VALENTINA LUCIA LA ROSA
Keywords
Developmental psychology; Educational psychology; Life cycle psychology; Perinatal psychology; Child development; Development in adolescence; Attachment relationships; Family; Learning and quality of educational settings.
Dr. Valentina Lucia La Rosa is a psychotherapist and an adjunct lecturer in Developmental and Educational Psychology (PSIC-02/A) at the University of Catania. She previously served as a research fellow at the Department of Educational Sciences of the same university, within the PRIN 2022 project "Learning and social interaction: behavioral, cognitive, and social mechanisms in childhood" (M-PSI/04), under the scientific supervision of Prof. Elena Commodari.
In January 2023, she obtained her PhD in Educational processes, theoretical-transformative models, and research methods applied to the community (M-PSI/04) at the University of Catania, defending a dissertation entitled "Developmental challenges, vulnerability and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: Studies on psychological effects from adolescence to adulthood" (Supervisor: Prof. Elena Commodari).
She earned her Master’s degree in Psychology in November 2011 from the University of Enna, graduating with highest honors (110/110 cum laude), with an experimental thesis entitled "Decision-making processes in adolescence: The influence of parenting processes and peer groups on decision-making styles". In 2012, she obtained her professional license as a psychologist at the University of Messina and has been registered with the Sicilian Board of Psychologists since then (No. 6491/A).
In 2016, she completed her specialization in psychodynamic psychotherapy. In subsequent years, she further developed her clinical training in major evidence-based intervention models, including Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy, EMDR, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In 2019, she obtained a first-level Master’s degree in Biostatistics for Clinical Research and Scientific Publishing from the University of Padua. In 2025, she completed a second-level Master’s degree in Psychodiagnostics and Psychological Assessment at San Raffaele University in Rome and the Humanitas University Consortium, with a thesis focused on the assessment of specific learning disorders in young adults.
She is an affiliated member of the Developmental and Educational Psychology Section of the Italian Psychological Association and a member of the American Psychological Association (Divisions of Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology) and the European Association for Developmental Psychology. She also serves as Web Communication Manager for the European Society for Research in Adult Development and is a member of other international scientific societies focused on adolescent development and emerging adulthood.
She collaborates with national and international research groups in the field of developmental psychology, with particular attention to developmental processes during the perinatal period, adolescence, and young adulthood.
Dr. La Rosa's research activity focuses on the origins, changes, and development of psychological processes in the life cycle. Specifically, her privileged research topics are social learning in childhood, prenatal and child development, adolescent and emerging adult development, attachment relationships, and emotional and relational factors involved in learning processes and educational contexts.