RISULTATI RICERCA

Surviving after the cancer: a review of the Quality of Life of cancer survivors - Thanks to substantial medical progress, today the number of cancer survivors constantly increases. Thus, ever more frequently, patients and healthy professionals must treat a new condition: the cancer survivorship. This condition is peculiar for both its somatic (e.g. the late and long term effects of the treatments) and psychosocial (e.g. psychological distress, fear for a relapse, perceived social support) implications. The present paper is a review of the recent international literature about cancer survivorship; a condition still less known in Italy. First the definition of cancer survivorship is discussed and then cancer survivorship is addressed through a four point model of the concept of Quality of Life. In the last section, the authors will examine the expectation for future research, as well as the possible limitations, together with the practical implications of this topic.

Depressive characteristic, coping strategies and familiar context in adolescence - The main purpose of this paper is to study depressive characteristics in adolescents and their link with parental relationship and coping strategies. It is our aims also to analyse the influence of particiants’ gender on these varaibles. Four hundred thirty-six participants (214 males; 222 females), aged fourteen to twenty-two years, were recruited. A set of were employed Depression Scale (Newcomer, Barembaum and Bryant, 1995), Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling and Brown, 1979), Coping Strategy Indicator (Amirkhan, 1990). Depressive characteristics were related to overprotection and low parental care; depressive charachteristics, indeed, were related to coping strategies, in particular to avoidance.

Risk and protection factors in pre-adolescence: the importance of school, family and friends - The presented study gets its idea from the interactionist and constructivist model (Jessor e Jessor, 1977) and aims to investigate which at risk and protection behaviours systems may be associated with physical, psychic and social wellbeing, in preadolescent subjects. More specifically we refer to some at risk behaviours as motorcyclists’ dangerous driving, pornography and game of chance utilisation and their relation to formative success. We involved a group of about 300 adolescents that, because of their life span cycle phase, have not yet strongly structured neither deviant social conducts or crystallised at risk behaviours, attending three secondary schools in Naples. To everyone was administered the questionnaire "Me, the school and my life style" (Bonino, Cattellino, Ciairano, 2003), simplifying its articulation and expositive clearness. The study pointed out the role developed by some variables as the possibility to find support inside the family, supporting youths’ adaptation and improving non deviant conducts development.

Life goals, personal values and individual well-being: an empirical study - People fell happier and more satisfied when they have the possibility to devote themselves to the achievement of their life-goals, the most important goals usually reflect high-priority values that function as life guides. Main aim of the present study, involving 240 Italian adults, was to investigate the relationships among personal values, life-goals, and individual wellbeing. We identified various types of people considering their personal values and life-goals; they were then compared on four well-being indicators: life satisfaction, self-esteem, optimism, and hedonic balance. The pursuit of "relational" life-goals, supported by universalism and benevolence values, promotes higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction.

After Keynes, after Sraffa: "Heterodox" Approaches and the Italian Economy - Italian economic thought, from Francesco Ferrara on, has always been noteworthy for the wide range of its perspectives. This characteristic became even more marked in the second half of the twentieth century, thanks also to the "Cambridge- school" post-Keynesian strand, while the wider world saw the triumph, or at least the hegemony, of the marginalist approach, the neoclassical synthesis, and neoliberal ideology. The essay reviews the analyses and policy proposals produced by the post- Keynesian and, more generally, "heterodox" schools of thought in response to the crucial developments in the Italian economy since 1950. They represent an important contribution, significant even when Italy’s policy-makers failed to follow it up with concrete policy measures. EconLit Classification: Q110, O130, Q420

Biofuels between International Markets, Policies and the Wto - Much has been written on the alleged negative impact of rapidly growing biofuel production on agricultural markets and prices. Within a longer-term perspective one critical aspect in this respect is the limited development of biofuel international trade observed thus far. Due mainly to the combination of strong support for domestic production and trade barriers in most of the key-countries, this limited openness in trade not only reduces the growth potentials of the biofuel sector but may also aggravate its negative fallout on the agricultural markets. In this article we analyse the international biofuel trade starting from its implications for the associated markets (of agricultural and energy products) and focusing on the role of current promotion policies, the possible policy alternatives and the contribution that the Wto can make (as well as the problems it may come up against) to improve international biofuel trade. EconLit Classification: Q110, O130, Q420

Cap Payments after 2013 and Rural Public Goods - The aim of this paper is to reconsider the objectives of European farm policy taking a long-term view to assessing the instruments currently in place and advancing some suggestions for the design of the future Cap due in 2013. The pro- posed guidelines for reforms include defining targeting instruments on clear objectives, guaranteeing social return for public money and replacing assistance with incentives. Measures are suggested to make EU agriculture more competitive by adapting instruments and regulations to that purpose. It is proposed to amend the current complex payment schemes, which could be simplified with a set of payments based on "contracts for services" only, including potentially three basic levels of services (basic husbandry of the countryside preserving farming landscapes; territorial services; environmentally sensitive measures). Regarding market management, it is proposed to reform but maintain public intervention to guarantee a floor price (or "safety net") restricted to exceptional circumstances. Sharing financial responsibility between the EU and the Member States according to the principle of subsidiarity would imply some co-financing of the first pillar. EconLit Classification: Q180 ,Q100

Falling Educational Wage Premia in Italy - In this paper we analyze the evolution of Educational wage premia (Ewp) in the Italian private sector. Drawing upon the Household income and wealth survey (Bank of Italy) we show that Ewp showed a general decrease between 1993 and 2004, at all quantiles of the wage distribution. Our findings do not depend on the type of educational attainments. A number of robustness checks and various econometric specifications are also applied in order to address matters of sample selection. Thus Italy is situated as an outlier among the Oecd countries, where the Ewp have generally increased over the last few decades.