Conference Program

Schools bear responsibility for fostering psychological competences—such as emotional regulation, empathy, and prosocial behaviour—essential for students' active participation in democratic life (Caprara et al., 2014). Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (2001) posits reciprocal interactions between cultural narratives and individual representations. 
This psychosocial study examines how dominant literary narratives correspond with anger representations among children and adolescents, across cultures. 


Using a mixed-method design, an analysis of 50 young books featuring anger themes (predominantly Italian/Western vs. Japanese) revealed distinct national “narrative templates”. Italian literature often reinforces individualistic conflict resolution (explosive or repressive), while Japanese texts emphasize relational containment to preserve community harmony. 
These patterns were validated against empirical data from 500 Italian students (ages 5-18) and a Japanese comparative sample. 


Findings reveal a strong alignment between literary canons and youth representations: Italian youth predominantly exhibit confrontational anger, mirroring Western narrative dominance and correlating with higher resentment accumulation and reduced prosocial orientation. Conversely, the Japanese model focuses on "relational anger," where emotional regulation is not merely an individual effort but a social responsibility. By prioritizing group cohesion over individual emotional discharge, this approach fosters a culture of mutual care. The relational framework becomes therefore a cornerstone of democratic schooling, as it transforms conflict into an opportunity for collective negotiation rather than social fragmentation.
Japanese youth's management of internalized and relational anger is consistent with their literary tradition, and this correspondence confirms the role of literature as an implicit emotional curriculum: contemporary literature functions primarily as a cultural crystallization, reproducing prevailing emotional norms and predetermining social imaginaries prior to formal education.
Experimental Evidence: An intervention exposing Italian children to Japanese narratives demonstrated a significant shift toward relational, prosocial imaginaries. This confirms literature’s dual function: crystallization of existing norms vs. transformation through divergent models. This dual function positions children's literature as a strategic psychosocial resource for democratic education.
By tracing the pathway from cultural narratives through youth representations to behavioural competences, these findings show how schools can leverage "outsider" literary traditions to counter domestically crystallized emotional fragilities. Japanese anger narratives offer Italian students cultural scaffolding for empathy and cooperation, strengthening psychological competences for inclusive school communities and active citizenship (OECD, 2021). The study calls for curriculum diversification beyond national canons to activate literature's transformative potential, preventing resentment sedimentation while cultivating a democratic emotional culture.
Conclusions: Western individualistic narratives risk cultivating fragile democratic skills, while Japanese relational models offer the cultural framework for inclusive citizenship. Cross-fertilization through literary exchange would be desirable. In line with the OECD Frameworks (2021), this study promotes the curricular integration of diverse literary traditions to strengthen emotional regulation as a foundation for active democratic participation, particularly within heterogeneous school communities.

Online Hate Speech (OHS) is associated with reduced psychological well-being and other adverse outcomes, yet longitudinal evidence in adolescence remains limited (Wachs et al., 2025). Even less is known about the daily mechanisms linking OHS exposure to adolescents’ emotional experiences, particularly among youth with a migrant background, who often face additional discrimination-related stressors (Tynes et al., 2025). The present study examines the daily impact of OHS on negative emotions, namely sadness and anger, comparing adolescents with and without a migrant background.
By leveraging intensive longitudinal data, this study provides ecologically valid insights into how OHS exposure shapes adolescents’ emotions in everyday life. As part of a multicentric project, the study involves 84 high school classes in 9th and 10th grade across Italy, with data collection conducted between January and March 2025. Students completed two survey waves and a 27-day daily diary in between to assess OHS exposure and daily anger and sadness. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine intra-individual fluctuations, focusing on adolescents with a migrant background, approximately 10 percent of the sample, and their majority-group peers. Extended OHS exposure measured at baseline, assessing exposure in the previous month, was positively associated with higher average daily sadness and anger. Additionally, for sadness, a significant three-way interaction emerged (b = -0.18, 95 percent CI [-0.34, -0.02], p = .03), indicating that the interaction between daily and extended exposure differed by migrant background. Specifically, a positive same-day association between daily OHS exposure and sadness was observed only among adolescents with a migrant background reporting low levels of extended exposure. For anger, a significant two-way interaction between daily and extended exposure was found (b = -0.11, 95 percent CI [-0.19, -0.04], p = .004), suggesting that daily OHS exposure was associated with higher anger only at lower levels of extended exposure. Overall, extended OHS exposure was associated with higher average daily sadness and anger across the sample, indicating that cumulative exposure to online hostility is emotionally burdensome for adolescents regardless of migrant background. At the same time, daily emotional effects were differentially shaped by cumulative exposure and migrant background, particularly for sadness. Among adolescents with a migrant background, the pattern may be consistent with a desensitization process, whereby repeated exposure attenuates same-day emotional reactivity. In contrast, anger was more reactive at lower levels of cumulative exposure, with diminished daily effects as exposure became more persistent. Although anger is often viewed negatively, it may also function as a mobilizing emotion in discriminatory contexts across the sample. Over time, sustained exposure and elevated negative affect may contribute to broader impacts on psychological well-being, especially when discriminatory content targets identity-relevant dimensions among adolescents with a migrant background. Future research should further examine these mechanisms and their longer-term implications. Overall, the results underscore the importance of educational practices that actively cultivate safe, inclusive, and identity- affirming digital spaces, promote critical media literacy, and foster school environments in which diversity is explicitly valued and protected.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is recognized as a lifelong learning process since childhood, grounded in shared educational responsibility between schools and families. The school environment should provide CSE as a multidisciplinary and transversal subject, in line with international guidelines (IPPF, 2017; UNESCO, 2018; WHO & BZgA, 2010). On the other hand, families should openly introduce sexual and relational issues, supporting healthy development and behavior, increasing knowledge and awareness, and fostering positive and respectful attitudes toward one’s own and others’ sexuality (Ball et al., 2023; Benoit & Ronis, 2023; Castro et al., 2024; Nattabi et al., 2023). Italy still seems behind in the formal introduction of CSE in school contexts, as no law allows it, and the focus seems mostly on the duty and right of families to educate their children exclusively on sexual and relational topics (Bruno, 2024, 2025). However, studies on family discussion regarding sexual and relational issues highlight that difficulties and resistances are often encountered, which often lead to avoidance, discomfort, and embarrassment (Ballard & Gross, 2009; Grossman et al., 2017; Holman et al., 2023). While parents lack knowledge and competencies, adolescents who report an educational need use mostly informal sources (e.g., friends, partners, the web, pornography, social media, and peers) to self-educate (Alloni et al., 2017; Moreira et al., 2023; Unis & Sällström, 2020) and parents are considered incompetent (McCrimmon et al., 2024). Hence, family communication about CSE is perceived as inadequate or unsatisfactory (Bruno et al., 2026; Bleakley et al., 2018; Narushima et al., 2020). For these reasons, the present mixed-method study aims to explore CSE’s experiences and opinions in a triadic perspective, involving Italian adolescents, their parents. The first phase of the study included semi-structured interviews with an adolescent, the mother, and the father in each family; the second phase, still ongoing, involves administering an online questionnaire to adolescents, mothers, and fathers. The first phase was an exploratory qualitative study involving 50 families, while the second one aims to reach a wider, more heterogeneous sample, enabling statistical analyses and comparisons of experiences and opinions across families, adolescents, parents and Italian contexts.

The present study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how families and single members (adolescents and parents) experienced CSE and, looking forward to it, how they would like to receive it. Making them part of the rethinking process of educational change, the future aim is to design training and educational programs for both adolescents and parents.

Family socio-economic status is a major structural determinant of adolescents’ educational trajectories shaping academic performance and access to future opportunities, and expectations of success across their life course (OECD, 2023). Socio-economic advantage provides students with material, cultural, and relational resources that increase the likelihood of favourable school outcomes and access to educational and occupational pathways. Yet adolescents do not experience inequality only through objective family background. Their social position is also interpreted through everyday relational contexts, including support from teachers and family, experiences of belonging, and social comparison at school. Thus, relationships may shape how young people make sense of both current status and future prospects (OECD, 2024).

Research increasingly shows that subjective social status (i.e., how young people perceive their position in the social hierarchy) captures a distinct psychosocial dimension of inequality that extends beyond objective socio-economic background alone. Subjective socioeconomic status is consistently associated with adolescent health and well-being even after accounting for objective socio-economic conditions, supporting its relevance as an independent dimension of stratification (Quon & McGrath, 2014). However, objective and subjective status are positively associated but only partially aligned (Sweeting & Hunt, 2014). This partial overlap implies that some adolescents perceive themselves as socially lower or higher than expected given family background, allowing examination of the discrepancy between structural position and perceived social standing. Examining this discrepancy, and the potential protective role of relational support, may offer a more nuanced understanding of how inequality is internalised and shapes adolescents’ perceptions of present status, future opportunities, and upward social mobility.

Using data from the Italian PISA 2022 sample (N=10,552) of 15-year-old students, this study examines whether a discrepancy exists between adolescents’ objective socio-economic status and their perceived subjective social status, and whether perceived support from family and teachers is associated with this discrepancy and with adolescents’ future expectations. Objective socio-economic status is measured through the OECD’s ESCS Index.
Students are asked to think about their country’s society in terms of money, education and job positions. Given this input, subjective social status and perceived future opportunities are captured through students’ self-placement on a 1–10 scale in response to the questions, “Where would you say your family stands at this time?” and “Where do you think you will stand when you are 30?”, respectively.
Indicators of perceived family’s support, teacher’s support, and sense of belonging are included in the analysis as key relational resources.

Preliminary findings confirm a meaningful discrepancy between objective and subjective status, with 5.6% of students perceiving themselves lower than expected based on their ESCS, 53.2% showing alignment, and 41.2% perceiving themselves higher than expected. Initial analyses suggest that relational support plays a protective role: students reporting a stronger sense of belonging tend to show more positive future expectations and higher perceived opportunities for upward mobility, even when objective socio-economic status is considered. Overall, these findings suggest that inequalities’ stratification is not only structurally distributed but also subjectively interpreted, and that supportive relationships may help buffer the internalisation of disadvantage by sustaining adolescents’ future expectations.

This presentation focuses on youth political disengagement, examined within the broader framework of a long-term research initiative on political literacy among Croatian youth. The initiative brings together a large group of Croatian social scientists and has monitored the level of political literacy among final-year secondary school students every five years since 2010 (Bagić, 2011; Kovačić & Horvat, 2016; Baketa, Bovan & Matić Bojić, 2021). The political literacy surveys provide insight into the political knowledge, as well as democratically relevant attitudes and behaviors, of a nationally representative segment of the youth population. In doing so, they offer an important perspective on the outcomes of political socialization among the current generation of the youngest voters and those who will soon become voters.

The nature of the project enables the insight into trends and changes over time. Several key concepts included in the current study were also examined in earlier survey waves conducted in the 2009/2010, 2014/2015, and 2020/2021 school years. This allows researchers to monitor developments in political orientations and engagement among final-year secondary students across more than a decade. Data collection for the most recent wave in the school year 2025/2026 is currently ongoing.

Within this broader research framework, the present paper places particular emphasis on youth political disengagement. Low political interest and limited political engagement among young people represent a significant challenge for democratic societies, both in Croatia and globally. Understanding the sources and correlates of political disengagement is therefore an important step toward better understanding of the political socialization of younger generations. In this presentation, we will focus specifically on the relationship between youth political disengagement and a range of socio-political attitudes, including levels of authoritarianism as well as gender-, sexual-, and ethnic-based prejudice.

To examine this phenomenon, a Youth Political Disengagement Scale was recently developed (Lukačin, Matić Bojić & Baketa, 2026). Preliminary validation results indicated a strong negative correlation between political disengagement and political interest, as well as moderate to strong negative correlations with various formal and informal forms of political participation. These findings suggest that the scale captures an important dimension of young people’s relationship with politics. However, a more detailed examination of the broader attitudinal and ideological correlates of political disengagement is still needed. Data from the ongoing survey of a large nationally representative sample of final-year secondary school students (N ≈ 1000) will make it possible to further test the construct validity of the scale and to explore how youth political disengagement relates to a broader set of socio-political orientations and attitudes among young people in Croatia.

Early adolescence is characterized by significant developmental changes in social relationships and identity construction (Bukowski et al., 2020; LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010; Laursen & Veenstra, 2021). During this period, peer relationships become increasingly salient and play a central role in adolescents’ self-understanding, particularly as their identity formation is a “work in progress” (Laursen & Veenstra, 2021). Within the school context, the classroom environment represents a key social setting where early adolescents interact daily with peers and teachers. In particular, the perceived classroom climate—characterized by respect, inclusion, and supportive interactions—may influence how early adolescents perceive themselves, their future, and life more broadly (Lerner et al., 2005). In this vein, previous researchers have documented a bidirectional relationship between positivity—defined as the tendency to view one’s life and future in a positive light (Caprara et al., 2012) — and students’ perceptions of a positive classroom and school climate (e.g., Luengo Kanacri et al., 2017). However, these associations have primarily been examined across longer time intervals and have not yet been explored at the daily level during early adolescence. Day-to-day fluctuations in perceived peer relationships and positivity may help to better understand the dynamic nature of early adolescents’ everyday social experiences and the interplay between individual dispositions and contextual factors. The present study aimed to address this gap by examining how adolescents’ daily peer experiences at school are associated with their perceptions of positivity (and vice versa).

Participants were N = 150 students (52% girls; M_age = 12.11, SD = 0.76) recruited in middle schools, who completed a 10-day daily diary, assessing their levels of positivity (item example “today I was satisfied with myself”; Caprara et al., 2012) and perceptions of peer climate (item example “thinking about today, did the students in your class treat each other with respect?”; Spier, 2016). A series of Dynamic Structural Equation Models (DSEMs) were ran to test carry-over effects and the within- and between-person levels reciprocal associations between positivity and peer climate.

Results revealed significant carry-over effects for both positivity and peer climate, indicating day-to-day stability across the 10 days. Moreover, higher-than-usual perceptions of a positive peer climate on a given day were associated with higher-than-usual positivity the day after. However, the reverse association (from positivity to peer climate) was not statistically significant. Additionally, positivity and peer climate were positively related within-person on the same day. Older participants perceived the peer climate more negatively and reported lower levels of positivity than their counterparts. Males reported higher positivity levels than females.

Overall, findings highlight the importance of adolescents’ daily peer experiences in shaping their positive outlook on life. Promoting a respectful and inclusive classroom climate may therefore represent a favourable context for fostering adolescents’ positivity and supporting early adolescents’ positive development during everyday school experiences (Luengo Kanacri et al., 2017).

High-quality education should foster academic learning alongside positive behaviors that allow young people to build foundational skills and values that support an engaged citizenship (Elias et al., 1997). Prosocial behavior, defined as voluntary behavior enacted to benefit another (Eisenberg et al., 2013), fosters social competence and positive citizenship (Caprara et al., 2014). Building on Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001), prosocial behavior emerges from a complex interplay of multiple determinants (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Parents transmit values through which children view social relationships (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2007), particularly through collectivist values emphasizing interdependence and concern for the large group. Self-regulation predicts prosocial behavior by enabling children to inhibit selfish impulses and sustain prosocial behavior (Eisenberg et al., 1992). Furthermore, reward sensitivity is positively associated with prosocial behavior in children (Yu et al., 2024), suggesting that children's responsiveness to social rewards facilitates prosocial behaviors. However, little is known about how these personality variables jointly shape prosocial behavior in late childhood.

This study investigates how parental collectivism and children’s reward sensitivity and self-regulation interact in predicting prosocial behavior.

Participants were parents (N=189, 95.8% mothers) of children attending primary schools (55% boys; 47.5% third grade, 24.8% fourth grade, 27.7% fifth grade) within the Italian Small and Rural Schools Network of INDIRE. Parents’ collectivism values were assessed using the Individualism/Collectivism Scale (Triandis, 2018). Children’s self-regulation was assessed using a composite score of parent-reported measures (Coryn et al., 2009; Elliott et al., 2020; Simonds & Rothbart, 2004). Children’s prosocial behavior was assessed through parent-reported Prosocial Behavior scale (Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993). Children’s reward sensitivity was assessed through parent-reported BIS/BAS scales (Carver & White, 1994).

A multiple regression examined main and interactive effects of parental collectivism, children’s reward sensitivity and self-regulation on prosocial behavior, controlling for child gender, grade, school site, parental role and social desirability. Results revealed significant positive effects for self-regulation (β=.241, p=.008) and reward sensitivity (β=.256, p=.002). Moreover, parental collectivism significantly moderated the association between self-regulation and prosocial behavior (β=.221, p=.022). Specifically, higher self-regulation was associated with greater prosocial behavior, particularly in contexts characterized by higher parental collectivism; whereas parental collectivism was low, differences in prosocial behavior between high and low self-regulation children were smaller. A similar pattern emerged for reward sensitivity: children with higher reward sensitivity displayed higher levels of prosocial behavior when parental collectivism was high, whereas the association was weaker in the case of low parental collectivism (β=.173, p=.042).

Overall, these findings suggest that collectivistic parental values may amplify the role of individual motivational and regulatory characteristics in promoting prosocial behavior during late childhood. In line with Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001), these findings suggest that educational contexts may benefit from recognizing the interplay between individual characteristics and cultural values in supporting children’s prosocial behavior.