Behavioural Addictions in Adolescents and Young Adults: Results from a Prevalence Study

Our study aims to assess the prevalence of behavioural addictions in an adolescent population, evaluating the effects of gender and age, and to assess the correlations among different behavioural addictions. 2853 high school students were assessed in order to evaluate the prevalence of behavioural addictions such as Pathological Gambling (PG), Compulsive Buying (CB), Exercise Addiction (EA), Internet Addiction (IA), and Work Addiction (WA), in a population of Italian adolescents. The South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised Adolescent (SOGS-RA), the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI), the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART), were compiled anonymously by the students. Overall prevalence was 7.0% for PG, 11.3% for CB, 1.2% for IA, 7.6% for WA, 8.5% for EA. PG and EA were more common among boys, while gender had no effect on the other conditions. CB was more common among younger (<18 years old) students. The scores of all of these scales were significantly correlated. The strong correlation among different addictive behaviours is in line with the hypothesis of a common psychopathological dimension underlying these phenomena. Further studies are needed to assess personality traits and other clinical disorders associated with these problems behaviours.     

A comparative study on Italian new communities abroad: the cases of Tunisia and South Africa1

This paper presents two case studies about Italian new communities abroad: one Tunisian and one South African. These case studies were conducted – in a larger international research project on 14 countries – with different types of interview: focus interviews, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc. The mixed interview modes brought to light how – with a different research strategy (methodological triangulation): quantitative and qualitative data – our complex social experience can be inquired into, in particular migration processes. The authors decided to utilise semi-standardised and non-standardised techniques. This paper discusses how the mixed research logic – utilised in both of these cases – is very productive in terms of knowledge. It seems that focus group interviewing techniques (and others) have been used progressively more and more over the past years as both a self-contained method for conducting qualitative research and in combination with other research methods. In the authors’ opinion, mixed-methods research (or multiple research strategies) represents a smaller corpus of literature that is getting increased attention. The essays in our paper are grouped along four themes: (a) economic development and globalisation; (b) perceptions and discourses; (c) the new migration phenomenon; and (d) fragmentation of identity. The authors believe that rebuilding a morceau de vie of Italian emigration helps to better analyse the role of the communities of immigrants in the construction of national processes. As a result of this, their survey introduces reflections on theoretical—methodological logic and concurs with placing such aspects in a global and social structural dimension. However, the universal and social structural dimension can be extended to the specific case. Its contribution in the first part investigates a variety of linkages of migration with broader processes of social–economic development and social globalisation. That global patterns of migration and the processes of globalisation are linked in various ways has long been recognised. The second part of the paper stresses the meaning of perceptions and discourses linked with the migration phenomenon and underlines the importance of an accurate methodological approach in order to provide new sociological points of view and appropriate research strategies.