PRIN 2022 PROJECTS- FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION – NEXT GENERATION EU

Title: Detrimental and beneficial social factors leading to inclusive societies 
Funding programme: PRIN 2022 PNRR Funded by European union - Next Generation EU
Scientific coordinator: Prof. Antonio Pierro 
ABSTRACT: The project addresses the role of detrimental and facilitating factors to develop trust in democracy. Under uncertain situational conditions enhanced exclusion of stigmatized groups is likely due to a heightened need for cognitive closure (NCC) and cultural motivations such as binding moral foundations motivations and desire for cultural tightness (Work-Package 1).
Moreover, ideologies such as social dominance orientation and essentialist beliefs can work as factors impeding the democratic participation of individuals and groups (Work-Package 2). In contrast to these obstacles to trust in democracy, the project aims also to shed light on the pathways and manifold interrelations between factors facilitating a wide range of solidarity actions (Work-Package 3) such as global citizenship identity, perceived intergroup reciprocity, and multiple categorization of outgroup members in their intertwined effects of solidarity towards stigmatized groups. In light of these contentions, the project will develop along multiple complementary aims. Aim 1. It will focus on addressing the mediating roles of the desire for cultural tightness and the binding moral foundations in the relationship between political orientation and the exclusion of stigmatized groups, moderated by the need for cognitive closure and perceived uncertainty (Work-Package 1). Aim 2. It will address the neglected role of interaction effects between perceived uncertainty and individual support for group-based hierarchies and inequalities on essentialist beliefs and prejudice against stigmatized groups (Work-Package 2). Aim 3. It will address contextual, social, and individual factors that facilitate trust in democratic institutions, political participation, and support for stigmatized groups across different European countries from both majority and ethnic minorities' perspectives (Work- Package 3).

Title: STEPSISTER – STEreotypes and PrejudiceS In preSs represenTation of gEndeR-violence 
Funding programme: PRIN 2022 PNRR Funded by European union - Next Generation EU
Scientific coordinator: Prof. Flaminia Saccà 
ABSTRACT: STEPSISTER aims at reversing socio-economic and cultural inequalities and promoting gender equality, thus supporting the realization of the global 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 on achieving gender equality, in line with the goals of the cluster 2 (sub cluster 6) of the Horizon Program. It aims at investigating the stereotypes and prejudices that permeate the social representation of GBV and that contribute to the secondary and tertiary victimization of the people who experienced GBV and end up with weakening judicial action. This latter, if not safeguarding everybody’s rights, risks hindering the inclusive growth and the social sustainability of our society.
Thus, at the heart of the project there are, the inclusive growth and social sustainability that should be strengthened and boosted through evidence-based policies for tackling inequalities and through a better understanding of the social, ethical, political, and economic impacts of drivers of change. The research, indeed, will contribute to the strategies for inclusive growth by uncloaking the deeply rooted sexist stereotypes and prejudices that affect the victims of GBV and prevent them from having justice. It will develop guidelines for the professionals helping them to dismantle such stereotypes and prejudices, as well as the historical unequal power distribution between genders of which GBV is the principal manifestation. The project will be divided into four integrated research and third mission activities, consisting in monitoring, and investigating: a) the journalistic representation of domestic violence and intimate partner violence and the socio-political response to violence (Unit of Sapienza); b) the journalistic representation of male violence against women perpetrated in public spaces and/or by strangers and the socio-political response to this violence (Unit of Tuscia); c) the journalistic representation of violence against LGBTQIA+ people and associations and the socio-political response to this violence (Unit of Messina); d) the way in which institutions, institutional professionals (judges, public ministers and law enforcement), and lawyers are represented in the newspapers’ articles dealing with GBV and the way in which those subjects represent themselves and their action (Unit of Chieti). Based on the outcomes of the research of all the Units, the social impact of the project will be achieved through the dissemination of the results among the social, institutional, and professional actors involved in the study. The highlighting of the patriarchal practices produced by sexist stereotypes and prejudices and, on the other hand, the promotion of new respectful narratives within journalistic, judicial and social services contexts may in fact be a decisive knowledge tool to contrast gender discrimination and thus to safeguard human rights and to guarantee gender equality, as stated by the CEDU.

Title: Resilience factors in the development of students from low-income families: building a sustainable roadmap for an inclusive growth
Funding programme: PRIN 2022 PNRR Funded by European union - Next Generation EU
Scientific coordinator: Prof. Fabio Lucidi
ABSTRACT: Education at school is intended to provide everyone with equal opportunities for achievement and social inclusion, nevertheless in Italy students who live in low-income households are very often excluded from these chances. The project intends to tackle this inequality by contributing to the advancement of knowledge of malleable resilience factors in the development of disadvantaged young people using two different studies. The first study (N>1000) will be based on a nationally representative sample of Italian students and will identify malleable characteristics (e.g. motivational variables) of low-income students resilient to their adverse conditions. The focus will be on the aspects and processes upon which teachers and schools might be able to intervene with a better chance of success, even in contexts where resources are inadequate or lacking. Therefore, this cross-sectional study will provide a detailed and reliable picture, representative at the Italian national level, of resilience factors for students living in low-income families. In order to provide sound evidence for policies and interventions, it will also be necessary to understand how these malleable resilience factors develop over time. Therefore, the second study will be based on a longitudinal design (N>200) and will investigate motivational change patterns during schooling for young people from low-income families. The determinants of these changes will also be analyzed, identifying the specific roles of educational agents such as parents, classmates, and teachers in this particolar population. Overall, the results will provide evidence on factors that might protect or preserve students from initial disadvantages, especially those protective factors that might allow schools and teachers to take effective action, also in contexts that involve a greater incidence of economic, social, and cultural difficulties and deprivation. This advancement in knowledge could therefore be a sound basis for the definition of sustainable policies and interventions aimed at boosting the inclusion and well-being of disadvantaged youth.
State of art
I° four-month period: the activities of the first four-month period of the project focused on defining the conceptual and theoretical framework of the research, also through the creation of a systematic review of the literature. The subject of the review was the relationship between socioeconomic status and motivation at school. Motivational variables are in fact among the potentially most important resilience factors for students living in disadvantaged situations, given their relationship with psychological well-being, adaptation to school and learning outcomes. During the first four months of the project, the research protocol for subsequent data collection was developed. The project partners then guaranteed the dissemination of the research topics through the presentation of scientific contributions at national and international conferences.
II° four-month period: Activities in the second term of the project focused on two main objectives: an analysis of resilience factors based on a representative sample of Italian male and female students and the preparation of a longitudinal school-based data collection. With respect to the first objective, an analysis was conducted through network models of differences in the relationship structure of resilient and non resilient students with respect to various psychological constructs such as motivation, self-efficacy, and goals at school. Preliminary results showed significant differences between the two groups with respect to the variables considered. With respect to the second objective, the data collection involves a Secondary School Institute comprising more than 1,300 students. The data collection, which will begin in the fall of 2024, involves three time surveys (at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year) and involves, on a voluntary basis, students, female students, and teachers of the institute. Then, during the second term of the project, the definition of the project's quality indicators was completed and the periodic evaluation report was prepared. The project partners then ensured the dissemination of research topics by presenting scientific contributions at national and international conferences and submitting scientific contributions to international journals.

Title: Loneliness, non-cognitive skills, and academic achievement in Junior High School: assessment and intervention based on Big Data, longitudinal, and intensive methods
Funding programme: PRIN 2022 PNRR Funded by European unione - Next Generation EU
Scientific coordinator: Prof. Stefania Sette
ABSTRACT:  The term “non-cognitive skills” refers to a broad cluster that includes several kinds of psychosocial, motivational, emotional, and personality characteristics. The study of non-cognitive skills has a three-decade history. Yet, some contributions highlighted a gap in the Italian context, if compared to other countries (Pisanu & Fraccaroli, 2022). Indeed, scholars and practitioners working in the field of educational psychology and pedagogy used to apply and disseminate the importance that non-cognitive skills play on social, academic, and individual adjustment (above all across sensitive period, like junior high school). However, only recently have there been ministerial changes that pursued to expand the knowledge, the application, and the debate on non-cognitive skills developments in real school settings (see for example the Ordinanza Ministeriale 172). In this project, the researchers aimed to expand the knowledge on non-cognitive skills by pointing the attention to the underestimated role of loneliness. In particular, the project is articulated in two parts: A research part and an intervention part. In the research part, we aim to follow three lines, all focused on loneliness, non-cognitive skills, and academic achievement: The first line consists in retrieving and analyzing open- and big-datasets, in order to obtain data-driven insights (by means of machine learning techniques) on the indirect effect of loneliness on academic achievement via non-cognitive skills; in the second line, the research aims to collect data at two time-point, namely in November and in May-June of the first year of Junior High Schools located in the Autonomous Province of Trento and Rome; in the third line, the researchers aim to collect intensive longitudinal data on a subset of students included in the second line of research that voluntary apply for a data collection consisting of 12 days (once collection per day), and aim to analyze this kind of data with recent developments in time series analysis (i.e., Dynamic Structural Equation Models). Finally, the intervention part aims to train teachers and school superintendents to the importance and the management of non-cognitive skills in their school environment, by means of meetings based on technical reports and Data Visualization techniques. Overall, the aim of the project is two-fold: (a) To advance research on non-cognitive skills (a1) by leveraging Big Data sets (consistent with recent developments in the integration between Data Science and Psychometrics; e.g., Jacobucci & Grimm, 2020), (a2) by using cross-lagged panel designs that allow a more clear depiction of the direction of effects among latent variables (Orth et al, 2021), and (a3) by using intensive data design for the analysis of autoregression, trend, and mutual relationships between variables (McNeish & Hamaker, 2020); (b) to train teachers to the importance and developments of non-cognitive skills using advanced (and easy to be interpreted) data deployment techniques.