Day 1 Program

Presenter: Elisabetta Crocetti

In this opening session, the IDENTITIES project’s methodological approach will be presented. The project adopts a longitudinal, multi-method, and multi-informant approach.

• The longitudinal cohort-sequential design follows the development of adolescents, integrating data collection at multiple time scales, including annual, monthly, and daily assessments. This design allows for the examination of both long-term developmental trajectories and short-term dynamics.
• Data collection relies on multiple methods, including self-report questionnaires, non-invasive wearable medical devices, archival data sources, and interviews.
• The multi-informant approach involves not only adolescents as the primary target group, but also their parents, teachers, school principals, and municipal administrators, enabling a more comprehensive and ecologically valid understanding of adolescents’ experiences.

A series of workshops will follow, in which participants will have the opportunity to learn about the methodologies and statistical models employed in the IDENTITIES project.

Teacher: Elisabetta Crocetti

The IDENTITIES project aims to investigate the interplay between adolescents’ experiences across ecological contexts, identity development, and well-being, with particular attention to adolescents with and without a migrant background. Achieving this goal requires not only the production of high-quality primary research but also a systematic evaluation and synthesis of the existing evidence. Within the framework of the IDENTITIES project, several systematic reviews and meta-analyses were therefore undertaken to identify consistent findings, evaluate the strength of the available evidence, and detect relevant gaps in the literature. These syntheses informed the definition and design of the studies conducted within the project. Furthermore, meta-analyses examining the available interventions targeting identity were carried out as part of a needs assessment, with the aim of determining whether the development of additional interventions is warranted. This aspect will be further addressed on the third day of the conference, which will be dedicated to the translation of research into interventions.

In this workshop, participants will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to interpret and conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses across different areas of psychological research. The workshop will situate systematic reviews and meta-analyses within the broader framework of the statistical reform movement, open science, and preregistration practices. Participants will be guided through the key steps involved in conducting a systematic review with meta-analysis, including defining the research topic and questions, establishing inclusion and exclusion criteria, systematically searching for and selecting relevant studies, developing the coding protocol and meta-analytic database, calculating effect sizes for primary studies and overall pooled effects, assessing heterogeneity and testing moderators, evaluating publication bias, and adhering to PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The workshop will conclude with a practical exercise.

Elisabetta Crocetti is Full Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. Her primary scholarly interest concerns the processes of identity formation in adolescence. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project IDENTITIES and Head of the IDENTITIES Lab. She is President of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA), Editor-in-Chief of Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, and a member of the editorial boards of several international journals, including Adolescent Research Review, European Review of Social Psychology, and Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Bacaro, V., Miletic, K., & Crocetti, E. (2024). A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies on the interplay between sleep, mental health, and positive well-being in adolescents. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 24(1), 100424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100424

Bobba, B., Bacaro, V., & Crocetti, E. (2023). Embedded in contexts: A systematic review of the longitudinal associations between contextual factors and sleep. Adolescent Research Review, 8, 403–422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-023-00204-0

Crocetti, E., De Lise, F., Pagano, M., Bobba, B., Maratia, F., Meeus, W., & Bacaro, V. (2025). What’s your vocation? A meta-analysis of interventions tackling youth educational and professional identity. Identity, 25(2), 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2024.2394861

Crocetti, E., Pagano, M., De Lise, F., Maratia, F., Bobba, B., Meeus, W., & Bacaro, V. (2025). Promoting adolescents’ personal and social identities: A meta-analysis of psychosocial interventions. Identity, 25(2), 167–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2024.2394888

Pagano, M., Bacaro, V., & Crocetti, E. (2023). “Using digital media or sleeping… that is the question”. A meta-analysis on digital media use and unhealthy sleep in adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 146, 107813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107813

Teachers: Fabio Maratia, Maria Pagano

One of the main aims of the IDENTITIES project is to understand how identity, together with other crucial factors (e.g., attitudes), develops over time across diverse social contexts. Given its longitudinal design and core objective of examining developmental processes, longitudinal methods are essential for adequately modeling change, stability, and heterogeneity. This workshop is therefore closely aligned with the methodological needs of the project, providing participants with the tools required to analyze developmental dynamics over time.

In this workshop, participants will gain hands-on experience with measurement invariance across time points and its importance for conducting valid longitudinal analyses. The session will introduce Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCM) for modeling developmental change over time, as well as approaches for capturing individual differences in developmental processes through Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) and Growth Mixture Models (GMM). All analyses will be conducted using Mplus.

The workshop will provide a conceptual overview of these models, discuss their assumptions and interpretation, and illustrate their application to developmental research. By the end of the workshop, participants will gain a clearer understanding of how to model longitudinal change and identify distinct developmental trajectories, particularly in adolescent research.

Fabio Maratia is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna, Italy. He obtained his PhD in Social Psychology within the IDENTITIES project with a dissertation examining the development and socio-contextual correlates of inclusive intergroup attitudes among adolescents with and without a migrant background in Italy. His current research expands this line of work by examining integration processes on multiple levels, including how they are understood and implemented by local policymakers, combining qualitative inquiry with quantitative data in a mixed-methods framework.

Maria Pagano obtained her PhD in Social Psychology within the IDENTITIES project at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her doctoral dissertation examined how adolescents navigate multicultural contexts, focusing on intergroup contact experiences among youth with and without a migrant background in Italy. Her work investigated how adolescents experience cultural diversity across structured contexts, such as school, and unstructured contexts, such as leisure time. Drawing on ecological systems theory and the transactional approach, her research examined how intergroup contact relates to key developmental domains, including family dynamics, well-being, and identity development.

Mayer, A.-M., Bobba, B., Jugert, P., Crocetti, E. (2026). Young Europeans – The interplay between short- and medium-term development of European identification across adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 55(1), 196–210, https://dx.doi.org/196-210. 10.1007/s10964-025-02256-y

Maratia, F., Crocetti, E. (2026). If I know myself, I can welcome you: Identity roots of intergroup solidarity. Journal of Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.70154

Teacher: Beatrice Bobba

The IDENTITIES project aims to shed light on the reciprocal longitudinal interplay between identity, intergroup experiences, and well-being in adolescence. To this end, it leverages multiple assessments of adolescents over short (daily) and longer (monthly and annual) time frames, allowing to separate within-person dynamics from between-person (stable) differences. This workshops provides an overview of advanced analytical models to tackle dynamics of reciprocal influences while controlling for interindividual differences.

In this workshop, participants will gain hands-on knowledge on conducting advanced Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses to study developmental order and processes. The session will open with an introduction to Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPM), which allow to examine the longitudinal reciprocal associations among a set of variables. Then, it will focus on a recent extension of these models, the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM), which allows to disentangle within- and between-person effects. Further, it will tackle the use of multilevel modeling techniques for repeated assessments to separate within-person fluctuations from between-person effects. The workshop will delve into the interpretation of findings from both CLPM, RI-CLPM, and multilevel analyses, and their applications to examine longitudinal dynamics in adolescence across various time frames. All analyses will be conducted using Mplus.

Beatrice Bobba is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in Social Psychology within the IDENTITIES project at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna, Italy, with a dissertation on the development of prejudice in adolescence. Her current research examines the contextual and cross-cultural factors associated with trends in adolescents’ mental health. More broadly, she adopts an ecological perspective to study the development and adjustment of youth, focusing on the role of individual and socio-contextual factors that shape how adolescents thrive in current multicultural societies.

Bobba, B. & Crocetti, E. (2025). The toll of prejudice: The longitudinal interplay between ethnic prejudice and well-being in adolescence. European Journal of Personality, 39(4), 614-634. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070241289965

Bobba, B., Branje, S., & Crocetti, E. (2024). Parents’ and classmates’ influences on adolescents’ ethnic prejudice: A longitudinal multi-informant study. Child Development, 95(5), 1522-1538. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14087

Bobba, B., Thijs, J., & Crocetti, E. (2024). Us, them and we: How national and human identifications influence adolescents' ethnic prejudice. British Journal of Social Psychology, 63, 1804–1827. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12755

Teacher: Valeria Bacaro

One of the main aims of the IDENTITIES project is to examine how multidimensional aspects of sleep health, conceptualized as an important indicator of well-being, are associated with adolescents’ psychosocial development over time and across diverse social contexts. To address this goal, sleep has been assessed through a multimethod approach integrating both subjective and objective indicators, allowing for the examination of complementary dimensions of adolescents’ sleep health and sleep–wake cycle patterns. This approach allows examining sleep not only at average levels but also through daily variability and short-term fluctuations, while simultaneously considering longer-term developmental changes.

In this workshop, participants will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to collect, integrate, and interpret subjective and objective indicators of adolescent sleep health. The session will introduce the main sleep health dimensions and the instruments used in sleep research, including self-report measures and actigraphy, and will illustrate how objective sleep data can be collected, processed, and interpreted. Participants will be guided through the key steps involved in studying sleep using a multimethod framework, including selecting appropriate instruments, implementing data collection protocols, scoring and interpreting actigraphic data, and understanding the meaning and interpretation of key sleep indicators. By the end of the session, participants will gain a clearer understanding of how to design and analyze studies that investigate sleep as a dynamic and multidimensional component of adolescents’ everyday lives and developmental pathways. The workshop will include practical exercises.

Valeria Bacaro is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on multidimensional sleep health and adolescents’ psychosocial development. Specifically, using a multimethod, longitudinal approach, her work examines the interplay between sleep health dimensions and adolescents’ adaptation across domains, including identity development, school experiences, and environmental and contextual factors.

Bacaro, V., De Lise, F., Natale, V., Tonetti, L., & Crocetti, E. (2025). Night owls and early birds: The role of adolescents’ chronotype on educational identity trajectories. International Journal of Psychology, 60(5), e70108. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.70108

De Lise, F., Bacaro, V., & Crocetti, E. (2024). Don’t sleep on identity: Longitudinal associations between identity and sleep quality in adolescents with different cultural backgrounds. Applied Developmental Science, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2024.2435392

Pagano, M., Bacaro, V., & Crocetti, E. (2026). Sleeping in multicultural societies: The longitudinal interplay between adolescents’ sleep health and intercultural interactions. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 26(1), 100680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2026.100680

Teachers: Francesca De Lise, Chiara Bonechi

One of the core aims of the IDENTITIES project is to understand how adolescents’ identity develops over time and in relation to significant life experiences. To address this goal, the project adopts a mixed-methods longitudinal design that integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches to capture both developmental trajectories and their subjective meanings. This workshop is structured into two complementary parts, each focusing on a different mixed-methods approach used in the IDENTITIES project.

The first part of the workshop will illustrate the application of a codebook thematic analysis to semi-structured interviews with adolescents who participated in an experience abroad. Particular attention will be given to the development and use of the coding model, as well as to strategies for integrating qualitative findings with longitudinal quantitative data.

The second part of the workshop will focus on how qualitative data can be transposed into quantitative data within an integrated framework. Specifically, in this session, it will be examined how narrative interviews can be coded for agency and self-event connections using a specific codebook to link these variables to identity domains. Emphasis will be placed on the data transformation process and the strategies used to ensure inter-rater reliability during coding. Across both parts, participants will be introduced to key principles of qualitative research within mixed-methods frameworks and engage in hands-on activities analyzing qualitative data collected in the project. The workshop will conclude with a group discussion aimed at fostering reflexivity and critical understanding of analytical choices, integration strategies, and the added value and challenges of mixed-methods research.

Francesca De Lise obtained her PhD in Social Psychology within the IDENTITIES project at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research focused on identity development during adolescence and its associations with well-being, adopting a range of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches. She currently works primarily as a psychologist and psychotherapist, while also engaging in research collaborations with independent research groups focused on psychotherapy research, with particular attention to methodological approaches and their applications in clinical and research settings.

Chiara Bonechi is a PhD student in the IDENTITIES project at the Department of Psychology at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy. Her research encompasses the study of implicit stereotype transmission through language in the media environment, as well as the longitudinal interrelation between news consumption and intergroup attitudes in adolescence.

Bobba, B., De Lise, F., Klimstra, T. A., & Crocetti, E. (2024). Exploring the self, others and the world: The interplay between experiences abroad in adolescence, identity processes, and ethnic prejudice. Applied Developmental Science, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2024.2407884

De Lise, F., Klimstra, T. A., Johnson, S. K., & Crocetti, E. (2026). Going out of the comfort zone: A longitudinal mixed-methods analysis of adolescents’ identity development around study abroad experiences. Identity, 26(1), 18–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2025.2479817