This research revealed the children with difficulties in attentional functions among healthy children attending primary school and aimed to identify the possible sociodemographic factors, such as the child’s age, gender, and school grade, that could influence attentive performance. The participants were 105 children aged 6–10 years (M age = 8.6; SD = 1.04), attending primary schools. Family economic condition was mostly at a medium level (63.5%), and parents most frequently had 13 years of schooling. The computerized test KiTAP was administered to children to assess their attentional functions. Results showed a higher frequency of omissions and false alarms and a reduced speed in alertness, go/no-go, and sustained attention tasks compared to Italian norms. Hierarchical regression analyses were run with school grade, gender, and current age as independent variables and mean reaction times (and standard deviation), number of omissions, and false alarms as dependent ones. The results showed that male gender and attending a lower grade impacted on lower attentional performance in several subtests. Girls showed the best performances in tests of distractibility and impulsive reaction tendencies, while higher school grade positively influenced divided and sustained attention. These results could be useful to identify children with major attentional difficulties, and some recommendations for future studies and the implementation of attention empowerment programmes are proposed.

Adolescents with cancer may demonstrate problems in their self-esteem and schooling. This study aims to screen the preadolescents and adolescents more at risk in their self-esteem perception and schooling difficulties post-five years from the end of therapy. Twenty-five paediatric ex-patients healed from leukaemia were recruited at the Haematology-Oncologic Clinic (University of Padua). The mean age of the children was 13.64 years (Standard Deviation (SD)) = 3.08, range = 10–19 years), most were treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (84%) and relatively equally distributed by gender. They filled in the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Test, while parents completed a questionnaire on their child’s schooling. Global self-esteem was mostly below the 50 percentile (58.5%), especially regarding interpersonal relationships (75%). An independent sample t-test showed significant mean differences on the emotionality scale (t = 2.23; degree of freedom (df) = 24; p = 0.03) and in the bodily experience scale (t = 3.02; df = 24; p = 0.006) with survivors of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) having lower scores. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed significant mean differences in the bodily experience scale (F = 12.31; df = 2, p = 0.0001) depending on the survivors’ assigned risk band. The parent reports showed that 43.5% of children had difficulties at school. Childhood AML survivors with a high-risk treatment were more at risk in their self-esteem perceptions. Preventive interventions focusing on self-esteem and scholastic wellbeing are suggested in order to help their return to their normal schedules.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete lockdown in many countries and Italy was the first country interested in Europe, as the cases spread very quickly with a high rate of mortality. While the lockdown strategy is an essential step to curb the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, it can have a significative impact on mental health on the population involved, that is still not well known and must be explored. The objective of the present research is to investigate the Quality of Life (QoL) and Symptoms of PTSD (PTSS) encountered during the quarantine period (April 2020) due to the spread of COVID-19 in Italy. Participants (N = 1839; 1430 females and 409 males), who were volunteers and anonymous, adults (18–73 years), were drawn from a convenience sample of the general population and asked to fill out an online questionnaire, after giving an informed written consent. The General Health Questionnaire (GH12), used to assess health related QoL, identified 24.5% of respondents as problematic, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), used to assess PTSS, identified the 23.5% with clinical scores. Results showed that married people/cohabitants, non-workers, and those with a lower level of education perceived a better QoL and less PTSS. The most frequent emotions felt during the first month of quarantine and referred to by participants were sadness (72%), boredom (54.5%), impotence (52%), and anxiety (50%). The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the most stressful events in recent times worldwide and poses a major challenge for social, economic, and, above all, psychological resources of the population that must be assessed and supported if insufficient.