LIBRI DI PIERGIORGIO MOSSI

The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between adolescent evaluation of health risk behaviours and family practices, while accounting for moderating effects of the cul-tural models through which adolescents interpret their social environment. Cultural models, perceived family practices and evaluation of the risk associated to alcohol consumption, drugs use, reckless driving and unprotected sexual behaviours were assessed among 392 adolescents (mean age: 16.88 ± 0.752) recruited in five different Italian high schools of the southern Italy. The findings show that, beside family dimensions (parental knowledge of children’s activities, parental inquiry about children’s activities, family rules on bed time), a component of adolescents’ cultural model - related to evaluation of the micro-social environment - has a direct effect on risk evaluation, stronger than the other variables; another component - related to the evaluation of the macro-social environment - moderates the role of the family dimensions. These results suggest the importance of cultural and social dimensions in the intervention programs.

This study deepens the analysis of how the physician’s role is represented in contemporary society and how such a representation affects the patient’s propensity to comply. 468 patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire aimed at detecting the representation of the medical role. The level of compliance was measured by means of a multiple 4-point Likert scale with ques-tions on five aspects: therapy, advice on health, hygienic rules, prohibited behaviours, sugges-tions for a healthy life-style. A procedure combining multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis was applied to identify response profiles, corresponding to different represen-tations of the physician’s role. Univariate analysis (ANOVA) was performed to compare clus-ters on compliance levels. Four profiles were identified; the physician is represented in turn as affiliative authority, idealized friend, competent advisor or disappointing opponent. Significant differences were found in the level of compliance characterizing each representation. The find-ings suggest that the knowledge of the ways patients represent their relationship with the phy-sician is a crucial area for a better understanding of the different patient compliance levels.

A number of studies show how different social groups express heterogeneous evaluations about the meaning of "risk" and the nature of the acceptable conducts. From a cultural perspective, the current study tests the hypothesis that subjective cultures in terms of which people interpret their role and their social environment affect the magnitude of the risk perceived related to different kinds of behaviours: substance (alcohol, hard drugs, marijuana or nicotine) consumption, internet use and gambling. The study involved 198 bachelor degree students from South-East Italy. Respondents were asked to assess the risk related to each of the target behaviours, in three domains: health, relationships and social approval/stigma. Principal Components Analyses allowed to identify two factorial dimensions for each domain: as regards the health, respondents express different evaluations of the risk related to substance use or specific behaviours; as regard the relationships, the differentiation concerns socialized and not socialized behaviours; as regards social approval, the differentiation concerns licit and illicit behaviours. The questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (Mossi and Salvatore, 2011) was used to detect the subjective cultures. The Analysis of Multiple Correspondence allowed to identify the two principal dimensions of sense which organize them. Finally, Kendall correlations were applied to analyse the linkage between the components of risk rating and the components of subjective cultures. The results provide support for the idea that cultural differences in the way of evaluating the social environment are related to a different evaluation of the risk related to different kind of hazardous behaviours. The Implications for strategies of intervention will be discussed.

La questione qualità occupa un posto di grande rilievo nel mondo universitario, sebbene con un’attenzione quasi esclusiva verso la didattica e la ricerca. Ma all’interno di una visione di servizio dell’organizzazione dei processi formativi, molto rilevante è la qualità dell’esperienza personale e sociale degli studenti. In tal senso, l’approccio psicosociale offre un contributo decisivo al miglioramento continuo di una qualità dall’accezione più estesa.