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- Degree in Philosophy (Università degli Studi di Milano) Post lauream Specialization in Psychology PhD in Developmenta... moreDegree in Philosophy (Università degli Studi di Milano)
Post lauream Specialization in Psychology
PhD in Developmental Psychology (Visiting Researcher at OISE -UofT: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/oise/Home/index.html)edit
Introduction: Despite increasing interest in measuring social and emotional learning (SEL), there is a lack of European-validated tools for assessing the efficacy of SEL programs. The aim of this study was to validate an Italian version... more
Introduction: Despite increasing interest in measuring social and emotional learning (SEL), there is a lack of European-validated tools for assessing the efficacy of SEL programs. The aim of this study was to validate an Italian version of the social skills improvement system (SSIS) SEL brief scales-student form. Methods: Participants were 1,175 students (mean age: 11.02 years; SD: 2.42; range: 8-16 years; males: 46.8%) recruited at schools in Northern Italy. Statistical analyses and results: Initial confirmatory factor analysis encountered a series of challenges, implying non-convergence of the original five-factor measurement model (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) based on the Collaborative on Academic Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) competency framework established with students in the United States. Further exploratory and confirmatory analyses supported a four-factor model that remained partially invariant across gender groups. The Italian version of the SSIS SEL brief scales was thus shown to be an efficient measurement tool for estimating social and emotional learning in students. Discussion: We discuss the implications of findings in relation to selecting valid and reliable instruments for assessing children's and adolescents' SEL competencies, while considering the culturally-situated nature of the constructs under study.
KEYWORDS social skills improvement system SEL brief scales, social and emotional learning, measurement invariance, gender invariance, children, adolescents
KEYWORDS social skills improvement system SEL brief scales, social and emotional learning, measurement invariance, gender invariance, children, adolescents
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L'articolo proporre una sintesi dei principali risultati empirici della recente ricerca in psicologia dello sviluppo che concorrono a definire una nuova immagine di bambino competente, in grado fin dalla prima infanzia di riconoscere gli... more
L'articolo proporre una sintesi dei principali risultati empirici della recente ricerca in psicologia dello sviluppo che concorrono a definire una nuova
immagine di bambino competente, in grado fin dalla prima infanzia di riconoscere gli esseri umani come dotati di mente, ovvero
di una ricca varietà di stati interni: intenzioni, volizioni, emozioni, desideri,
pensieri, credenze e così via. Inoltre, l’articolo contiene indicazioni per svolgere attività educative che favoriscano, nel contesto della vita comunitaria del nido, lo sviluppo della “teoria della mente” dei bambini.
immagine di bambino competente, in grado fin dalla prima infanzia di riconoscere gli esseri umani come dotati di mente, ovvero
di una ricca varietà di stati interni: intenzioni, volizioni, emozioni, desideri,
pensieri, credenze e così via. Inoltre, l’articolo contiene indicazioni per svolgere attività educative che favoriscano, nel contesto della vita comunitaria del nido, lo sviluppo della “teoria della mente” dei bambini.
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The aim of this narrative review was to shed further light on children’s development of social cognition in the 0-6 years period, in relation to both theory of mind and emotion understanding, and with a particular focus on language as... more
The aim of this narrative review was to shed further light on children’s development of social cognition in the 0-6 years period, in relation to both theory of mind and emotion understanding, and with a particular focus on language as crucial developmental factor. Two areas of interest were flagged for future research: social cognition in infancy and the implementation of validated intervention programs.
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In: Rundblad, G., Tytus, A., Knapton, O., and Tang, C. (Eds., 2014). Selected Papers from the 4th UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference. London: UK Cognitive Linguistics Association (pp.136-151). This paper focuses on the relationship... more
In: Rundblad, G., Tytus, A., Knapton, O., and Tang, C. (Eds., 2014). Selected Papers from the 4th UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference. London: UK Cognitive Linguistics Association (pp.136-151). This paper focuses on the relationship between children’s psychological lexicon and their development of social cognition as assessed through theory-of-mind and emotion understanding tasks. It provides a brief overview of the topic, describes our own previous data, and reports new findings with a larger sample. Participants in our latest study were 102 children of 3, 4 and 5 years of age, randomly assigned to training or control conditions. All the children were pre- and post- tested with linguistic and cognitive measures to assess their language ability, mental-state talk comprehension, false-belief understanding and emotion comprehension. During the intervention, participants in the training condition were read stories enriched with psychological lexicon and took part in language games and ...
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This book contains a collection of stories especially written for children of 2-3 years, a crucial age for linguistic development. On the basis of our research conducted at day nurseries for infants and toddlers, we have developed an... more
This book contains a collection of stories especially written for children of 2-3 years, a crucial age for linguistic development. On the basis of our research conducted at day nurseries for infants and toddlers, we have developed an innovative format for reading stories to groups of young children, a format summarized in the book. It comprises four phases: the creation of a suitable context in which to introduce the activity, the reading of a story, conversation about the emotion thematized in the story and a windup stage.
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abstract : Very little research has been devoted to comparing the antecedents of moral emotions in Italian children and adolescents. In the present study, situational antecedents of guilt and shame were examined by asking children and... more
abstract : Very little research has been devoted to comparing the antecedents of moral emotions in Italian children and adolescents. In the present study, situational antecedents of guilt and shame were examined by asking children and adolescents for written narratives of autobiographical episodes. The sample of 200 participants aged between 9 and 14.6 years, was composed of two groups of 100 children (9 yrs.-10yrs. and 11 months ; M = 9 years and 6 months ; SD =0.4) and 100 adolescents (14yrs.-15 yrs. and 4 months ; M = 14,6 ; SD =0.3). Participants displayed typical development and were recruited at schools in Milan city and hinterland and came from middle class backgrounds. There was an equal number of males and females in each of the two age groups. Following the developmental literature, it was predicted that differences would be found as a function of age in the antecedents of both type of emotion. Content analysis was carried out on 400 texts, and a chi square test was applie...
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Summary. The aim of the study was to validate a self-report questionnaire, the Schutte’s Scale of Emotional Intelligence (EIS), with a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 646, respectively 280 males and 366 females (mean age:... more
Summary. The aim of the study was to validate a self-report questionnaire, the Schutte’s Scale of Emotional Intelligence (EIS), with a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 646, respectively 280 males and 366 females (mean age: 16 years and 9 months; DS: 1.4). Explorative factor analyses showed, consistently with the original one, a three factor structure. The factors are: Appraisal of others’ emotions; appraisal of self emotions; regulation and use of emotion. Confirmatory analysis showed a good fit of the model (CFI = .90, RMSEA = .04 and SRMR = .05). Structural generalizability was assessed by performing simultaneous confirmatory factor analyses on the two sub-samples of male and females. Factor loadings were found to be invariant across groups. In sum, results are overall coherent with previously published data on the EIS scale, and support the idea that the instrument might be further used for research purposes
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... Data analysis shows that children display a clear improvement by age in the comprehension of each component: we found significant differences by age, and seven out of nine items provide an acceptable Mokken scale (Mokken, 1971, van... more
... Data analysis shows that children display a clear improvement by age in the comprehension of each component: we found significant differences by age, and seven out of nine items provide an acceptable Mokken scale (Mokken, 1971, van Schuur, 2003). ...
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ABSTRACTThe present study investigates whether training preschool children in the active use of emotional state talk plays a significant role in bringing about greater understanding of emotion terms and improved emotion comprehension.... more
ABSTRACTThe present study investigates whether training preschool children in the active use of emotional state talk plays a significant role in bringing about greater understanding of emotion terms and improved emotion comprehension. Participants were 100 preschool children (M=52 months; SD=9·9; range: 35–70 months), randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. They were pre- and post-tested to assess their language comprehension, metacognitive language comprehension and emotion understanding. Analyses of pre-test data did not show any significant differences between experimental and control groups. During the intervention phase, the children were read stories enriched with emotional lexicon. After listening to the stories, children in the experimental group took part in conversational language games designed to stimulate use of the selected emotional terms. In contrast, the control group children did not take part in any special linguistic activities after the story re...
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... da Maria Grazia Ragusa (Appendice B). Una prima versione, utilizzata nel corso della ricerca descritta, è stata curata dalla dott.ssa Ilaria Orlandi. ... Ma voi, avete già scritto la letterina a Pesce Natale?» Teo rispose: «No,... more
... da Maria Grazia Ragusa (Appendice B). Una prima versione, utilizzata nel corso della ricerca descritta, è stata curata dalla dott.ssa Ilaria Orlandi. ... Ma voi, avete già scritto la letterina a Pesce Natale?» Teo rispose: «No, c'è ancora tempo per farlo, mancano tanti giorni ancora». ...
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Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children's emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities. As far as we know, no study to date has been conducted with a... more
Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children's emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities. As far as we know, no study to date has been conducted with a sizeable sample of both preschool and school-age children exploring the direct effect of EU on ToM when the role of language was evaluated as a potential exogenous factor in a single comprehensive model. Participants in the current study were 389 children (age range: 37-97 months, = 60.79 months; = 12.66), to whom a False-Belief understanding battery, the Test of Emotion Comprehension, and the Peabody Test were administered. Children's EU, ToM, and language ability (receptive vocabulary) were positively correlated. Furthermore, EU scores explained variability in ToM scores independently of participants' age and gender. Finally, language was found to play a crucial role in both explaining variance in ToM scores and in mediating the relationship bet...
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This paper discusses the key role of social and emotional learning programmes for children with Learning Disability (LD). The first part of the paper discusses the difficulties students with learning disability may encounter in their... more
This paper discusses the key role of social and emotional learning programmes for children with Learning Disability (LD). The first part of the paper discusses the difficulties students with learning disability may encounter in their education, such as issues related to peer group acceptance, friendship and social isolation, low self-efficacy and self-esteem, and externalized and internalized behavior problems. The relationship between social and emotional learning programmes and learning disability is then discussed, underlining the benefits of social and emotional learning for students with LD. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for universal social and emotional learning as a vehicle for the academic and social inclusion of students with LD.
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ABSTRACT The paper presents 'The Prosocial Orientation Story-Completion Task' for preschoolers and describes a practical experience where it has been used in educational context.
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Recent decades have seen a rise in mental health problems among children and adolescents. Despite a proliferation of studies describing effective school-based mental health programs, reviews of current research in this field suggest a... more
Recent decades have seen a rise in mental health problems among children and adolescents. Despite a proliferation of studies describing effective school-based mental health programs, reviews of current research in this field suggest a strong lack of consensus concerning the definition of school mental health and its constructs. In the present paper, we set out to fill this gap via a two-step process: first, we offer a critical overview of recent research around the concept of school mental health; second, we propose a comprehensive theoretical framework for researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers involved in mental health promotion and school prevention programs. The proposed framework comprises three key domains: the first two, cover the promotion of social and emotional learning and resilience, while the third concerns the prevention of behavioural problems.
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While scholars have previously investigated the respective contributions of emotional knowledge and language ability to toddlers' prosociality, no studies to date have featured a battery of multiple direct measures assessing both of... more
While scholars have previously investigated the respective contributions of emotional knowledge and language ability to toddlers' prosociality, no studies to date have featured a battery of multiple direct measures assessing both of these abilities plus theory of mind on the one hand, and prosocial behavior on the other hand. In contrast, we conducted the present cross-sectional study with a view to evaluating the unique contributions of each of these three social cognition variables as antecedents of prosocial conduct during toddlerhood, measuring them via a series of individually administered standardized tasks. Furthermore, given that the existing literature documents mixed gender effects, we also set out to explore the role of gender in toddlers' prosociality. Finally, we also controlled for any effects of age on the patterns of association among the key variables. Participants were 127 children aged between 24 and 36 months (M = 29.2 months; SD = 3.5). We identified sig...
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Emotion comprehension (EC) is known to be a key correlate and predictor of prosociality from early childhood. In the present study, we examined this relationship within the broad theoretical construct of social understanding which... more
Emotion comprehension (EC) is known to be a key correlate and predictor of prosociality from early childhood. In the present study, we examined this relationship within the broad theoretical construct of social understanding which includes a number of socio-emotional skills, as well as cognitive and linguistic abilities. Theory of mind, especially false-belief understanding, has been found to be positively correlated with both EC and prosocial orientation. Similarly, language ability is known to play a key role in children's socio-emotional development. The combined contribution of false-belief understanding and language to explaining the relationship between EC and prosociality has yet to be investigated. Thus, in the current study, we conducted an in-depth exploration of how preschoolers' false-belief understanding and language ability each contribute to modeling the relationship between children's comprehension of emotion and their disposition to act prosocially towar...
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The book presents an educational and psychological program to promote children's emotional competence, based on a socio-constructionist theory of emotion.
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The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) has been used extensively to investigate children’s understanding of emotion. The present study aimed at investigating the TEC’s factorial structure, its measurement invariance across age and... more
The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) has been used extensively to investigate children’s understanding of emotion. The present study aimed at investigating the TEC’s factorial structure, its measurement invariance across age and gender, and defining age-referred TEC scores, in a large sample of 1,478 children (755 males, 723 females) aged between 3 and 10 years. Confirmatory factor analysis of the data yielded support for the original psychometric structure of the TEC, which is based on three developmental domains of emotion understanding: external, mental, and reflective. Measurement equivalence was supported across age and gender groups. We also obtained normative data for interpreting TEC outcomes and defined the corresponding normative pattern of development across sixmonth age intervals. Overall, our findings suggest that the TEC is a robust instrument for investigating emotion understanding in children aged 3 to 10 years. The limitations of the study and the potential use o...
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Il presente lavoro è finalizzato a fornire ulteriore robustezza psicometrica al Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC), strumento standardizzato per valutare la comprensione delle emozioni in età prescolare e scolare. Lo studio esplora la... more
Il presente lavoro è finalizzato a fornire ulteriore robustezza psicometrica al Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC), strumento standardizzato per valutare la comprensione delle emozioni in età prescolare e scolare. Lo studio esplora la struttura fattoriale e l'invarianza di genere e di età in un ampio campione di bambini del nord e del centro Italia (N = 1,478, M =755; F =723) tra i 3 e i 10 an-ni. Presenta, inoltre, nuovi punteggi normativi di riferimento con benchmark di sei mesi. L'analisi fattoriale confermativa verifica la struttura psicometrica originale del TEC. Si discutono le implicazioni del suo utilizzo nella valutazione di profili tipici e atipici, e nell'ambito della ricerca.
Abstract This paper discusses the notion of language games as cultural practices in children’s early linguistic and socio-cognitive development. First, we trace the emergence of this concept in Jerome Bruner’s experimental and theoretical... more
Abstract
This paper discusses the notion of language games as cultural practices in children’s early linguistic and socio-cognitive development. First, we trace the emergence of this concept in Jerome Bruner’s experimental and theoretical work at Oxford University in the 1960s, work that was informed by the thinking ofWittgenstein and Austin, amongst others. Second, we provide a systematic historical account of how Bruner has influenced more recent research traditions in developmental psychology, especially in thefield of social cognition. Finally, we hone in on one specific approach within this field developed by the Laboratory for Developmental and Educational Studies in Psychology at the University of Milano Bicocca.
This paper discusses the notion of language games as cultural practices in children’s early linguistic and socio-cognitive development. First, we trace the emergence of this concept in Jerome Bruner’s experimental and theoretical work at Oxford University in the 1960s, work that was informed by the thinking ofWittgenstein and Austin, amongst others. Second, we provide a systematic historical account of how Bruner has influenced more recent research traditions in developmental psychology, especially in thefield of social cognition. Finally, we hone in on one specific approach within this field developed by the Laboratory for Developmental and Educational Studies in Psychology at the University of Milano Bicocca.
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Research Findings: In this study, we investigated associations among social cognition skills (specifically, emotion knowledge and theory of mind), language abilities, and 3 varieties of prosocial behavior (helping, sharing, and... more
Research Findings: In this study, we investigated associations among social cognition skills (specifically, emotion knowledge and theory of mind), language abilities, and 3 varieties of prosocial behavior (helping, sharing, and comforting) in early childhood. The effects of age and gender were also taken into account. Participants were 149 Italian children between 24 and 47 months of age (M = 35.6 months, SD = 6.77 months). We adopted a multitrait mixed-methods research design, using direct measures of emotion knowledge, theory of mind, and language as well as naturalistic observations of children’s free play with peers to detect the frequency with which they engaged in prosocial behaviors. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that helping behaviors were especially accounted for by emotion knowledge and gender, whereas variance in sharing behaviors was mostly explained by theory-of-mind ability and language. Practice or Policy: The findings encourage those involved in early childhood education to develop training and intervention programs to enhance children’s emotional, linguistic, and cognitive skills. Given that these results were obtained with children as young as 2 and 3 years, preventive intervention should be implemented during the earliest years of life.
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Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children's emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities, as far as we know, no study to date has been conducted with a sizeable... more
Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children's emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities, as far as we know, no study to date has been conducted with a sizeable sample of both preschool and school-age children exploring the direct effect of EU on ToM when the role of language was evaluated as a potential exogenous factor in a single comprehensive model. Participants in the current study were 389 children (age range: 37–97 months, M = 60.79 months; SD = 12.66), to whom a False-Belief understanding battery, the Test of Emotion Comprehension, and the Peabody Test were administered. Children's EU, ToM, and language ability (receptive vocabulary) were positively correlated. Furthermore, EU scores explained variability in ToM scores independently of participants' age and gender. Finally, language was found to play a crucial role in both explaining variance in ToM scores and in mediating the relationship between EU and ToM. We discuss the theoretical and educational implications of these outcomes, particularly in relation to offering social and emotional learning programs through schools.
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The authors in the first part of the book review recent literature on children's development of social cognition (namely Theory of Mind and Emotion Understanding). In the second part of the book, they present a program to promote... more
The authors in the first part of the book review recent literature on children's development of social cognition (namely Theory of Mind and Emotion Understanding). In the second part of the book, they present a program to promote children's comprehension of mental states.
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Il volume presenta una proposta educativa innovativa, che nasce sulla scorta di una rigorosa e articolata ricerca 'evidence based' condotta all’interno di alcuni nidi dell’hinterland milanese. La ricerca ha verificato l’efficacia di un... more
Il volume presenta una proposta educativa innovativa, che nasce sulla scorta di una rigorosa e articolata ricerca 'evidence based' condotta all’interno di alcuni nidi dell’hinterland milanese. La ricerca ha verificato l’efficacia di un intervento, che consiste nella lettura di storie a contenuto emotivo e successiva conversazione in piccolo gruppo, nel promuovere lo sviluppo di capacità socio-emotive e nel favorire la messa in atto di comportamenti pro-sociali da parte dei bambini.
Il libro è articolato in due parti. La prima, che costituisce lo sfondo teorico della ricerca, prende in esame il tema delle emozioni dal punto di vista della psicologia, con particolare attenzione ai costrutti di socializzazione e competenza emotiva. La seconda descrive dettagliatamente il disegno e le fasi della ricerca, le caratteristiche socio-demografiche dei bambini partecipanti, gli strumenti utilizzati, la procedura d’intervento e le analisi dei dati; riporta, inoltre, i risultati più significativi dello studio e dedica ampio spazio alla descrizione delle modalità di conduzione dell’attività educativa, dalla creazione del setting con i bambini alle linee-guida per leggere le storie e sostenere la conversazione da parte delle educatrici. Il volume è accompagnato da una serie di tavole che riproducono le immagini e il testo della raccolta di storie L’emozionante mondo di Ciro e Beba, messe a punto per la ricerca. Le indicazioni fornite nel capitolo conclusivo consentono di utilizzare le tavole anche in contesti educativi diversi da quelli in cui la proposta d’intervento è stata validata.
Il libro è articolato in due parti. La prima, che costituisce lo sfondo teorico della ricerca, prende in esame il tema delle emozioni dal punto di vista della psicologia, con particolare attenzione ai costrutti di socializzazione e competenza emotiva. La seconda descrive dettagliatamente il disegno e le fasi della ricerca, le caratteristiche socio-demografiche dei bambini partecipanti, gli strumenti utilizzati, la procedura d’intervento e le analisi dei dati; riporta, inoltre, i risultati più significativi dello studio e dedica ampio spazio alla descrizione delle modalità di conduzione dell’attività educativa, dalla creazione del setting con i bambini alle linee-guida per leggere le storie e sostenere la conversazione da parte delle educatrici. Il volume è accompagnato da una serie di tavole che riproducono le immagini e il testo della raccolta di storie L’emozionante mondo di Ciro e Beba, messe a punto per la ricerca. Le indicazioni fornite nel capitolo conclusivo consentono di utilizzare le tavole anche in contesti educativi diversi da quelli in cui la proposta d’intervento è stata validata.
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"This book contains sixteen stories - specially created for preschool and primary school children - about the adventures of two likeable characters called Jack and Theo, a dolphin and a shark who encounter problems and come up with... more
"This book contains sixteen stories - specially created for preschool and primary school children - about the adventures of two likeable characters called Jack and Theo, a dolphin and a shark who encounter problems and come up with solutions. The stories are enriched of psychological lexicon. The books contains also the description of a procedure for reading the stories and promote language games and conversation among children.
Download the book at the following website:
http://www.socioemotionalcognition.formazione.unimib.it/?page_id=1324&lang=en"
Download the book at the following website:
http://www.socioemotionalcognition.formazione.unimib.it/?page_id=1324&lang=en"
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In this chapter for a Handbook in developmental and educational psychology a framework of the main theoretical approaches to the development of emotion on one side, and to the development of socio-emotional competence on the other side is... more
In this chapter for a Handbook in developmental and educational psychology a framework of the main theoretical approaches to the development of emotion on one side, and to the development of socio-emotional competence on the other side is provided.
