Valentina Lo Cascio

Are There Similar or Divergent Transitions to Adulthood in a Mediterranean Context? A Cross-National Comparison of Italy and Spain

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences and similarities between Italy and Spain in regard to emerging adults’ perceptions of identity status, autonomy, attachment, and life satisfaction. The goal was to verify whether a Mediterranean model of transitions from adolescence to adulthood exists. Three hundred and forty undergraduate students (171 Italians and 169 Spanish) ranging in age from 19 to 22 completed measures of identity status, emotional autonomy, attachment style, and life satisfaction. Multiple correspondence analyses provided a graphic synthesis of results. The results indicate that no common model of young adult development exists in Spain and Italy and that Italian youth have a more complex quality of development compared to their Spanish peers.

The Italian Version of the Career Factors Inventory

This study attempted to examine the validity of the Italian version of the Career Factors Inventory (CFI), a psychometric tool widely used in the assessment of cognitive and personal–emotional dimensions of career indecision, among a sample of 2,060 Italian students attending high school and university. Recurring to both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the original four-factor structure was confirmed and returned, in line with the literature, satisfactory reliability indices; moreover, CFI subscales showed intercorrelations consistent with previous studies, albeit lower in some cases. Subsequently, convergent validity between the four CFI subscales and other scales via zero-order correlation was tested, confirming previous evidence except for need for career information. In conclusion, consistent with previous studies, the Italian version of the CFI showed to be a valid and reliable instrument for the evaluation of dimensions of career indecision.