Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: The aim of this study is to examine psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the fear of missing out scale (FoMOs) on three different study groups. Method: We conducted the construct validity of the Turkish FoMOs with confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance (study I; n = 354), and concurrent validity (study II; n = 371). We also evaluated the reliability of the Turkish FoMOs (study III; n = 61) using test-retest and Cronbach alpha reliability. Results: In study I, the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the one-dimensional structure of the Turkish version of the FoMOs was verified. The results of measurement analysis depending on the sample of study I demonstrated that configural and metric invariances were established across Facebook and other social media users. The Cronbach alpha values calculated from the samples of study I (a = .79) and study II (a = .78) indicated that internal consistency of the scale was at the acceptable level. Lastly, test-retest reliability of the scale was found as .86 from the study III. Conclusion: Overall findings indicated that the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of FoMO scale were satisfactory to measure the FoMO in a wide range of ages in the Turkish context.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract This study evaluated the effects and impact of a multicomponent positive psychology program for health promotion of retirees. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used, and the baseline and end of intervention evaluations were analyzed. The intervention consisted of six weekly group sessions for 2 h each. Eighty-eight retirees (females = 72) aged 49-86 ( M = 65.66, SD = 7.53) from South Brazil took part in the study, 54 (females = 48) in the experimental group ( M = 66.37 years old, SD = 7.42), and 34 (females = 24) waitlist controls ( M = 64.53 years old, SD = 7.68). The instruments used were a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Brazilian version of the scales: Interpersonal Reactivity Index; 12-item General Health Questionnaire; Life Orientation Test-Revised;14-item Perceived Stress Scale; Resilience Scale; and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Mixed factorial ANOVA models revealed significant decrease in depression and anxiety symptoms and perceived stress levels, whereas improvement in life satisfaction and resilience was detected in the experimental group at the end of the program. No main effect was found for empathy and optimism. Interaction effects yielded significant difference between groups for measures of empathy, optimism, depression, and anxiety symptoms after the program. There was no significant interaction effect for the other outcome variables. The usefulness and applicability of this model of intervention to aid future health practices and policies are discussed. Contextual issues in the fields of health promotion and disease prevention in Brazil are also problematized.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background The purpose of the present study is to develop the Moral Identity Test (MIT) which measures the moral identity of primary school children. Methods The present study was designed as survey research and 516 primary school children were included in the sample. Data were analysed with corrected item-total correlation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), internal consistency analysis, convergent validity analysis, and item response theory (IRT). Results As a result of the data analysis, it was found that the MIT consists of one construct with ten items and its internal consistency coefficient is .93. Conclusions It was concluded that the MIT can generate reliable and valid results in measuring the moral identity of primary school children whose ages vary between 7 and 11 years.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Given that most young women with eating disorders do not receive treatment, implementing effective prevention programs is a public health priority. The Body Project is a group-based eating disorder prevention program with evidence of both efficacy and effectiveness. This trial evaluated the efficacy of this prevention program with Brazilian girls, as no published study has tested whether this intervention is culturally sensitive and efficacious with Latin-American adolescents. Methods: Female students were allocated to a dissonance-based intervention (n = 40) or assessment-only (n = 22) condition. The intervention was a dissonance-based program, consisted of four group sessions aimed to reduce thin-ideal internalization. The sessions included verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. The intervention group was evaluated at pretest and posttest; assessment-only controls completed measures at parallel times. Results: Compared to assessment-only controls, intervention participants showed a significantly greater reduction in body dissatisfaction, sociocultural influence of the media, depressive symptoms, negative affect, as well as significantly greater increases in body appreciation. There were no significant effects for disordered eating attitudes and eating disorder symptoms. Conclusions: These results suggest that this dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program was culturally sensitive, or at least culturally adaptive, and efficacious with Brazilian female adolescents. Indeed, the average effect size was slightly larger than has been observed in the large efficacy trial of this prevention program and in recent meta-analytic reviews. Trial registration: RBR-7prdf2. Registered 13 August 2018 (retrospectively registered).

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract: The aim of this study is to adapt the multidimensional in-group identification scale (MGIS) to the Brazilian context by gathering evidence of its psychometric properties. A total of 663 people from two samples participated in the study. In sample 1, we measured the identification of Brazilians with the region of the country where they live. In sample 2, we measured the identification of students with the university which they attend. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed on both samples to compare the models previously proposed by the original authors of the measure. The obtained results confirmed the validity of the hierarchical and multidimensional factor structure proposed by the original authors. The scale proposed here can be used to measure multiple dimensions of ingroup identification in Brazil.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background/objective: STIs and HIV/AIDS are an important public health problem, transmitted by risky sex behaviours. In this context, it is necessary to identify protective factors, of those behaviours, as sexual self-concept. Sexual self-concept is a multidimensional trait (i.e. sexual self-esteem; sexual self-efficacy; and sexual assertiveness), but, in an extensive review, we did not find any measure to assess this multidimensional construct in a Spanish-speaking context. The objective of this research is development a scale to assess sexual self-concept in young people and adults. Method: Time-space sampling with a total size of 792 participants, coming from the two Chilean cities (i.e. Arica and Iquique) with the highest HIV rates, aged between 17 and 53 years old (ME = 23.42; SD = 6.33), with 66.2% women (N = 500), 33.6% men (N = 258). Results: Final scale has 16 items and 4 dimensions: sexual self-esteem, sexual self-efficacy, assertive sexual communication, and assertive sexual behaviour. The identified structure provides satisfactory levels of reliability (ω > .8) and presents robust evidence of validity, based on the internal structure of the test, using ESEM (RMSEA = .060; CFI = .99; TLI = .98), evidence of validity based on relationship to other variables (i.e. risky sexual behaviour) and measurement invariance between men and women. Conclusions: The multidimensional scale of sexual self-concept has adequate psychometric properties to assess sexual selfconcept in equivalent samples.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract This study presents the adaptation of the Uncertainty Response Scale (Greco & Roger, Pers. Individ. Differ, 31:519-534, 2001) to Portuguese. This instrument was administered to a non-clinical community sample composed of 1596 students and professionals, allowing a thorough validity and invariance analysis by randomly dividing participants into three subsamples to perform: an exploratory factor analysis (sample one: N = 512); a preliminary confirmatory factor analysis to identify the final solution for the scale (sample two: N = 543); and the confirmatory factor analysis (sample three: N = 541). Samples two and three were also used for multi-group analysis to assess measurement invariance, invariance across gender, sociocultural levels, and students versus active professionals. Results showed the scale reflects the original factorial structure, as well as good internal consistency and overall good psychometric qualities. Invariance results across groups reached structural invariance which provides a confident invariance measurement for this scale, while invariance across gender and sociocultural levels reached metric invariance. Accordingly, differences between these groups were explored, by comparing means with multi-group analysis to establish the scale's sensitivity toward social vulnerability, by demonstrating the existence of statistically significant differences regarding gender and sociocultural levels on how individuals cope with uncertainty, specifically in terms of emotional strategies, as a self-defeating strategy. Thus, females scored higher on emotional uncertainty, as well as low sociocultural levels, compared with higher ones. Therefore, it is proposed that this scale could be a sound alternative to explore strategies for coping with uncertainty, when considering social, economic, or other environmental circumstances that may affect them.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract The literature shows that retirement can bring both positive and negative effects. However, there are few tested interventions for preparing workers for this transition and avoiding or minimizing its negative impacts. This paper presents a study with multiple groups that examined the social validity of an intervention for retirement education grounded in contextual behavioral science and acceptance and commitment therapy. Twenty-seven workers aged 29 to 65 divided into three intervention groups participated (group 1, N = 15; group 2, N = 9; group 3, N = 3). According to the participants' evaluations, the intervention provided socially valid goals, socially acceptable procedures, and socially important effects. However, some improvements are still needed, such as the use of more dynamic methods, better formatted printed material, and increased fidelity between the content's implementation and the prescribed activities. The positive results indicate that contextual behavioral science may bolster the development of interventions whose components possess evidence for their social validity. The further evaluation of the intervention via a clinical trial study will offer more robust evidence for its effectiveness. It is hoped that by increasing the availability of theory-based interventions in this area, the present study will promote valid strategies to facilitate better adjustment to retirement.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Adolescent sexual practices have been widely investigated as experiences that pose potential risks for health. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate individual and contextual factors associated with sexual initiation, sexual activity before the age of 15 years, and inconsistent condom use. A total of 253 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years, from public schools in the capital and metropolitan region of Rio Grande do Sul, were interviewed. They answered a questionnaire covering sociodemographic data and sexual behaviors and completed the Perception of Family Support Inventory. The data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics and it was verified that both individual (higher level of education, school repetition, and use of licit and illicit substances) and contextual factors (perception of less affective-consistent support and greater autonomy from the family) were related to sexual initiation among adolescents. The associations found for the groups with sexual initiation before and after 15 years of age were similar, indicating that age did not increase the exposure to risks. Inconsistent condom use was related to the use of tobacco and other drugs. Taken together, the results indicated the cooccurrence of risk behaviors, such as sexual risks and substance abuse, as well as highlighting some family characteristics as protective factors.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Several studies have focused on the assessment of students' motivation because this construct is very important to understand students' learning and how to enhance it. The Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A), based on the self-determination theory is a self-report instrument developed to access the reasons why students do their school work. However, there is no Portuguese version of this questionnaire for late elementary students. The primary goal of this research was to analyze the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of SRQ-A in the domain of Mathematics with elementary school children. Methods: Participants were 341 elementary school children ranging from 8 to 11 years old from the third and fourth grades. The Portuguese version of the SRQ-A included 24 items assessing four regulatory styles (external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic) in three behavioral categories (homework, classwork, and answering questions in mathematics lessons). To examine the psychometric properties of the instrument, we conducted an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), measured gender and grade invariance, and calculated internal consistency indexes and temporal stability. Results: ESEM analyses supported the original multidimensional structure of the measure with four regulatory styles using a reduced version of the instrument with 16 items. Correlations between the four regulatory styles revealed a simplex pattern consistent with the continuum of self-determination theory. Results showed adequate internal consistency for all regulatory styles (α ≥ .73; CR ≥ .76) and temporal stability (4-month test-retest ≥ .43). The questionnaire showed measurement and structural invariance across gender and grade. Finally, some gender differences were observed; on average, boys scored higher than girls in external regulation. No differences were observed between grades. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the Portuguese version of the SRQ-A has good psychometric properties providing adequate support for its use in educational research on motivational styles, including studies concerning gender and grade differences in self-regulation.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Empirically supported interventions in psychological disorders should provide (1) evidence supporting the underlying psychological mechanisms of psychopathology to target in the intervention and (2) evidence supporting the efficacy of the intervention. However, research has been dedicated in a greater extent to efficacy than to the acquisition of empirical support for the theoretical basis of therapies. Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) emerges as a new framework to provide empirically based theories about psychological mechanisms that may be targeted in intervention and tested for its efficacy. The current review aims to demonstrate the possible applications of RDoC to design empirically supported interventions for psychological disorders. Two RDoC-inspired interventions are reviewed, and the RDoC framework is broadly explored in terms of its contributions and limitations. From preliminary evidence, RDoC offers many avenues for improving evidence-based interventions in psychology, but some limitations must be anticipated to increase the RDoC applicability to naturalistic settings.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Dialectical behavior therapy conceptualizes problematic behaviors as attempts to regulate emotions that occur when the individual lacks effective skills with which to manage his or her emotions and cope with distress. Problematic eating behaviors, e.g., binge and emotional eating, may serve to alleviate aversive emotional states, being highly associated with overweight and obesity. Dialectical behavior therapy skills training has been proven effective in reducing binge eating in several clinical studies. However, few studies reveal the effects of DBT on adaptive eating behaviors or the stability of outcomes. Objectives: This study aimed to test the effect of a brief DBT-based skills training intervention, and the stability of outcomes at 3- and 8-month follow-ups. Methods: Self-report measures of binge eating, emotional eating, intuitive eating, and mindful eating were taken on 5 timepoints before and after a 10-session DBT skills training intervention (2 baseline measures, 1 post-test, and 2 follow-ups). Data were analyzed using a mixed-model intention-to-treat approach and mediation analysis was conducted with path analysis. Results: After the intervention, intuitive eating and mindful eating scores were significantly higher than before the intervention, while emotional eating and binge eating scores were lower. The results remained stable during the follow-up period, with minor fluctuations and small trends towards returning to baseline values for binge eating and emotional eating. Mindful eating partially mediated the improvements in all outcomes. Limitations: Given that results are entirely based on self-report measures and that some instruments showed poor reliability, in addition to the high attrition rates, the results should be interpreted as preliminary. Conclusions: The results provide evidence that a brief DBT intervention is effective not only in reducing problematic eating but also in increasing adaptive eating, achieving reasonably stable results. Also, the mediation analysis results support the hypothesis that mindful eating partially explains the effects of the intervention on binge and emotional eating. Future research should address the limitations of this study by investigating a more diverse sample, triangulating different measurement strategies, and including other putative mediators.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Crack use has become a severe health problem in Brazil. Contingency management has shown robust evidence of efficacy in the treatment of cocaine use disorder (CUD) in high-income countries; however, it is still unclear how this intervention can impact treatment in low-income countries. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of contingency management in the treatment of CUD among individuals with a previous history of poor treatment response in Brazil. Methods: Six months after the end of treatment, 32 participants previously allocated to the usual care condition (UCC) were invited to receive an additional 12 weeks of treatment in a contingency management condition (CMC), and 16 accepted the invitation. We compared data obtained from only the 16 participants (14 male) exposed to both treatment conditions. Results: Participants attended more treatment sessions and were retained in treatment for a longer period during the CMC than during the UCC (p < .01 for both). The proportion of negative cocaine samples submitted, the mean longest duration of cocaine abstinence, and the odds of being abstinent from cocaine during the 12 weeks of treatment were significantly higher during treatment in the CMC when compared to the UCC (p < .05). Conclusions: This study provides further evidence that contingency management is effective in promoting abstinence and retention in treatment among individuals with CUD with a history of poor treatment response. Our findings argue for the incorporation of CM among public treatment services for CUD in Brazil. Trial registration: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT01815645 on March 21, 2013.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between psychosocial aspects at work and dissatisfaction among health workers in five cities in Bahia, Brazil. Methods: The evaluation was based on different models proposed to measuring occupational stress and possible combinations between them: demand-control model (DCM) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI). We conducted a cross-sectional epidemiological study including 3084 health workers. The analysis considered the association between partial/full/partial (combined) occupational stress models (the variable “exposure”) and job dissatisfaction (the variable “outcome”). Results: Dissatisfaction rate was 26%. Full DCM and ERI models were better than partial ones to investigate job dissatisfaction. After adjustments, the combined models presented more robust measures of prevalence ratio than models evaluated separately (PR 2.93; CI 2.26–3.80). Conclusions: The combination of models has shown greater capacity to identify situations of job dissatisfaction and provided more potential information to support actions for workers' health.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract: Peers are the preferred source of help for Brazilian adolescents who experience dating violence. However, they are not always the best informants for effective responses for dealing with situations of violence in romantic relationships among peers. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of three aspects of a peer- and bystander approach-based intervention: the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitudes in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents. The study's participants were 33 adolescents randomized in two groups: experimental group (EG, n = 14) and control group (CG, n =19). The EG underwent three weekly intervention sessions of 90 min each on the healthy versus violent romantic relationships, the quality of friendship in the peer network, and the role of the bystander, while the CG received no intervention. Evaluations were performed 1 week before and two and half months after the intervention. Statistically significant differences between EG and CG at post-test were not found in intention to help, empathy, and bystander attitudes. Future studies should include evaluations of larger samples and mid- and long-term follow-ups to identify patterns of change over the long term as well as examine barriers to utilization of bystander behaviors by adolescents in Brazilian culture.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Working memory refers to the cognitive system responsible for the temporary storage and maintenance of information, but it remains controversial whether overlapping processes underlie the temporary retention of verbal and musical information such as words and tones. Methods: Participants with little or no musical training (n = 22) and professional musicians (n = 21) were administered four memory tasks. Two tasks (tone sequence recognition and pseudoword sequence recall) aimed at comparing groups’ performance for tonal or phonological material separately. Other two memory tasks investigated pseudoword and tone recognition under three conditions during the retention interval (silence, irrelevant words, or irrelevant tones). Results: Musicians were better than nonmusicians in tone sequence recognition but not in pseudoword sequence recall. There were no interference effects of irrelevant tones or words on pseudoword recognition, and only irrelevant tones significantly interfered with tone recognition. Conclusions: Our results offer further support that tone recognition is specifically impaired by irrelevant tones, but irrelevant words did not disrupt pseudoword or tone recognition. Although these results do not reflect a double-dissociation pattern between phonological and tonal working memory, they provide evidence that temporary retention of tonal information is subject to specific tonal interference, indicating that working memory for tones involves specific processes.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by the fear of being judged negatively in social situations. Eye-tracking techniques have been prominent among the methods used in recent decades to investigate emotional processing in SAD. This study offers a systematic review of studies on eye-tracking patterns in individuals with SAD and controls in facial emotion recognition tasks. Thirteen articles were selected from the consulted databases. It was observed that the subjects with SAD exhibited hypervigilance-avoidance in response to emotions, primarily in the case of negative expressions. There was avoidance of conspicuous areas of the face, particularly the eyes, during observations of negative expressions. However, this hypervigilance did not occur if the stimulus was presented in virtual reality. An important limitation of these studies is that they use only static expressions, which can reduce the ecological validity of the results.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract: Background: Edge plays a special role in spatial perception and as well as in determining the brightness of a surface within borders. The aim of our study was to measure threshold brightness in different levels of edges thickness. Methods: Steven's power law for circles modulating in luminance was estimated for 30 subjects (mean age 24 years, SD 3.3, 13 female). Stimuli were presented on the iMac display using the 11-bit graphic board and consisted of two circles of 3° of visual angle, separated by 10°. We tested 7 levels of Michelson contrast: 7, 8, 10, 15, 26, 50, and 100. Three edges filtering were tested (0.3, 0.8, and 1.5° of smoothing). The subjects' task was to judge the brightness of the edge filtered circle compared with the circle of the hard edge which was considered the modulus and received an arbitrary level of 50, representing the amount of brightness perception. In each trial, the same contrast level was presented in both circles. Five judgments were performed for each contrast level in edge filtering. Results: We found an increase in the power law exponent as the increase of the edge filtering (for sigma of 0.3 = 0.43, sigma of 0.8 = 0.73, and sigma 1.5 = 0.97). All power function fitting had high correlation coefficients (r2 = .94, r2 = .95, r2 = .97, respectively to sigma 0.3, 0.8, and 1.5) passing to the model's adhesion criteria. Conclusions: There was a progressive distortion on the figure brightness perception as increasing the edge filtering suggesting the control of edges on the polarity of the overall brightness. Also, perceived brightness was increasingly veridical with increased filtering, approaching 1:1 correspondence at 1.5 sigmas.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Procedures that reduce errors while learning a repertoire play an important role in Applied Behavior Analysis for people with autism due to the detrimental effects that excessive exposure to error may have on learning. Previous studies have investigated the effects of correction procedures that require active student response after a trial with error. Some intervention manuals recommend against reinforcing responses after correction to prevent the establishment of prompt dependence. This study directly investigated the effect of reinforcement after an active-response correction procedure during tact training in four children with autism. An echoic-to-tact training procedure was used to train tacts. A “no reinforcement after correction” (NRC) condition was compared to a “reinforcement after correction” (RC) condition, using an adapted alternated treatments design. Results: All participants needed less correction trials in RC than in NRC, and considering all 26 sessions in which both training procedures were implemented, participants’ performance was higher with RC than without in 17 sessions and was the same in 3 sessions. Conclusions: We discuss the effectiveness of reinforcing correct responding after an active-response correction procedure, the absence of prompt dependence, and the implications of better correction procedures for applied settings.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Internalizing problems (depression, anxiety, social anxiety, somatic complaints, post-traumatic symptoms, and obsession-compulsion) are very important in adolescents’ development. These problems can be related with people who lack social skills and poorly handle their emotions. This study assessed 1358 secondary education students (12-17 years) to analyze the relationship linking internalizing problems, emotional intelligence, and social skills. The results showed not only how these constructs were related, but how students’ internalizing problems varied according to their emotional intelligence and social skills. They also indicated that two in every three males, and just over one in every two females, obtained high scores for internalizing problems. The model showed a good fit: χ2(85) = 201.161 p <0.001; X2/g/ = 2.367; CFI = 0.919; NFI = 0.869; TLI = 0.900; RMSEA = 0.075, IC 95% (0.062-0.089). Finally, gender influenced the way that internalizing problems, emotional intelligence, and social skills were related, and an inverse relation appeared to link internalizing problems, emotional intelligence (r = - .77), and social skills (r = - .52) for females, while this relationship was poorer for males. By way of conclusion, we state that internalizing problems are related with emotional intelligence and social skills in secondary education students, but this relationship differs according to gender.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: Sleep problems are common in children and can have an effect on behavioral and emotional functioning. Despite the importance of sleep for children's health, there is a lack of studies on this topic in Brazil. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of behavioral intervention for sleep problems in young children and to investigate the effects on their daytime behavior. Methods: Sixty-two children (ages 1-5; M = 2.3, SD= 1.3) with bedtime problems and night waking were randomized to a parent-based intervention or a wait list control group. After the waiting period, the wait list participants were offered treatment. The intervention was composed of five sessions over 2 months, during which the parents were educated on their child's sleep and received guidance on the establishment of sleeping schedules and routines and on the use of extinction and positive reinforcement techniques. Sleep patterns and behavior problems were assessed with parent-report measures. Sleep patterns were also assessed with actigraphy. Assessments were completed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, 1-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up. Results: Children who received intervention showed greater baseline to post-treatment improvements in sleep latency, night waking, behavior such as resisting going to bed, the desire to sleep with their parents, and daytime behavior than the control group. These improvements were maintained at follow-up. Conclusions: We concluded that behavioral parent-based intervention is effective in improving the quality of sleep and the diurnal behavior of children. This study provides initial support for use of this protocol in psychology clinics/schools. Brazilian clinical trials registration, RBR-4kxxd5. Retrospectively registered on December 13, 2016.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: The study of intimate partner violence has historically focused on violence perpetrated on females by males, but recent research suggests that, at least in teenage couples, the difference between genders is decreasing or even reversing. The objective of this study is to analyze the personality characteristics of adolescents who are violent with their partners. The sample consisted of 430 subjects (229 girls and 201 boys), between 14 and 19 years (M =16.18, SD = 1.81), middle or high school students, which completed the Personality Assessment Inventory-Adolescents and the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory. Results: The results show that girls have higher personality scores on the scales that show problems of internal behavior (depression and anxiety), while boys show higher scores on the scales of external behavior problems (antisocial behavior and drug use). Through a regression analysis, the results show predictive weights in the aggression traits (β = .331, p < .001), antisocial characteristics (β = .202, p < .001), and mania (β = .185, p < .05), as the scores on the scale of violence perpetrated increase in girls. For boys, personality variables do not seem to have such a decisive weight to explain the violence committed, since only heat and alcohol problems represent 5.4% of the variance found. These differences between boys and girls should be analyzed in future studies and, if the findings are maintained, taken into account when developing programs to prevent gender-based violence in adolescents. Conclusions: The results of this study show how the personality characteristics have a differential weight in the explanation of the teen dating aggression according to the gender of the aggressors, with a greater relevance in the prediction of the aggressive behaviors committed by the girls.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Episodic foresight (EF) refers to the ability to anticipate future states of the self. Despite almost two decades of research, no studies explored how family context variables relate to the development of this ability. The objectives of this study were to explore the association of socioeconomic status (SES), parental consideration of future consequences (CFC), and family environment quality on the development of episodic foresight and to compare the magnitude of the effects of these same variables on delay of gratification and planning. Sixty-four dyads composed by 4-year-old Uruguayan children and their main caregiver participated in the study. Children were administered experiments on episodic foresight, delay of gratification, planning, and receptive language. Parents reported socioeconomic status, family environment, and their consideration of future consequences. Even though parents’ limit setting was associated to higher EF in children and parental CFC-I was a predictor in multiple regression analysis, these effects ceased to be significant when controlled by child's receptive language and caregiver education, being these the main predictors of EF. Results also indicate that SES significantly distinguishes the performance in future-oriented skills and language, being the magnitude of the effect higher for EF in comparison with planning and delay of gratification. This study supports that EF is related to SES to a greater extent than other variables traditionally assessed in studies of poverty and child development. We discuss implications of low SES and language skills in the light of EF development and immediate-oriented behavior in contexts of deprivation.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Physiology influences wellbeing and psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections among early life positive and negative touch and wellbeing and sociomoral development. In study 1, mothers of preschoolers (n = 156) reported their attitudes toward positive/negative touch and on their children's wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes, illustrating moderate to strong positive correlations between positive touch attitudes and children's sociomoral capacities and orientations and negative correlations with psychopathology. In study 2, we used an existing longitudinal dataset, with at-risk mothers (n = 682) and their children to test touch effects on moral capacities and social behaviors in early life. Results demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between positive/negative touch and concurrent child behavioral regulation and positive correlations between low corporal punishment and child sociomoral outcomes. In a third study with adults (n = 607), we found significant mediation processes connecting retrospective reports of childhood touch to adult moral orientation through attachment security, mental health, and moral capacities. In general across studies, more affectionate touch and less punishing touch were positively associated with wellbeing and development of moral capacities and engaged moral orientation.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background: The literature has few studies on the quality of the mother-child interaction when mothers suffer from chronic anxiety and depression. This study aimed to compare characteristics of the interaction between 14-month-old children and their mothers who presented symptoms of chronic anxiety or depression with those of 14-month-old children and their mothers who did not present mental problems. Method: The sample consisted of 40 mother-infant dyads selected from a prospective cohort study. They were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory, at three time points: during pregnancy and at 6 months and 14 months of the infant's life. Three groups were formed: 10 mothers with symptoms of chronic anxiety, 8 mothers with symptoms of chronic depression, and a control group of 22 mothers without mental health problems. The mothers responded to a socioeconomic questionnaire, and then a 7-min episode of the dyad interaction was recorded and assessed using categories indicated in a dyadic interaction assessment protocol. This consisted of six categories that evaluate the behavior of the caregiver and four categories that evaluate the child's behavior. Results: A significantly higher percentage of mothers with chronic depressive symptoms had not completed high school and did not live with a partner. When comparing the interaction behaviors of the three groups, mothers with symptoms of chronic depression were significantly less sensitive, were more disengaged, and showed less positive affect than those in the control group. They also engaged in significantly fewer stimulations and displayed more negative affect compared with both the control group and mothers with chronic anxiety symptoms. Anxious mothers presented greater intrusiveness compared with mothers in the control group. Regarding the children, those with mothers showing symptoms of chronic depression interacted significantly less than those with mothers showing symptoms of chronic anxiety and the control group. Conclusions: The results indicate that mother-infant interaction is most severely compromised among mother-infant dyads comprised of mothers with chronic depressive symptoms, compared with dyads of mothers with chronic anxiety symptoms and dyads of control group mothers without mental health problems.