Why don't they stay at home? Prejudices against ethnic minorities in Italy

This study was conducted in Bologna, Italy, to analyse attitudes concerning ethnic minorities and emotions experienced in intergroup relations. Stereotypes of North African immigrants were investigated as a function of 'geographical' proximity with black people (living in the neighbourhood of black immigrants versus living in districts without immigrants) and origin (natives of Bologna versus residents who moved from Southern Italy to Bologna). It was predicted that the most positive stereotypes would be found among natives of Bologna living in the same neighbourhoods as North Africans, while the most negative prejudices would occur among the South Italians who do not live in the same districts as black people. Results indicate that neighbourhood has a central importance but effects of respondents' origins are more mixed.     

Individual Well-Being,Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital

This paper argues the relevance of analysing the origins of contextual effects to explain subjective well-being (SWB). Using the 2012 European Social Survey, the study applies social capital indicators to distinguish between-context and between-individual heterogeneity in three multilevel models of happiness and life satisfaction. Five indicators of social capital at individual and regional level are used to measure the trust, networks and norms dimensions of social capital. Random intercept and random slope hierarchical models are used to control for unexplained regional variability. The possibility of aggregated subjective perceptions conditioning, or interacting with, the effects of individual perceptions is also examined. The results show that the regional means of the social capital indicators are useful in explaining not only average levels of SWB (between-context heterogeneity) but also differences in the importance individuals attribute to their social capital (between-individual heterogeneity). The paper also proposes a research agenda to expand the frontier on contextual effects in the new science of well-being.     

Discriminatory Contexts,Emotions and Civic/Political Engagement among Native Italians and Migrants

We assume that emotions (anger, shame and hope) mediate the relationship between perceiving a discriminatory context and civic/political engagement. Results of a survey with 1242 participants (mean age 20.7 years; 53% men; 32.8% migrants) showed that such emotions play a different role according to the type of engagement and the population (native Italians versus migrants). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social dominance orientation and prejudice in an Italian sample

Social dominance orientation has been proposed as an important variable in the explanation of prejudice. For an Italian sample of 355, correlations with measures of blatant and subtle prejudice against migrant people showed social dominance orientation was positively related to blatant prejudice. Persons with less education scored higher on social dominance orientation.     

Knowledge and attitudes about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a comparison between practicing teachers and undergraduate education students

The knowledge and attitudes of practicing teachers regarding ADHD were compared with those of undergraduate education students. Key elements of studies of American and Canadian teachers by Jerome, Gordon, and Hustler (1994) and Jerome, Washington, Laine, and Segal (1999) were replicated. Information was gathered about participants' demographic background (training in ADHD), attitudes towards ADHD, and knowledge about its diagnosis and treatment. Results confirmed the existence of some knowledge gaps, although both practicing teachers and undergraduate education students possessed sound information about ADHD. Misconceptions about ADHD primarily concerned dietary treatment. Attitudes and knowledge were significantly correlated and most participants regarded ADHD as a valid diagnosis with implications for the school setting, and expressed a desire for comprehensive training. Despite similar results for both samples, teachers achieved higher accuracy on knowledge-based questions. These results are discrepant from those of Jerome et al. (1999) who found teachers and students to be similar in factual knowledge. Implications of these findings for curriculum development in academia and in-service teacher training are highlighted.