Title: A psychoeducational program aimed at young people for self-regulation of emotions to encourage conscious use and prevent problematic use of the Internet
Funding program/measure: program of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health
Scientific director: Prof. Fabio Lucidi
ABSTRACT: By promoting emotional regulation skills, problem solving and relational skills, the aim is to prevent phenomena of anxiety, anhedonia and inadequacy which can irremediably impact personality and mental health. For the method, the program will be based on: (a) informational material for parents; (b) training and teaching materials for teachers; (c) Information APP for students; (d) interactive multimedia modules for students (learning objects or LOs, mostly based on Serious Games) on topics related to emotional self-regulation skills, self-efficacy and coping and problem solving in pre-adolescence. The operational units involved include the participation of the Lazio region (Department of Psychology of Developmental and Socialization Processes and Department of Human Neurosciences of Sapienza University of Rome; the Istituto Superiore di Sanità), of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Reference Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health; Department of Health and Social Solidarity), of the Molise region (Mental Health Department, CSM Campobasso A.S.R.eM) of the Marche region (Department of Prevention, Health Promotion Office Vast Area n. 2 Ancona branch - ASUR Marche), and of the Lombardy region (Department of Hygiene and Health Prevention UOC Health Promotion ATS Metropolitan City of Milan).

Title: The Psychology of Economic Inequality
Funding programme/measure: PRIN 2017: Projects of Significant National Interest
Scientific director: Prof. Mauro Giacomantonio
ABSTRACT: How do citizens react to growing economic inequality (EI)? Existing literature illustrates not only the effects of EI on society as a whole, but also on individuals, especially those of the lower class. However, research has often conflated EI and poverty (P), and little is known about the effects of EI on those who do not personally slide into poverty (upper and middle class) and on those living in poverty in wealthy states. Furthermore, the evidence shows that people are unhappy with EI, thus suggesting that policies aimed at reducing it should be widely supported. Yet, citizens often resist policies that remedy EI (Bartels, 2005). What psychological variables and beliefs (religious, political) can explain this inconsistency between a preference for less EI and opposition to policies aimed at removing EI?
This project aims to fill the aforementioned gaps and provide an integrative model of the distinct and interactive effects of EI and P on social and psychological outcomes. Seven specific objectives are pursued:

• Investigate EI and P from a multilevel perspective. By integrating "big data" with field and laboratory experiments and combining the assessment of attitudes and behaviors with advanced measurement tools, this project aims to experimentally balance the control and understanding of the causes of EI and P with ecological validity, representativeness and generalizability of the expected results.

• Disentangling EI and P, studying the distinct effects of EI and P on the privileged, the middle class, and the poor.

• Take action against EI. Focusing on religion and self-control, the project aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms through which such variables can reduce or increase people's willingness to engage in collective action against IR.

Title: “Self-regulation processes to prevent the use of doping: a program based on digital learning objects”
Funding program/measure: program of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health

Scientific director: Prof. Fabio Lucidi
Abstract: the use of drugs, substances and medical practices aimed at improving sports performance is a widespread phenomenon in sport, even among adolescents. Although anti-doping organizations have developed sophisticated methods to combat the use of doping, through deterrent mechanisms, recently the paradigm is focusing towards a prevention program, aimed at evaluating the determinants of such behavior and acting using intervention methodologies and diversified tools . The scientific literature has demonstrated the limited effectiveness of purely informational interventions which are often not supported by theoretical and scientific bases and, furthermore, there are not interventions which involve the use of new tools widely spread among young people (web platforms and digital learning objects) which aim at the main predictors of doping. Taking Bandura's Social-Cognitive theory as a reference, the objective of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate an anti-doping intervention aimed at moral variables in young high school adolescents, through a dedicated web platform and specific learning objects (i.e. , synchronous lessons, video clips, serious games, interactive discussion forums) for a total duration of 10 work sessions of approximately 30 minutes each. In summary, this project aims to test the effectiveness of the training intervention on students' belief systems regarding doping (e.g., attitudes, descriptive and subjective norms, mechanisms of moral disengagement and regulatory self-efficacy), as well as their self-reported behaviors related to the use of substances in sports (i.e., supplements and doping substances). The objective of the project will be pursued by three operational units (Sapienza University of Rome, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, University of Milan “La Statale”) primarily involving students from eight institutes who will participate for 6 months in the training program.

Title: “The Transformations of Democracy: Actors, Strategies and Outcomes in Opposing Populism in Political, Juridical and Social Arenas”
Funding programme/measure: PRIN 2017: Projects of Significant National Interest
Scientific director: Prof. Flaminia Saccà
ABSTRACT: The project studies the transformations of democracy by focusing on the reactions to populist ideas and policies that emerge within various institutions of representative democracy, the media and within civil society formations that interact with them. On one hand it examines the impact of populism within political, legal/legislative and social institutions; on the other hand, it studies how non-populist actors relate to this impact and in some cases accept it, redefine it or institutionalize it. The study of interactions between populist and anti-populist forces in specific political and social contexts is still often neglected. The study to be carried out, starting from the awareness of the importance of the multi-level governance dynamics of modern states, focuses on two main territorial levels: the interaction between populist and anti-populist forces in specific areas of the Italian political and social system and on the interactions between populists and their opponents in two institutions of the European Union: the Commission and the Parliament.

Title: “Stereotypes and prejudices: the social representation of gender-based violence and contrast strategies ten years after the Istanbul Convention”
Funding programme/measure: PRIN 2020: Projects of Significant National Interest
Scientific director: Prof. Flaminia Saccà
ABSTRACT: The project is part of the projects aimed at preventing and combating violence against women in implementation of the Istanbul Convention. It aims to investigate the stereotypes and prejudices that permeate the narrative and social representation of violence both in the judicial field and in the press and to build innovative practices and methodologies for its contrast, even among the young and very young generations. It is divided into four integrated research activities, aiming to investigate the cultural and regulatory matrices of the system for the protection of women from gender violence; to identify and analyze the stereotypes and prejudices inherent in the social representation of violence, both in the judicial field and in the media; to analyze the forms of contrast and cultural innovation implemented by associations and anti-violence centres; to reconstruct how the representation of gender relations in Italian school textbooks has changed over the decades.
Lastly, we intend to develop an innovative teaching model for the training of schoolteachers, accompanied by teaching materials, respectful of the dignity of boys and girls, which enables them to identify the stereotypes underlying violence.