LIBRI DI ALESSIA BERTOLAZZI

During the last decades, researchers have shown an increased attention towards the practice of health information seeking online. This interest has been driven by a desire to understand how it influences health beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors among laypersons. Although many tools have been proposed to measure health information seeking, they present some limits. Through an online survey among 783 Italian university students, our study aims at developing a self-report instrument to measure individuals’ online health information-seeking behavior, the Online Self-care Scale (OSS), considering the twofold activity of seeking and employing information (the “Information seeking” and “Self-care practice”). We examined the reliability and construct validity of the OSS’s self-report scale and explored the association between Online Self-Care Scale and gender, socioeconomic status (SES), self-reported health status, and digital health literacy. Our findings show both acceptable discriminant and convergent validities for the OSS. The validity has also been assessed through the known-group validity, namely evaluating if OSS can discriminate between groups of individuals demonstrating different scores on the test. Therefore, the OSS Scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the level of involvement of individuals in health information retrieval, allowing researchers to distinguish between a merely information-seeking activity and an application of the information by the seekers.

Un’interpretazione sociologica sull’uso di droghe: partendo dal confronto con teorie e autori “classici” e dall’analisi dei loro contribuiti sul tema, si esaminano gli approcci scientifici correnti, in particolare la tesi della “normalizzazione” e delle subculture. Il testo è corredato da una serie di riscontri fenomenici rispetto agli attuali modelli di consumo, che portano a individuare alcune categorie d’uso finalizzate a soddisfare certe aspettative sociali. Alessia Bertolazzi, dottore di ricerca in Criminologia, è docente a contratto di Sociologia presso la Facoltà di Scienze Politiche “R. Ruffilli”, dell’Università di Bologna.

A causa del Covid-19 abbiamo vissuto quasi due anni in un mondo rovesciato, rivoluzionando i nostri stili di vita. Il volume mostra, sulla base di riflessioni teoriche sostenute da ricerche sul campo, alcuni di questi sviluppi, costruendo il contesto per interventi di supporto alle persone e di contrasto agli effetti negativi. Il testo approfondisce le seguenti “aree”: Policy, Anziani, Adulti, Giovani e Comunicazioni. Queste tematiche sono affrontate con uno sguardo critico, ma con un’attitudine costruttiva, utilizzando solide e sofisticate strumentazioni sociologiche.

This article aims at analysing the role of Instagram in the treatment of eating disorders. Theobjective is to investigate how people with anorexia nervosa use Instagram. The hypothesisto be verified is whether the use of this social media by those who are trying to cure eatingdisorders may pose risks to the healing process. Therefore, a simultaneous, multi-methodstudy was performed. The core component of the research was the content analysis of a sampleof posts (images and captions) selected by Instagram, while the supplementary componentwas a focus group with people suffering from eating disorders, treated by a specialized Italiancentre. The study highlighted the prevalence of potentially risky contents. Images and textsseem to reveal an inclination to the spectacularisation of the disease itself, offering contentsmainly referable to risk-taking behaviours such as the obsessive control of food intake, food’sweight or calorie content.

Drug addiction has been subjected to political, legal and medical control, oscillating between phases of criminalization and medicalization. In recent decades, the shift emerging in criminal culture towards rehabilitation rather than repression of drug addicts, and the biomedicalization process applied to addiction seems to outline a consistent control model; however, several critical points can be identified. Through a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews, conducted with 15 healthcare professionals involved in the drug treatment of inmates, these critical points have been discussed and basically confirmed. On the one hand, the partial implementation of the rehabilitation model is evident in the organizational difficulties that emerged (scarcity of human resources, limited spaces and lack of sufficient funding), which do not provide a suitable recovery program for all inmates. On the other hand, the medical model seems unable to attenuate stigmatizing attitudes, especially towards several weaker social categories. Finally, biomedicalization remains a general concept, but the treatment process is still oriented towards cognitive-behavioral normalization.

The article describes the findings of an exploratory qualitative study, carried out in 8 Italian regions, on the role of Family and Community Health Nursing, as defined by the WHO. Formal recognition of the figure is currently lacking in Italy and there are few studies in this field. A set of local experiences, in which the role of the nurses expresses functions and competencies related to the Family and Community Nursing, was examined. 138 interviews were conducted to identify the emerging models of family nursing in the observed regions. Through the analysis of the interviews, two distinct models were classified: the first is identified in family nursing applied to socially and territorially defined contexts; the second is family nursing applied to the Chronic Care Model. In both models, however, there are three pending issues: the recognition of the professional figure with specific contractual forms; how to overcome obstacles, at least in the prescription of aids and devices; an accurate calculation of the nurse/patients ratio.

The Italian case is emblematic of the liberalization of gambling and the drive towards its commercialization, taking place in several countries. Despite an uncertain political-legal framework, public services for addiction treatment are adapting to face the challenge posed by gambling. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted within a sample of public services for addiction (today SerD, yet SerT) of an Italian region, involving professionals dedicated to gambling. The Author has attempted to identify the theoretical and practical approach adopted by organizations and professionals, through the comparison with the "chronic disease model" and "public health model". l

The Italian case is emblematic of the liberalization of gambling and the drive towards its commercialization, taking place in several countries. Despite an uncertain political-legal framework, public services for addiction treatment are adapting to face the challenge posed by gambling. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted within a sample of public services for addiction (Ser.T.) of an Italian region, involving professionals dedicated to gambling. The Author has attempted to identify the theoretical and practical approach adopted by organizations and professionals, through the comparison with the "chronic disease model" and "public health model".

The human trafficking may be considered a form of slavery widespread in contemporary societies. After facing major socio-criminological theoretical approaches applied to people trafficking within the framework of migratory processes, the paper analyzes the specific features taken from the phenomenon in the Adriatic-Ionian countries. Finally, some contrasting strategies are outlined, highlighting emerging risks linked to these forms of criminality.