Background: the current post-pandemic situation has exacerbated the effects already present due to the recent socio-economic crises belonging to the first two decades of this century: perception of instability, fears, concern for the future, underemployment, undignified work. This situation has negatively impacted life in general, career paths, and perceived quality of life, especially for new generations. Positive resources such as optimism and hope can have a positive effect in countering these effects which are impacting student academic satisfaction, life satisfaction, and flourishing. In the hypothesis, courage acts as a mediator for both domain-specific and general well-being, as perceived by college students. Methods: the research involved 410 Italian university students. Five rating scales were used: Visions About the Future, Courage Measure, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Flourishing Scale, and College Satisfaction Scale. Results: All research variables were significantly and positively correlated. The mediation model almost totally confirmed the hypotheses, as the relationship between optimism and academic satisfaction was totally mediated by courage. In other cases, optimism and hope had both a direct and an indirect effect, mediated by courage, on the life satisfaction, academic satisfaction, and flourishing of college students. Conclusions: the findings are discussed with recent theories and research on this topic, and suggestions are provided with practical implications for those involved in supporting the choice and construction of career paths.

Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological point of view; recently, courage has been related with numerous positive individual behaviors and outcomes, such as coping strategies and subjective wellbeing, and an increasing number of studies explore the role of courage in the working and organizational environments. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect that individual courage—together with risk intelligence—and workplace social courage have on working performance; Methods: The participants are 961 Italian workers, balanced by gender; the measures used are: Courage, Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale, Workplace Social Courage Scale, and Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Models; Results: The results show the effect of subjective risk intelligence and courage on working performance, both directly and through the mediation of workplace social courage; Conclusions: Suggestions for further research and practical implications are discussed.

Italy was quickly hit hard by the coronavirus. ‘Lockdown’ has significantly impacted the psychological health, personal wellbeing and quality of life of the people. The study aims to explore the relationship between positive and negative affect, as well as positive (spiritual well-being and flourishing) and negative outcomes (psychological distress caused by a traumatic life event in terms of perception of PTSD symptoms) on Italian adults during the lockdown period. Data was collected between April and May 2020. The participants were 281 Italian adults aged between 18 and 73 years. The survey was composed of the following measures: Flourishing Scale, Jarel Spiritual Well-Being scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Impact of Event Scale—Revised, Fear of COVID-19. The mediational analysis shows that fear of COVID-19 fully mediates the relationship between negative affect and spiritual well-being and flourishing; fear of COVID-19 partially mediates the relationship between negative affect and PTSD symptoms; the positive affect shows only direct effects on positive outcomes. Therefore, fear of COVID-19 does not play any mediation role. Implications for psychological interventions and future research will be discussed.

This study, after presenting a review of the existent literature on courage and social courage in the workplace, has the purpose of providing new evidence about the psychometric properties of an Italian-language version of the Workplace Social Courage Scale (WSCS), verifying its measurement invariance across gender and the discrimination properties of its items through IRT analysis. The aim of the research is testing the Italian version of the WSCS; for this scope, four studies have been conducted on four different samples analyzing the factorial structure, the internal consistency, the measurement invariance across gender, and the convergent and concurrent validity. The results support the psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, reliability, validity, and utility, showing positive relationships with the criterion variables: satisfaction of work-related basic needs, prosocial rule breaking and work performance. The current study extends prior findings by providing further insights about the construct of courage and social courage in the workplace, especially in the Italian context. As, to date, little is known about the impact of social courage on work and organizational outcomes, the availability of a reliable, valid, and cross-culturally supported instrument can promote the role of this construct in positive organizational behavior research.

Nowadays, the economic and social environment is characterized by changes and unstable global conditions that lead individuals to actively adapt to frequent changes. Although the impact may vary across sectors and geographical areas, current global conditions affect decent work. The Life Design paradigm and the Career Construction Theory emphasize the role of career resources, such as career adaptability, to help individuals advocate for themselves and their communities in their search for decent and meaningful work and promote their life satisfaction. This study examined the relationship between career adaptability and life satisfaction through the mediational role of decent work and meaningful work. A total of 706 Italian adults (269 males and 437 females), ages ranging from 18 to 53 years (M = 24.48; SD = 4.01), were involved. Results demonstrated that career adaptability was directly and indirectly linked to life satisfaction through the mediational role of decent work and meaningful work. The results highlighted the relevance of career interventions on career adaptability to positively impact decent and meaningful work and, in turn, life satisfaction.