Behav. Sci., Volume 13, Issue 4 (April 2023) – 68 articles

The success or failure of a student depends on several factors, including self-esteem, academic engagement, and motivation. Self-esteem and motivation have been found to influence academic engagement, which, in turn, contributes to academic performance. Through a quantitative study, 243 university students were surveyed to analyze the effects of self-esteem and motivation on their academic engagement, which would be reflected in their academic performance. The results show that self-esteem has effects on emotional and behavioral disengagement. Motivation shows greater effects on academic engagement, with metacognitive engagement predicting students’ academic performance. Therefore, promoting metacognitive strategies that help students learn to plan, monitor, and self-regulate their learning will contribute to their performance. Full article

During the last decade, the public healthcare sector has had to deal with increased competition, a growing influence of patient associations, and a necessity to deliver health services more efficiently and effectively. Despite recognising the patient participant’s role as a critical stakeholder in value creation, there is a limited body of research on the influence and power of patient participants. This article focuses on regional health improvement collaboratives that aim to develop coordinated, multi-stakeholder solutions to their healthcare cost and quality problems. They meet regularly and include health professionals, health insurance providers, and patient participants. In this article, we explore the relationships between these stakeholders and patient participants’ interpersonal dimensions regarding empowerment and valuable collaboration. Data were collected through stakeholder observations during meetings of three regional health improvement collaboratives, as well as through semi-structured interviews with the patient participants involved in these cases. Results show that patient participants can be empowered on a personal level. However, this does not imply that patient participants are empowered within the group dynamics. Interpersonal relationships constitute a crucial hidden aspect of building trust. More dialogue and inquiry are needed to examine how patient engagement is enacted and positioned within healthcare collaboratives. Full article

During the health emergency caused by COVID-19, a series of sensations such as fear, stress, and concern about contracting the virus were developed. Despite the fact that in recent months infection rates have been significantly reduced due to vaccination campaigns, the return of teachers to face-to-face classes established in Peru from April 2022 has increased once again the fear that contagion levels could grow. Therefore, the objective was to analyze the concern of regular basic education teachers about the spread of COVID-19 when returning to face-to-face classes. A quantitative investigation was carried out; the research design was observational and the type of study was descriptive cross-sectional. The sample was made up of 648 teachers who responded to the Scale of Concern for the Contagion of COVID-19, an instrument with adequate psychometric properties. The results show that 43.8% of teachers had moderate levels of concern about the spread of COVID-19, 38.7% had low levels, and 17.5% had high levels. Teachers reported most recurrent concerns about some risks in educational institutions and the fear of spreading COVID-19 to their relatives or people with whom they lived. On the other hand, it was found that some sociodemographic, occupational, and medical variables were significantly associated with this concern (p < 0.05). Then, it was concluded that teachers had moderate levels of concern about the spread of COVID-19 when returning to face-to-face classes. Full article

Career calling is defined as a positive resource promoting vocational development and well-being. The present study focuses on the relationships between career calling, courage and two indicators of well-being, i.e., flourishing and satisfaction with life. The sample consisted of 306 Italian university students (118 males and 188 females) ranging from 18 to 30 years of age. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach with latent variables was adopted. The results showed that courage plays a mediating role between career calling and well-being indicators. In light of these results, suggestions on the practical implications for career interventions to support university students are also addressed. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used as a decision agent in enterprises. Employees’ appraisals and AI affect the smooth progress of AI–employee cooperation. This paper studies (1) whether employees’ challenge appraisals, threat appraisals and trust in AI are different for AI transparency and opacity. (2) This study investigates how AI transparency affects employees’ trust in AI through employee appraisals (challenge and threat appraisals), and (3) whether and how employees’ domain knowledge about AI moderates the relationship between AI transparency and appraisals. A total of 375 participants with work experience were recruited for an online hypothetical scenario experiment. The results showed that AI transparency (vs. opacity) led to higher challenge appraisals and trust and lower threat appraisals. However, in both AI transparency and opacity, employees believed that AI decisions brought more challenges than threats. In addition, we found the parallel mediating effect of challenge appraisals and threat appraisals. AI transparency promotes employees’ trust in AI by increasing employees’ challenge appraisals and reducing employees’ threat appraisals. Finally, employees’ domain knowledge about AI moderated the relationship between AI transparency and appraisals. Specifically, domain knowledge negatively moderated the positive effect of AI transparency on challenge appraisals, and domain knowledge positively moderated the negative effect of AI transparency on threat appraisals. Full article

The effect of perceived discrimination on adolescents’ developmental outcome has long been a topic of research, however, little is known about how it affects their depression especially among the racial/ethnic minority adolescents in Asian countries. In Korea, a country with a relatively short history of immigrant influx, discrimination has become an important social issue affecting a rapidly growing population. This study examines the impact of perceived discrimination on racial/ethnic minority adolescents in Korea, specifically focusing on its impact on depression through self-esteem and satisfaction with physical appearance. The Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study data were used for analyses, and the SPSS Process Macro program was used to test the parallel mediating effects of self-esteem and satisfaction with physical appearance. The findings show that perceived discrimination was a strong predictor of their depression. Self-esteem and satisfaction with physical appearance also had significant mediating effect. There were no distinct gender differences among paths though the male adolescents were found to have more discriminatory experiences than the female adolescents. The findings call for the development of healthy coping strategies for these adolescents to prevent the effect of perceived discrimination, not only for their mental health, but also with their self-perception including physical appearance. Full article

The concept of educational organizational climate relates to the relational, social, psychological, affective, intellectual, cultural and moral environment that characterizes educational/teaching and managerial activity at the level of a school organization. This study is based on the theory of planned behavior framework in measuring preschool teachers’ intentional integrative–qualitative behaviors and Marzano’s Model of Teaching Effectiveness. The Marzano Model outlines educational strategies and gives teachers and administrators tools to help teachers become more effective. A sample of 200 valid responses was gathered in an online investigation that targeted preschool educators from Romania. Marzano’s Model of Teaching Effectiveness is an evaluation tool used to measure the success of highly effective teachers, which is further utilized in this study to measure preschool teachers’ effectiveness in relation to intentional integrative–qualitative behaviors. The integrative–qualitative intentional behaviors are measured with the IQIB scale. This research assumes collegiality and professionalism as independent variables and interrogates preschool teachers’ behavioral intention toward adopting integrative–qualitative behaviors through the sequential mediators of Planning and Preparing, Reflecting on Teaching and Classroom Strategies and Behaviors from a top-down perspective. The results revealed a significant indirect effect of Collegiality and Professionalism on preschool teachers’ behavioral intention toward adopting intentional integrative–qualitative behaviors through the sequential mediators Planning and Preparing, Reflecting on Teaching and Classroom Strategies and Behaviors, confirming our hypothesis. Discussion and implications are offered from a top-down sustainable educational management perspective. Full article

Individual interviews were conducted with a total of 66 participants from five groups between May and November 2020: left-behind children, parents, teachers, principals, and community workers. The left-behind children group included 16 primary and secondary school students aged 10–16. Themes in the interviews’ data were identified based on the Grounded Theory. Left-behind children’s social maladjustment manifested as: (1) depression and loneliness; and (2) poor academic performance. Left-behind children’s positive social adjustment manifested as: (1) using adaptive coping strategies; and (2) life skills and independence. Left-behind children’s social adjustment is a dynamic process and has both positive and negative aspects. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of depression and other mental disorders in the general population, influenced by various individual and contextual factors. Physical activity (PA) interventions offer a promising approach to mitigating the negative mental health effects of the pandemic. This study aims to analyze the association between PA and depressive symptoms. A total of 785 individuals aged 37.4 ± 13.2 years (72.5% female) were evaluated at two different time points: the first between 2018 and 2019, and the second during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Depressive symptoms, demographic, and socioeconomic data were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory to estimate depressive symptoms. Frequency analysis and binary and multinomial regression were employed for data analysis. The prevalence of mild depressive symptoms increased from 23.1% before the pandemic to 35.1% during the pandemic. Our findings reveal that practicing PA before the pandemic was a protective factor (OR: 0.19; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.30; p < 0.001) against mild depressive symptoms. Additionally, individuals who continued to practice PA during the pandemic had a lower chance of presenting mild (OR: 0.21; 95% CI: 0.15, 0.30) and moderate/severe (OR: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.27) symptoms. Furthermore, our study shows that PA, which was already a protective factor before the pandemic, remained protective during the pandemic, even for those with the highest levels of depression. Full article

A sample of 351 adults (women/men 4:1) aged 18 to 60 participated in an online survey administered during the first two waves (15 March–25 April and 10 October–25 November 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. The user ethnography profile was Generation Z (born in the 1990s), female (81.2%), Instagrammer (60.3%), unmarried (56.9%) and student (42.9%). An increased time spent on social media (3.18 h/day), searching for COVID-19-related information (1.01 h/day) after the first COVID-19 case and the observation of fake news that went viral (58.8%) decreased in the second wave. Alterations (increase or reduction) in sleep patterns (46.7%) and changes (increase or loss) in appetite (32.7%) affected participants’ well-being, but only sleep ameliorated in the second wave. Mental health reports unveiled moderate perceived stress (PSS-10: 20.61 ± 1.13) and mild anxiety (GAD-7: 14.17 ± 0.22), which improved in the second wave. A higher prevalence of severe anxiety (8.5%) was found among individuals in the first survey (8.5%) than those in the second (3.3%). Social media counteracted physical distance policies and played as an immediate source of (mis)information for users, but also anticipated the impact of the most uncertain times of this COVID-19 physical health crisis on well-being and mental health. Full article

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of numeracy framing and demand on participants’ perceived ticket availability and likelihood of finding a lower-priced deal in the secondary ticket market for National Football League (NFL) games. A total of 640 participants were recruited via Qualtrics where participants were solicited electronically via 10 date-specific email blasts prior to a New York Giants Sunday Night Football home game. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five treatment conditions (control, percentage frame × low demand, percentage frame × high demand, frequency frame × low demand, frequency frame × high demand) to complete an online survey. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to discern overall differences in the mean likelihood scores of the dependent variable between groups. The results showed that participants presented with the “percentage” frame perceived tickets as less available than those presented with the “frequency scarcity” frame, and the effect was greater for high-demand games. Additionally, game demand moderated the effect of scarcity framing on participants’ perceived ticket availability and expected lower rate. Several manipulation checks were applied to ensure the study’s validity. The findings of this study have practical implications for ticket marketers in the sport industry to effectively frame scarcity information and facilitate transactions for online buyers and sellers. Full article

Research on the correlation between personality traits and safety behaviors has been thoroughly explored in previous literature. However, most of these studies are based on explaining the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and safety behavior, with few explaining the relationship between proactive personality and safety behavior. This study relies on trait activation theory, social cognitive theory, and social exchange theory to understand the relationship between proactive personality and safety behavior (safety participation and safety compliance) by using safety self-efficacy and team member exchange as mediating variables and safety-specific transformational leadership as moderating variables. Method: Considering the issue of common method bias, a multi-source and multi-stage data collection research design was used to collect 287 valid questionnaires from construction workers in 10 construction projects and apply regression analysis for hypothesis testing. Conclusions: Research results indicated that proactive personality positively and significantly influenced construction workers’ safety behaviors, while safety self-efficacy and team member exchange partially mediated the relationship between proactive personality and safety behaviors. In addition, safety-specific transformational leadership enhanced the positive relationship between proactive personality and safety behavior. These findings enrich the research on the correlation between personality traits and safety behaviors of construction workers in a safety context. Full article

Poor social skills in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are associated with reduced independence in daily life. Current interventions for improving the social skills of individuals with ASD fail to represent the complexity of real-life social settings and situations. Virtual reality (VR) may facilitate social skills training in social environments and situations similar to those in real life; however, more research is needed to elucidate aspects such as the acceptability, usability, and user experience of VR systems in ASD. Twenty-five participants with ASD attended a neuropsychological evaluation and three sessions of VR social skills training, which incorporated five social scenarios with three difficulty levels. Participants reported high acceptability, system usability, and user experience. Significant correlations were observed between performance in social scenarios, self-reports, and executive functions. Working memory and planning ability were significant predictors of the functionality level in ASD and the VR system’s perceived usability, respectively. Yet, performance in social scenarios was the best predictor of usability, acceptability, and functionality level. Planning ability substantially predicted performance in social scenarios, suggesting an implication in social skills. Immersive VR social skills training in individuals with ASD appears to be an appropriate service, but an errorless approach that is adaptive to the individual’s needs should be preferred. Full article

This paper conducts quantitative research on the levels of stress generated in Latin American professors due to the abrupt digitalization of higher education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the differences in this digital stress between professors from private and public universities are analyzed. For this purpose, a validated questionnaire has been used and passed to a sample of 750 professors from 20 different Latin American countries, whose responses have been statistically analyzed. As results, it has been obtained that there are no significant differences between the average levels of digital stress of professors of private and public universities due to the pandemic. However, the way in which this digital stress has affected Latin American professors according to gender and age is different depending on the university tenure. As a consequence, some implications and recommendations derived from the results are presented. Full article

Enterprises seeking to enhance their innovation capabilities are increasingly turning to open innovation communities (OICs), which allow them to leverage the collective knowledge and collaborative potential of external users, providing a powerful source of new and innovative ideas. Despite their potential for value co-creation, recent research suggests that value co-destruction can also occur within OICs. However, the mechanisms underlying value co-destruction in OICs have not yet been fully explored or empirically examined. To address this gap, this study employs expectancy disconfirmation theory and psychological contract theory to investigate the relationship between user expectancy disconfirmation and value co-destruction in OICs. Drawing upon data collected from a questionnaire survey of business analytics OICs, this study reveals that self-interest expectancy disconfirmation has a positive effect on value co-destruction, which is mediated by the transactional psychological contract breach. In addition, social interaction expectancy disconfirmation is found to have a positive impact on value co-destruction, which is mediated by the relational psychological contract breach. The study further reveals that self-worth expectancy disconfirmation of community users positively influences value co-destruction, which is mediated by the ideological psychological contract breach. Moreover, the study demonstrates the crucial role of perceived organizational status in moderating the ideological psychological contract breach resulting from self-worth expectancy disconfirmation. Collectively, these findings contribute valuable insights into the phenomenon of value co-destruction in OICs, and provide practical guidance for enterprises seeking to enhance the development and performance of these innovation paradigms. Full article

Procrastination may be seen as the outcome of a learning history of delaying the onset of task execution and its completion, both in terms of time and effort. In this study, we examined the performance of 55 university students who carried out two writing tasks consisting of summarizing two academic papers, each within a different time slot (i.e., five vs. three days to complete). The two assignments were part of the class activity and were perceived by participants as homogeneous in terms of text appreciation and difficulty, therefore making the two conditions comparable. The Pure Procrastination Scale was used to categorize subjects as high and low procrastinators, and to compare their performances. Results show that students who report more procrastination behaviors tend to increase their productivity as the deadline approaches, while low procrastinators are more productive throughout the time at their disposal, with peak activity during the intermediate day. Such a strategy was consistent across two deadlines (five vs. three days), and the difference between the two subgroups can be ascribed to the task-oriented coping style, which seems to be lacking in high-procrastinators. Full article

The research provides insight into the factors that determine absenteeism in different types of organizations, in order to facilitate the adjustment of employees and organizations in the transition process from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0. The aim of the study is to predict the absenteeism of employees in the context of job characteristics and mental health. Additionally, the research investigated the effect of size, ownership, and sector of the companies on absenteeism, job characteristics, and mental health. The sample included responses from 502 employees of different sociodemographic characteristics that work in various types of organizations, performing white-collar and blue-collar jobs. A short mental health questionnaire—Mental Health Inventory, MHI-5—was used in order to measure mental health. The Job Characteristics Questionnaire was used to measure the employees’ perceptions of their job characteristics—job variety, autonomy, feedback, dealing with others, task identity, and friendship. The absenteeism is operationalized with the question: “During the past 12 months, how many days were you absent from work for any reason?”. The findings suggest that mental health and job characteristics significantly reduce absenteeism among different sectors. The result showed that the size, ownership, and sector of the organization significantly affect the absenteeism, job characteristics, and the mental health of the employees. The results support the premises of Industry 5.0 and offer a new human-centric approach to absenteeism through the promotion of mental health through long-term organizational strategies and a more inclusive approach to employees’ preferences in relation to job characteristics. The study offers a new, double-sided model of absenteeism, determining causal factors from the perspective of personal and organizational factors. Full article

Gamification has emerged as a promising approach for foreign language learning (FLL), which refers to the use of game design elements to engage learners or improve academic performance. However, the features of gamification studies in FLL and their effectiveness are unclear. Additionally, how previous studies measured the effectiveness of gamified FLL tools is not well understood. In this systematic review, this author addressed these questions based on 21 empirical studies. The findings revealed that the effectiveness of gamified tools in FLL was mixed, with some bringing positive changes, others negative changes, and some showing no differences. The factors that influenced the effectiveness include methodological limitations, biases in the experiment setting, technical limitations, individual differences, failure to achieve meaningful gamification, a mixture of element selection, sub-optimal measurement, and data interpretation biases. This study identified research gaps in previous studies and offers suggestions for future research in this area. Full article

Videos are arguably the most important and frequently used instructional resource in massive open online courses (MOOCs). Recent research has explored learners’ perceptions and preferences regarding MOOC instructional videos. However, these studies are often limited to a small number of specific courses, and few grounded theory studies have been undertaken to investigate this topic. In the present study, a multiple-coder research methodology was adopted to analyze 4534 learner reviews of MOOCs in 14 categories. The study aimed to identify key characteristics associated with learners’ favorable perceptions of MOOC videos, types of supplemental or in-video resources learners perceive helpful to support MOOC video use, and video production features learners value. Results revealed that (a) “organized”, “detailed”, “comprehensible”, “interesting”, and “practical” were the top five important characteristics associated with learners’ favorable perceptions of MOOC videos; (b) learners perceived “presentation slides”, “reading materials”, “post-video assessments”, “embedded questions”, and “case studies” as helpful resources to support their utilization of MOOC videos; and (c) learners found “duration” a more salient production feature than “editing”, “resolution”, “subtitles”, “music”, or “voice”. The findings present implications for MOOC video design and foundations for future research avenues. Full article

As an important component of bike-sharing (BS) users, the travel behavior of college students and office workers is important to the promotion of BS within Chinese cities. To explore the influencing factors for the behavioral intentions of BS, this paper makes a different analysis between the two groups. Based on the theory of planned behavior, and using environmental awareness as an extended variable, a BS travel intention model was developed. A total of 676 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed from college students and office workers in Zhengzhou. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and environmental awareness have a positive impact on the behavioral intentions of BS. However, the influence degree of each variable is different between the two groups. Perceived behavior control, including travel time, travel cost, and cycling difficulty, has the greatest impact on BS behavioral intention for college students. Meanwhile, subjective norms, including policy and media publicity, has the most significant impact on BS behavioral intention for office workers. The impact of environmental awareness on college students’ use of BS is higher than that of office workers. We also found that undergraduates use BS more frequently than postgraduates. The findings provide the clear influence factors on behavioral intentions of BS between college students and office workers, that can help policy optimization in terms of bike-sharing systems, giving some suggestion for an approach devoted to deepen the individual-context interactions Full article

Healthcare clowning represents a well-established method for relieving patients and their relatives of discomfort during hospitalization. Although studies concerning the effectiveness of this approach are increasing in number, state-of-the-art studies conducted to evaluate the psychological characteristics of clown doctors are scarce. In this cross-sectional study, a convenient sample of 210 clown doctors (143 females, 67 males) aged between 18 and 75 years (M = 47.34, SD = 12.31) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Comic Styles Markers, and the Short Measure for Adult Playfulness. The results demonstrated that clown doctors bring higher levels of fun, benevolent humor, and nonsense and a lower level of cynicism compared to the populace. Moreover, the participants with more experience tend to use less irony, sarcasm, and cynicism than those with less experience. Playfulness was primarily related to the lighter styles of humor, and specific differences between the Whiteface and the Auguste clown doctors were observed. The results are discussed with reference to previous studies conducted on groups of clown doctors. Full article

Although there are many studies examining the psychosocial vulnerability factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization in emerging adulthood, little is known about the life skills that may be involved, such as social problem solving (SPS) and self-esteem. The aim of the current study is to explore the relationships between SPS, self-esteem, and types (i.e., psychological, physical and sexual) and severity of IPV victimization in emerging adulthood. Based on a French online survey, 929 emerging adults (84.6% of whom were women with a mean age of 23.6) completed self-report questionnaires related to SPS (problem orientations and problem-solving styles), self-esteem and IPV victimization. The results showed that positive SPS skills and higher self-esteem were associated with lower severity of IPV. Multivariate analyses showed that the most associated factors of severe forms of IPV were avoidant and impulsive/carelessness styles. Minor sexual violence was positively associated with lower self-esteem and rational problem-solving skills, while minor psychological victimization was related to avoidant style. Upon completion of this study, it can be said that conflicts which escalate into IPV may be associated with dysfunctional conflict resolution styles, highlighting the importance of interventions that promote the development of life skills in order to prevent IPV. Full article

Adolescence is a developmental period when individuals actively evaluate and construct their life goals. During the past several decades, China has transformed dramatically toward a highly competitive, market-oriented society. Despite a growing interest in exploring the implications of cultural values for youth adjustment in contemporary China, little is known about what life goals are prevalent among Chinese adolescents. This mixed-methods study aimed to identify the key themes of life goals and to examine gender, grade, and urban-rural differences in the identified themes among Chinese adolescents, using quantitative and qualitative methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 163 middle- and high-school students in urban and rural China. Thirteen key life goal themes were identified; among them, the most mentioned themes were Family Well-being, Academic Excellence, and Personal Happiness. Quantitative results showed grade and urban-rural differences in the adolescents’ endorsement of the themes of life goals. Specifically, more middle schoolers and rural students endorsed life goals that emphasize social belonging and group well-being, whereas more high schoolers and urban students endorsed life goals that underscore individual independence and uniqueness. These results indicated the implications of social change for adolescents’ life goals in contemporary China. Full article

Asian American students have experienced additional physical and emotional hardships associated with the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased xenophobic and anti-Asian discrimination. This study investigates different coping patterns and risk factors affecting Asian and non-Asian college students in response to COVID-19 challenges by studying the differences in their responses within four domains after the onset of the pandemic: academic adjustment, emotional adjustment, social support, and discriminatory impacts related to COVID-19. We first employed a machine learning approach to identify well-adjusted and poorly adjusted students in each of the four domains for the Asian and non-Asian groups, respectively. Next, we applied the SHAP method to study the principal risk factors associated with each classification task and analyzed the differences between the two groups. We based our study on a proprietary survey dataset collected from U.S. college students during the initial peak of the pandemic. Our findings provide insights into the risk factors and their directional impact affecting Asian and non-Asian students’ well-being during the pandemic. The results could help universities establish customized strategies to support these two groups of students in this era of uncertainty. Applications for international communities are discussed. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, entire university courses were moved online. This represented a challenge for universities, who were required to move toward an entirely online learning environment without adequate time to manage the change from traditional courses to online courses. However, beyond the emergency of the pandemic, higher education does increasingly incorporate an online learning element, and such a provision does appear to reflect both the desires of modern-day students and university offerings. For this reason, assessing students’ online engagement is fundamental, not least because it has been seen to be related both to students’ satisfaction and their academic achievement. A validated measure of student online engagement does not exist in Italy. Therefore, this study aims to assess both the factor structure and the validity of the Online Student Engagement (OSE) Scale in the Italian context. A convenience sample of 299 undergraduate university students completed a series of online questionnaires. The Italian OSE scale presents good psychometric properties and represents a valuable instrument for both practitioners and researchers examining students’ engagement in online learning. Full article

Background: Social media platforms are a significant growth opportunity for enterprises, especially for microenterprises, due to the possibility of establishing direct contact with their customers. We investigate the psychological reasons that drive entrepreneurs towards the use of social networking sites (SNSs) for their business, following two important social psychology theories: the theory of planned behaviour and the technology acceptance model. We also tested for two personality traits: openness to experience and dominance. Methods: Data were acquired by examining 325 microentrepreneurs who decided to use either SNSs or traditional sales methods for their businesses. Results and conclusions: Our results confirm that of all the behavioural antecedents tested, perceived usefulness and attitude towards SNSs’ effect on business proved to be the best predictors of the intention to use (or continue using) SNSs for business activity. Implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed. Full article

Differences in social-emotional processing and functioning characterize children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Anxiety Disorders. These can contribute to difficulties forming friendships and secondary challenges such as academic underachievement, depression, and substance use in adolescence. To be optimally successful, interventions typically require parents and teachers to have a shared understanding of a child’s social-emotional needs and use consistent support strategies across home and school environments. However, research is yet to examine the effect that clinic-based programs have on parent-teacher agreement regarding children’s social-emotional functioning. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first published study to explore this. A sample of eighty-nine youth (aged 8 to 12 years) with ASD, ADHD, and/or an Anxiety Disorder participated in the Secret Agent Society Program. The Social Skills Questionnaire and Emotion Regulation and Social Skills Questionnaire were administered to parents and teachers at pre-program, post-program, and six-month follow-up. Parent-teacher agreement was assessed at each time point. Pearson Product Moment correlations and intraclass correlations indicated that parent-teacher agreement on the measures of children’s social-emotional functioning improved over time. These findings suggest that clinic-based programs can contribute to key stakeholders developing a shared understanding of children’s social-emotional needs. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. Full article

The aim of the present paper is to establish the factorial validity and reliability of the Risk-Taking and Self-Harm Inventory for Adolescents (RTSHIA), proposed by Vrouva and colleagues in 2010, in an Italian sample. The RTSHIA measures both Risk-Taking and Self-Harm behavior in adolescents. We administered the scale to a total of 1292 Italian adolescents from 9th to 12th grade; to verify the validity of the scale, we also assessed emotion regulation and psychopathological traits. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (N = 638) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N = 660) confirmed the original two-factor structure of the RTSHIA (Risk-Taking and Self-Harm). The only differences in the Italian version of the RTSHIA (RTSHIA-I) were that one item was moved from the original Risk-Taking factor to the Italian Self-Harm factor, and another item that was not included in the original RTSHIA is now part of the Risk-Taking factor in the Italian version. The reliability of the RTSHIA-I is also confirmed, and both factors correlate with emotion regulation and externalizing/internalizing traits. Our results suggest that the RTSHIA-I is a useful tool for assessing Risk-Taking and Self-Harm behaviors in Italian adolescents, and the correlational patterns indicate that these behaviors may be related to difficulties in mentalization skills. Full article

This study aims to investigate the relationships among transformational leadership, followers’ innovative behavior, commitment to change, and organizational support for creativity. First, we examine the mediating role of commitment to change in the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ innovative behavior, using both objective and subjective measures. Our results reveal that commitment to change indeed mediates this relationship. Second, we analyze whether the link between commitment to change and followers’ innovative behavior is moderated by organizational support for creativity. We find that this relationship is stronger for individuals with high organizational support for creativity compared to those with low support. Empirical analysis was conducted using data collected from 535 managers in 11 subsidiaries of a financial institution in South Korea. This study contributes to the management discipline by resolving mixed outcomes between transformational leadership and followers’ innovation and highlighting the influence of commitment to change and perceived organizational support for creativity on innovative behavior. Full article

Empirical studies have found that although humans often rely on heuristic intuition to make stereotypical judgments during extreme base-rate tasks, they can at least detect conflicts between stereotypical and base-rate responses, which supports the dual-processing view of flawless conflict detection. The current study combines the conflict detection paradigm with moderate base-rate tasks of different scales to test the generalization and boundaries of flawless conflict detection. After controlling for possible confounding by the “storage failure” factor, the conflict detection results indicated that reasoners providing stereotypical heuristic responses to conflict problems were slower to respond, less confident in their stereotypical responses, and slower to indicate their reduced confidence than reasoners who answered no-conflict problems. Moreover, none of these differences were affected by different scales. The results suggest that stereotypical reasoners are not blind heuristic performers and that they at least realize that their heuristic responses are not entirely warranted, which supports the argument for flawless conflict detection and extends the boundaries of flawless conflict detection. We discuss the implications of these findings for views of detection, human rationality, and the boundaries of conflict detection. Full article