La Sapienza - Università di Roma

I am currently working on a project aiming to analyze preschool children internalizing behavior and define parents’ and children’s  perception of shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance. In detail, I am interested in understanding how relational (e.g., peer acceptance) and individual factors (e.g., moral emotions; executive functions) jointly help socially withdrawn children display socially appropriate behaviors. Specifically, I am interested in the link between internalizing behavior and moral emotions (e.g. guilt, shame, sympathy, empathy). I am also conducting research on prosocial behavior at preschool age, with a special focus on sharing behaviors, sympathy and empathy from a perspective that consider prosocial behavior as the basis of human relationship, an integral part of human life, with an important role in the development of positive social interactions in early childhood and later on.