The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale global study to date on how higher education students perceived the use of ChatGPT in early 2024. With a sample of 23,218 students from 109 countries and territories, the study reveals that students primarily used ChatGPT for brainstorming, summarizing texts, and finding research articles, with a few using it for professional and creative writing. They found it useful for simplifying complex information and summarizing content, but less reliable for providing information and supporting classroom learning, though some considered its information clearer than that from peers and teachers. Moreover, students agreed on the need for AI regulations at all levels due to concerns about ChatGPT promoting cheating, plagiarism, and social isolation. However, they believed ChatGPT could potentially enhance their access to knowledge and improve their learning experience, study efficiency, and chances of achieving good grades. While ChatGPT was perceived as effective in potentially improving AI literacy, digital communication, and content creation skills, it was less useful for interpersonal communication, decision-making, numeracy, native language proficiency, and the development of critical thinking skills. Students also felt that ChatGPT would boost demand for AI-related skills and facilitate remote work without significantly impacting unemployment. Emotionally, students mostly felt positive using ChatGPT, with curiosity and calmness being the most common emotions. Further examinations reveal variations in students’ perceptions across different socio-demographic and geographic factors, with key factors influencing students’ use of ChatGPT also being identified. Higher education institutions’ managers and teachers may benefit from these findings while formulating the curricula and instructions/regulations for ChatGPT use, as well as when designing the teaching methods and assessment tools. Moreover, policymakers may also consider the findings when formulating strategies for secondary and higher education system development, especially in light of changing labor market needs and related digital skills development.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of negative consequences for higher education students. We explored the generalizability of the control-value theory of achievement emotions for e-learning, focusing on their antecedents. We involved 17019 higher education students from 13 countries, who completed an online survey during the first wave of the pandemic. A structural equation model revealed that proximal antecedents (e-learning self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy) mediated the relation between environmental antecedents (cognitive and motivational quality of the task) and positive and negative achievement emotions, with some exceptions. The model was invariant across country, area of study, and gender. The rates of achievement emotions varied according to these same factors. Beyond their theoretical relevance, these findings could be the basis for policy recommendations to support stakeholders in coping with the challenges of e-learning and the current and future sequelae of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a very difficult physical and psychological challenge for the general population and even more for healthcare workers (HCWs). The main aim of the present study is to test whether there were significant differences between frontline and non-frontline Italian HCWs concerning (a) personality traits, intolerance of uncertainty, coping strategies and perceived stress, and (b) the models of their associations. A total of 682 Italian HCWs completed a self-report questionnaire: 280 employed in COVID-19 wards and 402 in other wards. The analysis of variance omnibus test revealed significant differences between the two groups only for perceived stress, which was higher among the frontline. The multi-group path analysis revealed significant differences in the structure of the associations between the two groups of HCWs, specifically concerning the relations between: personality traits and intolerance of uncertainty; intolerance of uncertainty and coping strategies. Regarding the relation between coping strategies and stress no difference was identified between the two groups. In both of them, emotionally focused coping was negatively related with perceived stress, whereas dysfunctional coping was positively related with stress. These results could be useful in planning actions aiming to reduce stress and improve the effectiveness of HCWs’ interventions. Training programs aimed to provide HCWs with a skillset to tackle uncertain and stressful circumstances could represent an appropriate support to develop a preventive approach during outbreaks.

The Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire: the Italian version Silvana Rocchi,1 Claudio Ghidelli,2 Roberto Burro,3 Michele Vitacca,4 Simonetta Scalvini,5 Anna Maria Della Vedova,6 Gianmarco Roselli,7 Jean-Pierre Ramponi,8 Giorgio Bertolotti9 1Psychology Service, ICS Maugeri Spa SB, Institute of Lumezzane, 2Psychological Counselling Service, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia, 3Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, 4Respiratory Rehabilitation Division, 5Cardiac Rehabilitation Division, ICS Maugeri Spa SB, Institute of Lumezzane, 6Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, 7Department of Mental Health, Spedali Civili, 8ICS Maugeri Spa SB, Institute of Lumezzane, Brescia, 9Psychology Unit, ICS Maugeri Spa SB, Institute of Tradate, Varese, Italy Background: Resilience focuses on strength under stress, in the context of adversity. Walshâ??s theoretical model identifies relational processes that allow families to tackle and overcome critical situations, dividing them into three domains of family function. The aim of this study was to assess resilience in families of patients with a chronic disease by adapting and validating the Italian version of the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (Walsh-IT). Patients and methods: An Italian adult sample of 421 participants (patients and relatives) was collected with the aim to assess the reliability and validity of the Walsh-IT. Concurrent validity was carried out by comparing this instrument with the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale III (FACES III) administered at the same time as the Walsh-IT. Results: Reliability showed high correlation between repeated measurements. The alpha coefficient was 0.946. Both parallel analysis and minimum average partial criteria suggested that the best number of domains is equal to 3, explaining 50.4% of the total variance. Based on the results obtained from the Rasch analysis, items 10, 11, 16, 22, and 23 have been removed resulting in a short-form questionnaire (Walsh-IT-R) of 26 items with three domains: shared beliefs and support (SBS, α=0.928); family organization and interaction (FOI, α=0.863); and utilization of social resources (USR, α=0.567). The total score of the Walsh-IT-R was strongly correlated with the total score of FACES III Real Family Scale (r=0.68; p