions between monitoring and deviant peer, and between relationships with teachers and autonomous decisions were found. These interactions will be deeply commented in the paper. Cluster analysis was used to define contextual patterns (developed by multiple contextual aspects) and to analyze the relation among these clusters and antisocial behaviours. Results show that there are two specific groups of students that have higher levels of antisocial behaviours: these two groups are characterized by an high level of frequencies of deviant peer, or by a negative perception of all the contextual aspects considered.

The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship during adolescence among social deviancy, either perceived or experienced, and moral cognitions, and transgressive behaviours. 468 subjects took part in the research, 272 males (mean age 17.47; sd = 1.33) and 196 females (mean age 17.64; sd = 1.08) attending the 11th and the 13th school grade. The following measures were used: a scale for evaluating the frequency of transgressive behaviours, two scales for assessing exposure to violence (both as a victim and as a witness), a scale for measuring perception of illegality in the neighbourhood, two scales for assessing the seriousness of deviant behaviours and one for evaluating moral disengagement. The relationship among variables was investigated through a structural equations’ model. We tested the hypothesis that social deviancy, either perceived or experienced, should directly act upon transgressive behaviour, and, indirectly, through the mediation of moral cognitions. Result showed the plausibility of the hypothesized model, both in males and in females. Moral cognitions appeared to have a strong influence upon transgressive behaviour but they are, in turn, influenced by social deviancy. The latter exerts also a direct influence upon transgressive behaviour in adolescence. Results and implications for intervention are discussed.

During the adolescence, boys and girls get more involved in the relationships with their friends. Peers are important development context: they offer the possibility to compare with others and the normative reference for experimenting new experiences. The aims of this study are: 1) to describe patterns of stay together with friends as regard to gender, age and different high schools attendance; 2) to investigate the relationships between these patterns and psychosocial well-being (positive self perception and expectations of success) in boys and girls. The sample is constituted of 136 adolescents of both gender, aged from 14 to 20 years, attending different high schools in North-West of Italy. The analyses underlined that: 1) the relevant motivations of friendships are sharing support, and comparison, especially among girls and older adolescents; 2) sharing alone doesn’t ensure an adequate level of well-being, although it is necessary to share with friends positive feelings.

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.

Aim of the research was to investigate the adoption of some health risk behaviours (driving behaviours, smoking, drinking alcohol, substance abuse, unprotected sexual behaviours), in a sample of students of the area of Bologna, and the differences according to age, gender, type of school and nationality (Italian vs immigrants). Of interest was the relationship between such behaviours and perceived self-efficacy (emotional, social, regulatory and general self-efficacy). A questionnaire was submitted to 1.130 students attending 16 different high schools and 4 vocational courses. Results indicate an important predictive role of regulatory self-efficacy, which reduces adolescents’ tendency to take risks, whereas social self-efficacy enhances risk assumption. No relevant differences were found between Italian and immigrant students.

In this article the Authors face the collusion in couple dynamic, particularly the problem of genitoriality in couple therapy case. In particular they focus the couple formation and the partner’s selection, utilizing concepts of contract or pact between partners, distinguishing between explicit contract (declared) and implicit contract (secret), in order to introduce the couple collusion. The clinical case is an example of multidimensional model of intervention in therapeutic day community. In this article the Authors focus mainly the implicit contract and the secrets, omissions and silent agreement connected with collusion. The therapy makes easier the passage from drug addicted couple to clear couple, processing the HIV problem. Particularly the therapeutical work about genograms has revealed the secret pact based on mutual mandate and family myths, where the couple collusion has been constructed. Key words: collusion, secret pact, parentalship, drug addiction, HIV

This research is aimed to investigate the quality of family representation in patient with Eating Disorders Behavior and to verify if in reference to the representation of the family, there are important differences among anorexia, bulimia and obesity. To such purpose we have used the " Family Drawing Test". For the evaluation of the drawings we have adopted as grate of reading the one proposed by Castellazzi- Nannini, which it allows to analyze the drawings not only from a graphic and formal point of view but also in content. The preliminary results of this research have underlined that the three examined pathologies, also inside a common matrix, introduce among them important differences. These differences are observed both in the representation that such patients make of their family nucleus of affiliation and in the representation of themselves. Key words: anorexia, bulimia, obesità, representation of family

Apollo and Hermes represent the emblem of the opposites, the union of contraries patterns of ambivalent and dissimilar images but, at the same time, they are strongly connected. The process that allows to underline a cybernetic complementarity, always requires a change of level, an operation of creativity that is formed by two opposite elements avoiding to be trapped with the dichotomies. Greeks found in poetry the symbol of their union, and poetry is only creativity. Through the description of the two mythical characters, the author emphasize the possibility of distinguish different and opposite elements that coexist in the same individual system. An element, even if it is different or opposite to another, plays the functional role of qualifying and defining the other element. What defines and qualifies the light of Apollo as a characteristic element is not the light that produce brightness, but the blinding effect of light: strong light meets its opposite, the darkness of the night. To underline the unpredictability of the answers of the system, a clinical case is introduced. Key words: complementarity, opposite, emerging quality

This paper shows how family myths and secrets can imbricate and disentangle themselves through two different generations. It shows as well their origins, their influence on personal identity and on partner’s choice, and finally the role hay play in the ongoing therapeutic process. The myths acted in by the couple during the session, have a violent impact on the therapists’ team. As they interact with strong emotions and body perceptions that emerge during the session, they guide as well therapeutic interventions and allow to became aware that nothing is so terrible, and there’s no sorrow or disaster imposed by gods that human nature is unable to sustain (Euripides, Oreste). In this way the emotions elaboration during the session allows the use of myths, through the prescription of a generative ritual that has the function to make it thinkable and to activate new contents and hopes in the couple relationship. Key words: Myth, secret, symbols, identity, relationship, emotions.