Factorial validity and group invariance of the Portuguese short version of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale in adolescents

Social physique anxiety (SPA) has been associated with a range of psychosocial and health-related variables, thus it can be considered is an indicator of social-psychological adjustment. The purpose of this paper is to determine factorial validity and group invariance of Motl and Conroy (2000) translated 7-item SPA among Portuguese adolescents. A nationally representative sample of 3330 8th and 10th grade students (15.07 1.34 years old; 47.5% males and 52.5% females) answered a survey as a part of a larger collaborative cross-national survey, the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2006 study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted on a uni-dimensional factor structure of 6 items [Satorra-Bentler c2 = 30.85, df = 8, p<.01; CFI = .996; NNFI = .992; RMSEA = .038 (90% C.I.: .024 - .052); SRMR = .010]. Further analises, confirmed configurational (all CFI and RMSEA > .99) and metric invariances (CFI difference between restricted and unrestricted models were lower than .01 for all groups) across gender, grade level, diet beliefs, physical activity, perception of body, and BMI. The present version can be used confidently by researchers in analysing and interpreting scores of SPA across a variety of samples in Portuguese adolescents, and that this instrument can be used in cross-cultural research

Life satisfaction in adolescents:the role of individual and social health assets

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between adolescents’ life satisfaction and individual and social health assets. A nationally representative sample of 3,494 Portuguese adolescents (mean age = 14.94 ± 1.30 years; 53.6% girls) completed the Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey measuring a variety of health behaviors and beliefs. A sequential regression analysis was conducted with gender, individual assets (academic achievement, social competence, self-regulation and life objectives) and social assets (family support, peer support, parental monitoring and school connectedness) entered in separate steps. A second regression analysis was conducted with social assets entered before individual assets. The final model explained 18.3% of life satisfaction. School connectedness (β = .198, p < .001) and family support (β = .154, p < .001) were the strongest predictors of adolescents’ life satisfaction followed by social competence (β = .152, p < .001), academic achievement (β = .116, p < .001) and self-regulation (β = .064, p < .001). Social assets explained a larger variance of life satisfaction than individual assets when entered first in the regression (r2 = .134 and r2 = .119, respectively, p < .001). When entered last step in the regression analysis, social assets added more to life satisfaction’s variance than when individual assets were added in the last step (r2 = .060 and r2 = .045, respectively, p < .001). These results reinforce the role social interaction and social capital models in the promotion of well-being

Health-related quality of life in portuguese children and adolescents

The KIDSCREEN is a European cross-cultural and standardized instrument that assesses ten quality of life dimensions in children, adolescents and their parents. This instrument is used to validate evidences to support general inferences on quality-of-life measures obtained by the Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN10 for children and adolescents, in the context of a survey research carried on in Portugal. The present study focuses only on the KIDSCREEN children and adolescents' versions. A sample of 8072 Portuguese children and adolescents attending the 5th grade (19.3%), 6th grade (19.2%), 7th grade (20.3%), 8th (21.6%) and 10th grade (19.7%) in Portuguese schools were inquired, with a mean age of 13.2; SD 2.06, randomly distributed regarding gender. The Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN-10 instrument showed a good Internal Consistency of .78. Chosen fit indexes indicate good fit to the data. Specifically in the final solution the RMSEA was lower than .03 and the upper limit of 90% confidence interval was lower than .05, and CFI was higher than .95. Results indicated that the current 10-item structure is invariant across age groups, nationality and socio-economic level. The KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire is a reliable instrument to estimate the perception of quality of life in children and adolescents. Psychometric guidelines are presented for the Portuguese population aged 10 to 16 years old.O KIDSCREEN é um instrumento europeu transcultural e padronizado que avalia dez dimensões da qualidade de vida de crianças, adolescentes e seus pais. Este instrumento é usado para validar evidências a fim de apoiar inferências gerais sobre medidas de qualidade de vida obtidas pela versão portuguesa do KIDSCREEN-10 para crianças e adolescentes, no contexto de uma pesquisa de investigação feita em Portugal. O presente estudo centra-se apenas na versão KIDSCREEN para adolescentes e crianças. Uma amostra de 8.072 crianças e adolescentes portugueses frequentando a 5ª série (19,3%), 6ª série (19,2%), 7ª série (20,3%), 8ª série (21,6%) e 10ª série (19,7%) em escolas do país foram intrevistadas, com uma idade média de 13,2; DP 2,06, distribuídos aleatoriamente em relação ao sexo. A versão portuguesa do instrumento KIDSCREEN-10 mostrou uma boa consistência interna de 0,78. Os índices de ajuste escolhidos indicam bom ajuste aos dados. Especificamente na solução final o RMSEA foi inferior a 0,03, o limite superior do intervalo de confiança de 90% foi inferior a 0,05 e CFI foi superior a 0,95. Resultados indicaram que a estrutura atual do item 10 é invariável entre grupos de idade, nacionalidade e nível socio-econômico. O questionário KIDSCREEN-10 é um instrumento confiável para estimar a percepção da qualidade de vida em crianças e adolescentes. Orientações psicométricas são apresentadas para a população portuguesa entre 10 e 16 anos de idade

How to re-launch the Unilever face care brand simple® in Portugal?

Simple® is a brand recently launched in Portugal that has failed to reach the launching objectives projected by Unilever-Jerónimo Martins. This Work Project focuses on the face care category and its main intention is to understand how to re-launch the brand in Portugal. After developing a deep research through in-depth interviews and in-store observations, based on the purpose of understanding why Simple® was not able to meet its launching objectives, we identified that the brand positioning was the main issue to be addressed to re-launch Simple® successfully in Portugal

Schools in 2010 : successful, happy, healthy, responsible, autonomous and participative children

Revista de Psicologia da Criança e do Adolescente. - ISSN 1647-4120. - N. 1 (Abril 2010). - p. 13-14

Violação masculina versus feminina: efeitos na resposta emocional subjetiva e psicofisiológica numa amostra feminina

Orientação: Joana CarvalhoA violência sexual tornou-se um dilema global da sociedade contemporânea. Revelou-se um crime de género, do qual as mulheres são desproporcionalmente vítimas e os homens maioritariamente os agressores. Tal evidência não anula a veracidade de que os homens também sofrem de vitimização sexual por parte das mulheres. Um dos aspetos pertinentes deste estudo, está relacionado com as elevadas taxas de atrito relativamente aos crimes sexuais, sobretudo quando estes são cometidos por mulheres contra homens. Considerando a pertinência da temática, o presente estudo teve como objetivo primordial contribuir para uma melhor compreensão deste fenómeno. Pretendemos verificar se existiu um efeito de género e do tipo de estímulo (violação contra homem versus violação contra mulher) na resposta emocional subjetiva e psicofisiológica, sendo que para tal avaliámos a dilatação pupilar recorrendo à técnica de Eye Tracking. A presente investigação provém de um estudo mais amplo, contudo a atual dissertação engloba apenas os dados da amostra feminina. Relativamente aos estímulos de violência sexual, as participantes apresentaram significativamente mais nervosismo face à exposição ao filme de violação de homem por uma mulher.Sexual violence has become a global dilemma of contemporary society. It has turned out to be a gender crime, of which women are disproportionately victims and men are mostly aggressors. Such evidence does not negate the veracity that men also suffer from sexual victimization by women. One of the relevant aspects of this study is related to the high rates of attrition in relation to sexual crimes, especially when committed by women against men. Considering the pertinence of the theme, the present study had as main objective to contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon. We intend to verify if there is a gender effect and the type of stimulus (rape against man versus rape against woman) in the subjective and psychophysiological emotional response, and for this we evaluated the pupil dilation using the technique of Eye Tracking. The present investigation comes from a larger study, however the present dissertation only includes data from the female sample. Concerning sexual violence stimuli, the participants were significantly more nervous about exposure to the film of a man's rape by a woman

From positive youth development to youth’s engagement : the dream teens

In addition to the empirical validation of ‘health and happiness’ determinants, theoretical models suggesting where to ground actions are necessary. In the beginning of the twentieth century, intervention models focused on evaluation and empirical validation were only concerned about overt behaviours (verbal and non-verbal) and covert behaviours (cognitions and emotions). Later on in the middle of the century, there was a shift from treating the problems to a positive approach, focused on promoting assets and individual strengths. Thus, the role of social competences, self-regulation and resilience became salient. Researchers also highlighted the importance of social cohesion and social support, as active health and wellbeing facilitators. More recently, in the twentyfirst century, the population’s engagement (positive engagement) has become crucial. This paper presents the evolution of this theoretical and scientific path, using Portugal as a case study, where early interventions focused on the positive aspects of both covert and overt behaviours, while more recent interventions included explicitly the perspective of youth engagement and participation, as is the case of the Dream Teens Project. It is expected that the political and professional understanding of this trajectory will allow professionals to provide better health and educational services, improving young people’s engagement, quality of life, health and wellbeingpeer-reviewe

Dimensions of social and personal skills in children and adolescents : age and gender differences

Copyright © 2018, Tânia Gaspar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Personal and social skills play a key role in children and adolescents’ development, as well as their psychological well-being. Was used the Scale "For me it’s Easy" to assess personal and social skills in children and adolescents. The study includes 960 Portuguese children and adolescents with a mean age of 12.5 years (SD = 1.61). Included were 56.8 % boys of different educational levels. The studied version of the instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties and the factor structure identifies 5 dimensions of personal and social skills (Basic Skills, Problem Solving, Emotional Regulation, Interpersonal Relationships and Defining Objectives). Differences were found in the social and personal skills related to gender and related to age. The behavior of the different dimensions of social and personal skills was studied. It was found that there was a strong relationship between social and personal skills and psychological well-being in children and adolescents. The study contributes to the research and evaluation of intervention in children and adolescents, especially in the prevention and promotion of personal and social skills and healthy development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Condiciones de salud crónicas medidas con cuestionarios de salud general para adolescentes en Europa

The present study intends to assess how chronic health conditions are being evaluated in general health questionnaires aimed at adolescents. A review of questionnaires that contain questions about different domains of the adolescents' lives and about chronic disease and/or disability was performed. Different terminologies regarding the domain of chronic conditions (e.g. long-term illness, disability, medical condition, illnesses/disorders, chronic disease, health problems) and different questions formulations and evaluation measures are used. Some questionnaires include questions about the specific areas affected by the chronic health condition and limitations. This work allowed an overview of the main categories present in the questions about chronic disease/disability that are currently being included in these instruments. It highlights the importance of considering the adolescents with chronic conditions in the general health questionnaires, as this allows for increasing knowledge about their needs and difficulties. Data collection on adolescents with chronic conditions' social participation is very important and should be reinforced through improved questions.El presente estudio pretende evaluar cómo las condiciones crónicas de salud están siendo evaluadas en cuestionarios de salud general dirigidos a adolescentes. Se realizó una revisión de cuestionarios que contienen preguntas sobre diferentes dominios de la vida de los adolescentes y sobre enfermedades crónicas y/o discapacidad. Diferentes terminologías relacionadas con el dominio de las condiciones crónicas (e.g. enfermedad prolongada, discapacidad, condición médica, enfermedades/trastornos, enfermedades crónicas, problemas de salud) y diferentes formulaciones de preguntas y medidas de evaluación son usados. Algunos cuestionarios incluyen preguntas sobre las áreas específicas afectadas por la condición de salud crónica y las limitaciones. Este trabajo permitió una visión general de las principales categorías presentes en las preguntas sobre enfermedad crónica/discapacidad que actualmente están siendo incluidas en estos instrumentos. También destaca la importancia de considerar los adolescentes con condiciones crónicas en los cuestionarios generales de salud, ya que esto permite aumentar el conocimiento sobre sus necesidades y dificultades. La recopilación de datos sobre la participación social de los adolescentes con condiciones crónicas es muy importante y debe reforzarse a través de preguntas mejoradas