The present study examined the interplay between self-determined motivation and the use of cognitive strategies in predicting university students’ academic performance while taking into account the effect of prior achievement. A theory based model was tested using structural equation modeling on a sample of 764 Italian university students. Results showed that prior achievement influenced students’ academic performance and their motivation and use of cognitive strategies. Critical thinking was the only cognitive strategy which proved to have a significant impact on students’ academic performance. Autonomous motivation had an indirect positive impact on academic performance through its influence on the critical thinking strategy. Controlled motivation had a direct negative impact on academic performance. On the whole, our findings suggest that autonomously motivated students tend to achieve better academic performance by using critical thinking, while students who are driven by controlled motivation have lower academic performance.

School situations trigger affective states that influence students’ achievement and well-being. In the present study, we investigated, on the basis of a sample of 26,470 high-school students and 1,472 classrooms, the relationship of individual characteristics (immigrant background, gender, socioeconomic status, and achievement) as well as classroom characteristics (group composition and size) with students’ feelings at school. The results showed that females, low achievers, immigrants, and low-SES students are more at risk of psychological distress at school, with gender and achievement being the most important factors. A doubly latent model analysis revealed that whereas individual socioeconomic status and achievement have a positive impact on students’ feelings, the effect of the two variables at the classroom level is negative. The impact of immigrant classroom composition seems to be limited to positive affect and dependent on students’ immigrant generation. Finally, students in smaller classrooms show more psychological well-being at school.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a media literacy intervention targeting, for the first time, the specific topic of Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances (PAESs) use in high-school students. Overall, 389 students (52% male) aged between 13 and 19 years (mean = 16.56 year;SD= 1.26) participated to a media literacy intervention (i.e., “intervention group”) while 103 students aged between 14 and 19 year (mean = 16.10 year;SD= 1.38) were considered as the control group (i.e., “control group”). In two separate occasions over the course of six consecutive months, students in both groups filled out a set of questionnaires which included measures of social-cognitive beliefs (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, intentions) and a self-reported measure of retrospective use of doping (Yes/No) and supplements (Yes/No). Compared to students in the control group (Mean_(time1)= 1.96; SD_(time1)= 0.85; and Mean_(time2)= 2.09; SD_(time2)= 0.94), intervention students on average expressed relatively stronger attitudes against doping use over time (Mean_(time1)= 2.2; SD_(time1)= 0.85; and Mean_(time2)= 2.05; SD_(time2)= 0.82). Students in the latter group also showed a statistically significant decrease in self-reported supplement use (Use_(time1)= 6.7%; Use_(time2)= 3.8%;p= 0.05, McNemar Test). Interestingly, albeit marginally significant, students in the control group showed a relative increment in the self-reported use of supplements over time (Use_(time1)= 4.9%; Use_(time2)= 8.7%;p= 0.22, McNemar Test). Overall, the media literacy intervention investigated in the present study was effective in decreasing adolescent student’s positive attitudes toward doping use and in reducing the use of legal PAES. These findings supported the generalizability and the usefulness of a media literacy approach in the specific field of PAES.

Italy is a particularly interesting context in which to study the phenomenon of bullying given the steadily increasing number of immigrant students attending Italian primary schools. We examined the psychometric properties of a short self-report measure of bullying and victimization across groups of students with various migration backgrounds. We then estimated, by latent mean comparisons, the rates of prevalence of bullying and victimization among different generations of immigrants and native students. Results concerning the factor structure of the measure were consistent with studies in other cultural contexts and complete scalar measurement invariance was found across immigrant backgrounds. The analyses showed that both first- and second-generation immigrant pupils reported being victimized more frequently than their native peers. However, the incidence of victimization for second generations was lower than that for first generations. Finally, no differences across different generations of immigrants and native students were found in reported bullying behaviors.