Tommaso Feraco
Biographic Data
| ID | 2745873 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tommaso Feraco |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tommaso |
| FAMILY NAME | Feraco |
| SIGNATURE | FERACO T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8920-5330 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills of Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: A Replication, Extension, and Synthesis of Existing Research
Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills have been found to predict academic and non-academic outcomes; however, students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) may show weaker SEB profiles and SEB may not translate into better grades for this population of students. In 5,075 high school students, including 243 reporting an SLD diagnosis, we compared social engagement, self-management, innovation, emotional resilience, and cooperation s…
Use and Coherence of Study Skills and Learning-Strategy Knowledge in Typically Developing Children and Children With Specific Learning Disabilities
Difficulties with study skills are often reported in children with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), yet few studies have examined how strategy use relates to learning outcomes. This study investigated the perceived utility, actual use, and coherence of study strategies in 89 students with and 809 without SLD in Grades 3–8. The students completed strategy questionnaires and performed two study tasks; their teachers provided achievement ratin…
University Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: Do Soft Skills and Study-Related Factors Make a Difference to Their Academic Outcomes
Understanding the role of individual factors associated with positive academic outcomes is fundamental to providing effective support for students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) throughout their academic careers. The present study aimed to investigate group differences between students with and without SLDs and to examine the relationships between study-related factors, social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills, and student outco…
Validity of a very short measure of character strengths: The Italian via-48
Character strengths are recognized as 24 key personal resources for individual and societal well-being. Their applicability to time-constrained settings (e.g., organizations, counseling services) may be limited by the length of the currently available assessment tools. To address this issue, we developed and tested a very brief measure of character strengths, with only two items per character strength. To do this, in Study 1 (N = 16,722) we first…
Years of Character Strengths: A Bibliometric Review
Character strengths were introduced into the positive psychology literature twenty years ago. The present bibliometric analysis quantitatively summarizes the research conducted in the field so far in terms of impact and themes analyzed. We conduct performance analysis to examine the total number of publications on character strengths, their bibliometric indices, the main journals contributing to the field, and the countries involved in such knowl…
Ready for What's Next? The Associations Between Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills and Career Adaptability in High School Students
INTRODUCTION: Transitioning from school to higher education or work is a pivotal moment in a student's life, requiring life-changing decisions. During this period, students who have acquired a wide range of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral (SEB) skills may feel more confident regarding their capacity to adapt positively to future challenges and difficulties. Our study aimed to test whether five SEB skills domains (self-management, innovation, so…
The role of social, emotional, and behavioral skills for nature connectedness, action competence, and proenvironmental behaviors in adolescence
Following indications from international organizations, this study tests the associations between the five domains of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills (self-management, innovation, social engagement, cooperation, and emotional resilience) and two key antecedents of proenvironmental behavior, namely nature connectedness and self-perceived action competence for sustainability, in a sample of 702 students aged between 12 and 20 years (…
Soft skills in high schools: Integrating Self-Regulated Learning and Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Frameworks
Acting together for a positive future: A cross-cultural investigation of how environmental cognitive alternatives and efficacy beliefs contribute to individual and collective biodiversity-conservation…
Does Inequality Shape Human Character? Cross-Cultural Associations between Character Strengths and the Gini Index in 68 Countries
Environmental factors are crucial in shaping individual characteristics. One key contextual factor is economic inequality, which is increasing in most OECD countries and negatively impacting individuals and societies, including personality traits. To date, no studies examined the relationship between economic inequality and positive personality traits such as character strengths. In a large cross-cultural study ( N = 980,807, 68 countries) we inv…
The Italian Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (Bessi-I)
The importance of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills is recognized worldwide, but their measurement has always been a challenge. The BESSI measures 32 SEB skills, divided into five domains (social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation), but its validity must be expanded to new languages and contexts. Across two studies (N1 = 990, N2= 824) we developed the Italian version of the BESSI, provided …
Clusters that are not there: An R tutorial and a Shiny app to quantify a priori inferential risks when using clustering methods
Clustering methods are increasingly used in social science research. Generally, researchers use them to infer the existence of qualitatively different types of individuals within a larger population, thus unveiling previously “hidden” heterogeneity. Depending on the clustering technique, however, valid inference requires some conditions and assumptions. Common risks include not only failing to detect existing clusters due to a lack of power but a…
Is Good Character All that Counts? A Comparison Between the Predictive Role of Specific Strengths and a General Factor of “Good Character” Using a Bifactor Model
Character strengths have been found to consistently predict many positive psychological outcomes, such as well-being, life satisfaction, and mental health, but research on the topic is still at its infancy and some methodological limitations must be overcome to better understand what character strengths are and what is their role. One main issue concerns the structure of character strengths and virtues, which may undermine the credibility and rep…
An integrated model of school students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction. Linking soft skills, extracurricular activities, self-regulated learning, motivation, and emotions
The role of soft skills at school is still debated, but they have emerged as important factors for students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction. This study focuses on the combined influence of soft skills (in terms of adaptability, curiosity, leadership, initiative, perseverance, and social awareness), extracurricular activities, achievement emotions, self-regulated learning, motivation, and cognitive abilities on academic achievement and…
Adaptability favors positive academic responses and posttraumatic growth under Covid-19: A longitudinal study with adolescents
Adaptability and emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects of self-regulated learning: Direct and indirect relations with academic achievement and life satisfaction
BackgroundAdaptability regulates individuals' cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to new, unexpected and uncertain situations, but to date no study has analysed whether adaptability contemporarily favours cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of learning.AimsThis study aims to address this gap by examining (i) the direct relations between adaptability and achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies and academic self…
Character strengths sustain mental health and post-traumatic growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. A longitudinal analysis
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative and positive changes in the general population, with some people experiencing post-traumatic growth after the first wave. Little research has focused, however, on personal factors potentially helping individuals cope with COVID-related difficulties. This study investigates the relations between character strengths, mental health, and post-traumatic growth. DESIGN: Longitudinal (T1: April 2020;…
Do Strengths Converge into Virtues? An Item-, Virtue-, and Scale-Level Analysis of the Italian Values in Action Inventory of Strengths-120
The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) is a widely-used measure for character. Its factorial structure is still debated, however, and previous validation studies usually failed to examine the unidimensionality of the single character strengths. In addition, no studies to date have examined its Italian version. We validated the structure of the Italian short form of the VIA-IS in a sample of 16722 participants. Using confirmatory fac…
“Andrà tutto bene”: Associations Between Character Strengths, Psychological Distress and Self-efficacy During Covid-19 Lockdown
The Covid-19 pandemic obliged people around the world to stay home and self-isolate, with a number of negative psychological consequences. This study focuses on the protective role of character strengths in sustaining mental health and self-efficacy during lockdown. Data were collected from 944 Italian respondents (mean age = 37.24 years, SD = 14.50) by means of an online survey investigating character strengths, psychological distress and Covid-…
What Can Affect Competition Anxiety in Athletes? The Role of Self-Compassion and Repetitive Negative Thinking
Identifying the correlates of competition anxiety is fundamental to athletes' well-being and performance. Self-compassion is gaining attention in sport psychology because of its associations with positive outcomes, while repetitive negative thinking (i.e. worry and rumination) is associated with negative conditions, such as anxiety. Building on previous evidence in the general population of associations between self-compassion, repetitive negativ…
Adaptability and emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects of self-regulated learning: Direct and indirect relations with academic achievement and life satisfaction
BackgroundAdaptability regulates individuals' cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to new, unexpected and uncertain situations, but to date no study has analysed whether adaptability contemporarily favours cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of learning.AimsThis study aims to address this gap by examining (i) the direct relations between adaptability and achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies and academic self…
“Andrà tutto bene”: Associations Between Character Strengths, Psychological Distress and Self-efficacy During Covid-19 Lockdown
The Covid-19 pandemic obliged people around the world to stay home and self-isolate, with a number of negative psychological consequences. This study focuses on the protective role of character strengths in sustaining mental health and self-efficacy during lockdown. Data were collected from 944 Italian respondents (mean age = 37.24 years, SD = 14.50) by means of an online survey investigating character strengths, psychological distress and Covid-…
What Can Affect Competition Anxiety in Athletes? The Role of Self-Compassion and Repetitive Negative Thinking
Identifying the correlates of competition anxiety is fundamental to athletes' well-being and performance. Self-compassion is gaining attention in sport psychology because of its associations with positive outcomes, while repetitive negative thinking (i.e. worry and rumination) is associated with negative conditions, such as anxiety. Building on previous evidence in the general population of associations between self-compassion, repetitive negativ…
Character strengths sustain mental health and post-traumatic growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. A longitudinal analysis
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative and positive changes in the general population, with some people experiencing post-traumatic growth after the first wave. Little research has focused, however, on personal factors potentially helping individuals cope with COVID-related difficulties. This study investigates the relations between character strengths, mental health, and post-traumatic growth. DESIGN: Longitudinal (T1: April 2020;…
Do Strengths Converge into Virtues? An Item-, Virtue-, and Scale-Level Analysis of the Italian Values in Action Inventory of Strengths-120
The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) is a widely-used measure for character. Its factorial structure is still debated, however, and previous validation studies usually failed to examine the unidimensionality of the single character strengths. In addition, no studies to date have examined its Italian version. We validated the structure of the Italian short form of the VIA-IS in a sample of 16722 participants. Using confirmatory fac…
Is Good Character All that Counts? A Comparison Between the Predictive Role of Specific Strengths and a General Factor of “Good Character” Using a Bifactor Model
Character strengths have been found to consistently predict many positive psychological outcomes, such as well-being, life satisfaction, and mental health, but research on the topic is still at its infancy and some methodological limitations must be overcome to better understand what character strengths are and what is their role. One main issue concerns the structure of character strengths and virtues, which may undermine the credibility and rep…
An integrated model of school students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction. Linking soft skills, extracurricular activities, self-regulated learning, motivation, and emotions
The role of soft skills at school is still debated, but they have emerged as important factors for students’ academic achievement and life satisfaction. This study focuses on the combined influence of soft skills (in terms of adaptability, curiosity, leadership, initiative, perseverance, and social awareness), extracurricular activities, achievement emotions, self-regulated learning, motivation, and cognitive abilities on academic achievement and…
Adaptability favors positive academic responses and posttraumatic growth under Covid-19: A longitudinal study with adolescents
Adaptability and emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects of self-regulated learning: Direct and indirect relations with academic achievement and life satisfaction
BackgroundAdaptability regulates individuals' cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to new, unexpected and uncertain situations, but to date no study has analysed whether adaptability contemporarily favours cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of learning.AimsThis study aims to address this gap by examining (i) the direct relations between adaptability and achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies and academic self…
Does Inequality Shape Human Character? Cross-Cultural Associations between Character Strengths and the Gini Index in 68 Countries
Environmental factors are crucial in shaping individual characteristics. One key contextual factor is economic inequality, which is increasing in most OECD countries and negatively impacting individuals and societies, including personality traits. To date, no studies examined the relationship between economic inequality and positive personality traits such as character strengths. In a large cross-cultural study ( N = 980,807, 68 countries) we inv…
The Italian Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (Bessi-I)
The importance of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills is recognized worldwide, but their measurement has always been a challenge. The BESSI measures 32 SEB skills, divided into five domains (social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation), but its validity must be expanded to new languages and contexts. Across two studies (N1 = 990, N2= 824) we developed the Italian version of the BESSI, provided …
Clusters that are not there: An R tutorial and a Shiny app to quantify a priori inferential risks when using clustering methods
Clustering methods are increasingly used in social science research. Generally, researchers use them to infer the existence of qualitatively different types of individuals within a larger population, thus unveiling previously “hidden” heterogeneity. Depending on the clustering technique, however, valid inference requires some conditions and assumptions. Common risks include not only failing to detect existing clusters due to a lack of power but a…
Years of Character Strengths: A Bibliometric Review
Character strengths were introduced into the positive psychology literature twenty years ago. The present bibliometric analysis quantitatively summarizes the research conducted in the field so far in terms of impact and themes analyzed. We conduct performance analysis to examine the total number of publications on character strengths, their bibliometric indices, the main journals contributing to the field, and the countries involved in such knowl…
Ready for What's Next? The Associations Between Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills and Career Adaptability in High School Students
INTRODUCTION: Transitioning from school to higher education or work is a pivotal moment in a student's life, requiring life-changing decisions. During this period, students who have acquired a wide range of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral (SEB) skills may feel more confident regarding their capacity to adapt positively to future challenges and difficulties. Our study aimed to test whether five SEB skills domains (self-management, innovation, so…
The role of social, emotional, and behavioral skills for nature connectedness, action competence, and proenvironmental behaviors in adolescence
Following indications from international organizations, this study tests the associations between the five domains of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills (self-management, innovation, social engagement, cooperation, and emotional resilience) and two key antecedents of proenvironmental behavior, namely nature connectedness and self-perceived action competence for sustainability, in a sample of 702 students aged between 12 and 20 years (…
Soft skills in high schools: Integrating Self-Regulated Learning and Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Frameworks
Acting together for a positive future: A cross-cultural investigation of how environmental cognitive alternatives and efficacy beliefs contribute to individual and collective biodiversity-conservation…
Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills of Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: A Replication, Extension, and Synthesis of Existing Research
Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills have been found to predict academic and non-academic outcomes; however, students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) may show weaker SEB profiles and SEB may not translate into better grades for this population of students. In 5,075 high school students, including 243 reporting an SLD diagnosis, we compared social engagement, self-management, innovation, emotional resilience, and cooperation s…
Use and Coherence of Study Skills and Learning-Strategy Knowledge in Typically Developing Children and Children With Specific Learning Disabilities
Difficulties with study skills are often reported in children with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), yet few studies have examined how strategy use relates to learning outcomes. This study investigated the perceived utility, actual use, and coherence of study strategies in 89 students with and 809 without SLD in Grades 3–8. The students completed strategy questionnaires and performed two study tasks; their teachers provided achievement ratin…
University Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: Do Soft Skills and Study-Related Factors Make a Difference to Their Academic Outcomes
Understanding the role of individual factors associated with positive academic outcomes is fundamental to providing effective support for students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) throughout their academic careers. The present study aimed to investigate group differences between students with and without SLDs and to examine the relationships between study-related factors, social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills, and student outco…
Validity of a very short measure of character strengths: The Italian via-48
Character strengths are recognized as 24 key personal resources for individual and societal well-being. Their applicability to time-constrained settings (e.g., organizations, counseling services) may be limited by the length of the currently available assessment tools. To address this issue, we developed and tested a very brief measure of character strengths, with only two items per character strength. To do this, in Study 1 (N = 16,722) we first…
Psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Resilience and Mental Health (9 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (7 works) · Academic achievement (6 works) · Clinical Psychology (5 works) · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness (5 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Mathematics (4 works)