Search

Efficient imaging of biomolecules, two-dimensional materials, and electromagnetic fields depends on retrieval of the phase of transmitted electrons. We demonstrate a method to measure phase in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) using a nanofabricated diffraction grating to produce multiple probe beams. The measured phase is more interpretable than phase-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy techniques without an off-axis reference wave, and the resolution could surpass that of off-axis electron holography. We apply this technique, called STEM holography, to image nanoparticles, carbon substrates, and electric fields. The contrast observed in experiments agrees well with contrast predicted in simulations.

Background: Antenatal attachment is a fundamental concept relative to human transition to parenthood and may be influenced by several factors. The aim of this study is to find the best model to explain maternal antenatal attachment based on the interaction among sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological variables., Methods: Pregnant women (N = 407) were interviewed during the second trimester of pregnancy while waiting for medical consultations. A sociodemographic, obstetric, and psychometric protocol was used., Statistical Analyses: path analysis., Independent Variables: psychopathological symptomatology, depression, anxiety, stress, occupational stress, attitudes about pregnancy and motherhood, coping styles, marital satisfaction, sociodemographic, and clinical variables., Dependent Variables: maternal antenatal attachment in its several dimensions; quality of attachment (QA), intensity of preoccupation (IP), and global attachment (GA)., Results: Depression, anxiety, attitudes, and marital satisfaction explained 37% of maternal antenatal QA. Age, depression, anxiety, attitudes, and marital satisfaction explained 26% of maternal antenatal IP. Age, depression, anxiety, attitudes, and marital satisfaction explained 34% of the statistical variance of maternal antenatal GA., Conclusions: Factors like emotional states (depression and anxiety), attitudes towards pregnancy and motherhood, marital satisfaction, and a sociodemographic variable (age) contribute significantly for the explanation of maternal antenatal attachment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This study investigated whether a social-emotional learning program, implemented over a one-year period, could lead to gains in social-emotional competencies and to a reduction in internalizing and externalizing problems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the program analyzed how students (boys vs. girls) with varying levels of social-emotional competencies and externalizing and internalizing problems, and from different socioeconomic backgrounds, were differently affected. The program was applied to 358 Portuguese third- and fourth-grade students (51.4% boys, M age = 8.56; SD = 0.82). Self-report (students) and hetero-report (teachers) questionnaires were administered before and after the intervention. Linear mixed-effects models were computed to test intervention impacts. Significant intervention gains were noted in social-emotional learning competencies, namely emotional knowledge, social competence, peer relations, self-management, and academic behavior, and in externalizing (social problems) and internalizing (anxiety) problems. No effects were found in aggressiveness. Students with lower social-emotional competencies and higher externalizing and internalizing problems at baseline profited more from the program. Gender moderated both emotional knowledge and social problems, and socioeconomic status only moderated social problems. Findings highlight the effectiveness of this social-emotional learning program, especially for students facing initial challenges. Recommendations for future research, acknowledging limitations and strengths, are discussed.

The ability to distinguish spontaneous from volitional emotional expressions is an important social skill. How do blind individuals perceive emotional authenticity? Unlike sighted individuals, they cannot rely on facial and body language cues, relying instead on vocal cues alone. Here, we combined behavioral and ERP measures to investigate authenticity perception in laughter and crying in individuals with early- or late-blindness onset. Early-blind, late-blind, and sighted control participants (n = 17 per group, N = 51) completed authenticity and emotion discrimination tasks while EEG data were recorded. The stimuli consisted of laughs and cries that were either spontaneous or volitional. The ERP analysis focused on the N1, P2, and late positive potential (LPP). Behaviorally, early-blind participants showed intact authenticity perception, but late-blind participants performed worse than controls. There were no group differences in the emotion discrimination task. In brain responses, all groups were sensitive to laughter authenticity at the P2 stage, and to crying authenticity at the early LPP stage. Nevertheless, only early-blind participants were sensitive to crying authenticity at the N1 and middle LPP stages, and to laughter authenticity at the early LPP stage. Furthermore, early-blind and sighted participants were more sensitive than late-blind ones to crying authenticity at the P2 and late LPP stages. Altogether, these findings suggest that early blindness relates to facilitated brain processing of authenticity in voices, both at early sensory and late cognitive-evaluative stages. Late-onset blindness, in contrast, relates to decreased sensitivity to authenticity at behavioral and brain levels., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Previous systematic reviews and meta-analysis of sleep interventions with young adults have not reached consensus on what contributes to their efficacy. Behaviour-change theories may influence the efficacy of interventions; hence, the aim of this research was to investigate the role of such theories in sleep interventions with this population. Six electronic databases and reference lists were searched (April-May 2021) for published sleep behaviour-change interventions with emerging adults (aged 18-29 years) that used control groups. A selection of 20 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, but only six were based on behaviour-change theories. Meta-analysis was run with eight studies, as the others had a high risk of bias or did not present the necessary data to calculate Hedges' g. The estimation of a random effects model for the studies showed a small effect in the sleep quality of the participants in the experimental group (g = -0.26; 95% confidence interval -0.42 to -0.09), with low levels of heterogeneity (I 2  = 21%), and a small 95% prediction interval (-0.59 to 0.08). Although we could not examine theory or any other moderators of the effect, a qualitative analysis of the behaviour-change techniques present in the interventions leads us to hypothesise that there is not a direct link between behaviour-change techniques and the success of the intervention. Other characteristics of the interventions may be linked to their variable levels of efficacy and should be investigated in the future, as for now there are no answers as to what the key is for successful sleep interventions., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society.)

Literature has emphasized the urgency of investing in the promotion of Social and Emotional Competence (SEC) in adults. Therefore, the development of a theoretically grounded and developmentally adjusted measure that adequately assesses SEC in its different domains is needed. This study aimed to develop a self-report battery for the assessment of adults' SEC. Factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Social and Emotional Competence Assessment Battery for Adults (SECAB-A) were assessed. Seven-hundred and ninety-six adults (80.7% female) completed the SECAB-A. A subsample of 63 elementary school teachers (92.1% female) participated at two points in time and also completed external measures assessing affect, emotion regulation, and burnout symptoms, thus making it possible to test for test-retest reliability and convergent and discriminant validities. Despite sample size variation, no statistically significant differences between groups were found for the SECAB-A scales. Extraction of factors and confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized factorial structures. Coefficient omegas suggested adequate internal consistency and scores were highly correlated between the two data collection waves, also ensuring adequate test-retest reliability. There was also evidence of the SECAB-A's convergent and discriminant validities against the external measures. Results from this study indicate that the SECAB-A is a promising measure for the adult population. Nevertheless, additional criterion-related and construct validity research is needed.

Migration is a disruptive experience that undermines immigrants' well-being. This systematic review explores the diversity of digital methods available to promote their well-being. The review includes 13 studies (6 were RCTs), comprising 8181 participants, collected through EBSCOhost web, b-ON, Scopus, SciELO and ProQuest, with no time restriction (to access all available literature). Primary outcomes were well-being (mental health; quality of life), and the secondary were stigma, integration and connection. Study quality was assessed by the QuADS tool. Digital methods are a valuable tool for improving immigrants' well-being. M-integration methods tend to focus on promoting mental health in immigrants, developing individual resilience while participatory methods address the quality of life in refugees, contributing to social resilience. Digital methods must not only be part of the guidelines of interventions for immigrants and refugees but also be a foundation upon which those guidelines are outlined., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Two years after Portugal won the UEFA European Championship, we examined what the Portuguese remember of this momentous occasion. We investigated if flashbulb memories (FBMs) and event memories (EMs) were determined by distinct factors, and whether EM was a predictor of FBM. Participants responded to an online questionnaire about their FBM, EM and set of predictors. Structural equation modeling revealed that FBM and EM were associated with different pathways. Interest in football predicted importance which triggered emotional intensity which predicted personal rehearsal, a direct determinant of FBMs. On the other pathway, interest determined knowledge about football, the main predictor of EMs. Importantly, EM was a causal determinant of FBM which shows that the memory trace for the original event enhances memory for the reception context. The findings suggests that even though the two types of memories are determined by independent factors, they interact very closely., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ribeiro, Marques, Roberto and Raposo.)

The phenomenon of information and communication technology (ICT)-assisted after-hours work has led to rising academic interest in examining its impact on workers' lives. ICT-assisted after-hours work may intrude on the home domain and contribute to higher work-family/life conflict, lower work-family/life balance, or higher work-family/life enrichment (the last one owing to the acquisition of competencies transferable to the home domain). Additionally, owing to cultural and societal differences in gender roles, the relationships between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life management variables may differ between female and male workers. To analyze the current empirical findings, this study performed a literature review with 38 articles and a meta-analysis with 37 articles. Our findings showed that ICT-assisted after-hours work was positively related to work-family/life enrichment ( r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]), but also to work-family/life conflict ( r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]). However, neither gender nor pre-/post-COVID significantly affect the relationship between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life conflict. Finally, future research and implications are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Santos, Roberto, Camilo and Chambel.)

This study adopted a cumulative risk approach to examine the relations between various domains of risk factors (i.e., social isolation and home confinement, other pandemic-related risk factors, and pre-existing psychosocial risk factors) and carers' and children's mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The sample consisted of 1475 carers of 6- to 16-year-old children and adolescents residing in five European countries (Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania, Spain, and The Netherlands) who completed an online survey. The results showed that each of the three domains of adversity accounted for unique variation in carers' and children's mental health outcomes. Also, the results indicated that pre-existing psychosocial risk factors moderated the relationship between pandemic-related risk factors and children and carers' anxiety and between social isolation and confinement and carers' well-being. Simple slopes analysis suggested a stronger relationship between these domains of adversities and mental health outcomes in already more vulnerable families. It is important to consider the implications of social isolation measures and confinement for families' mental health, paying special attention to families with pre-existing psychosocial vulnerabilities., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Both self-voice and emotional speech are salient signals that are prioritized in perception. Surprisingly, self-voice perception has been investigated to a lesser extent than the self-face. Therefore, it remains to be clarified whether self-voice prioritization is boosted by emotion, and whether self-relevance and emotion interact differently when attention is focused on who is speaking vs. what is being said. Thirty participants listened to 210 prerecorded words spoken in one's own or an unfamiliar voice and differing in emotional valence in two tasks, manipulating the attention focus on either speaker identity or speech emotion. Event-related potentials (ERP) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) informed on the temporal dynamics of self-relevance, emotion, and attention effects. Words spoken in one's own voice elicited a larger N1 and Late Positive Potential (LPP), but smaller N400. Identity and emotion interactively modulated the P2 (self-positivity bias) and LPP (self-negativity bias). Attention to speaker identity modulated more strongly ERP responses within 600 ms post-word onset (N1, P2, N400), whereas attention to speech emotion altered the late component (LPP). However, attention did not modulate the interaction of self-relevance and emotion. These findings suggest that the self-voice is prioritized for neural processing at early sensory stages, and that both emotion and attention shape self-voice prioritization in speech processing. They also confirm involuntary processing of salient signals (self-relevance and emotion) even in situations in which attention is deliberately directed away from those cues. These findings have important implications for a better understanding of symptoms thought to arise from aberrant self-voice monitoring such as auditory verbal hallucinations., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A parental child-centered feeding approach is likely to keep children’s biological mechanisms activated while eating, protecting them in an obesogenic context. However, few feeding practice measures assess parents’ behaviors to guide and prompt children to identify and respond appropriately to their signs of hunger and satiety. We aimed to develop and study the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance of a new scale to assess parental feeding practices to promote children’s self-regulation of food intake. To pursue this aim, we conducted two descriptive, cross-sectional, online studies in Portugal in an online format; a total of 536 parents of 2- to 6-year-old children completed the evaluation protocol. Factorial analysis findings support the theoretical organization proposed for the scale. The confirmatory factorial analysis supported a first-order factor structure with two subscales, Prompting for eating self-regulation and Teaching about eating consequences, with eight items in total. Both scales presented good internal consistency and adequate temporal stability, with a significant, positive, and moderate relationship. The results showed metric invariance for the child’s sex. Both types of practices were positively correlated with the child’s enjoyment of food. Prompting for eating self-regulation showed negative associations with parents’ emotional lack of control, children’s satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, and fussiness. Preliminary studies confirmed both the validity and reliability of the instrument and the adequacy of adopting a self-regulatory approach when assessing child-centered feeding practices. Combining this instrument with others that assess coercive practices can be beneficial to capture ineffective parents’ behaviors on children’s eating self-regulation.

Teaching is, to date, one of the most prone jobs to experiencing occupational stress and burnout. Owing to burnout's negative personal, social, organizational and economic impacts, researchers, practitioners and education policy leaders are interested in developing practices and interventions aimed at preventing/reducing its prevalence. With teachers' main professional demands to be of a social and emotional nature, interventions designed with a view to promote teachers' social and emotional competence appears to be particularly promising, positively impacting teachers' well-being and personal accomplishment and contributing to a decrease in their psychological distress, namely emotional exhaustion. However, theoretical and empirically grounded interventions with ecological validity and specifically targeting teachers are still scarce. Thus, to bridge the previously identified gaps, the present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and the quality of the intervention's implementation of the A+ , an online social and emotional learning intervention for elementary-school teachers. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with a total of 81 participants (96.3% female, M Age = 46.21, SD Age  = 4.82, n  = 42 assigned to the experimental group) from three different school contexts. School clusters were similar in size, organizational structure and socioeconomic level, and as regards previous attendance at social and emotional learning interventions; however, they differed with regards to perceived organizational climate. Data on the efficacy of the A+ was collected across four waves using a set of self-report questionnaires that assessed proximal variables (i.e., social and emotional skills) and distal variables (e.g., well-being, burnout symptoms), and analyzed through Robust Linear Mixed-Effects Models. Coefficient omegas suggested adequate reliability of the measures. Additionally, two trained observers completed an observation grid to evaluate the quality of the A+ implementation (e.g., participant responsiveness, fidelity), with excellent inter-rater reliability. Results suggested that, over time, the A+ had positive impacts across proximal (e.g., increased self-regulation, positive relationship, conflict management skills) and distal variables (e.g., increased emotional well-being, decreased occupational stress and emotional exhaustion symptoms) favoring the experimental group. However, results differed across the school contexts. These findings were accompanied by good implementation quality indicators, namely high fidelity in the delivery of the A+ contents and high participants' responsiveness. Despite its limitations, this study contributes to a growing body of research which reinforces the importance of investing in social and emotional learning interventions to prevent teachers' burnout and improve their occupational health. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of implementation quality research as a component of program planning with a view to enhancing programs' efficacy, as well as the need to adapt and consider context variables in research and practice., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Oliveira, Roberto, Veiga-Simão and Marques-Pinto.)

Strong links have been observed between professionals' occupational health and their perceived organizational climate. However, in Portugal, one of the European Union countries where teachers present higher levels of occupational stress, no measures have been found to assess perceived school climate in elementary-school teachers. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric qualities of the Portuguese adaptation of the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire Revised for Elementary Schools (OCDQ-RE). To test its factor structure, 687 elementary-school teachers (85.2% female, M Age = 46.15 years, SD Age = 8.88) completed the Portuguese OCDQ-RE. An additional sample of 81 participants (96.3% female, M Age = 46.21 years, SD Age = 4.82) responded at two points in time and completed external measures, ensuring test-retest reliability and validity analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized factor structure. Coefficient omegas suggested adequate internal consistency of the composites. Adequate test-retest reliability was sustained through high correlation scores between the two data collection waves. Evidence of discriminant validity against external measures was also observed. Despite the need for further studies, the results support the adequacy and reliability of the Portuguese OCDQ-RE which may be an important research and intervention resource., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest/Competing interestsThe authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. , (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Parents' emotion socialization practices are an important source of influence in the development of children's emotional competencies This study examined parental reactions to child negative emotions in a clinical sample using a cluster analysis approach and explored the associations between clusters of parents' reactions and children's and parents' adjustment. The sample comprised 80 parents of Portuguese children (aged 3-13 years) attending a child and adolescent psychiatry unit. Measures to assess parental reactions to children's negative emotions, parents' psychopathological symptoms, parents' emotion dysregulation, and children's adjustment were administered to parents. Model-based cluster analysis resulted in three clusters: low unsupportive, high supportive, and inconsistent reactions clusters. These clusters differed significantly in terms of parents' psychopathological symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and children's adjustment. A pattern characterized by high supportive reactions to the child's emotions was associated with higher levels of children's adjustment. On the other hand, an inconsistent reactions pattern was associated with the worst indicators of children's adjustment and parental emotion dysregulation. These results suggest the importance of supporting parents of children with emotional and behavioural problems so that they can be more responsive to their children's emotional manifestations.

Previous research has documented perceptual and brain differences between spontaneous and volitional emotional vocalizations. However, the time course of emotional authenticity processing remains unclear. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to address this question, and we focused on the processing of laughter and crying. We additionally tested whether the neural encoding of authenticity is influenced by attention, by manipulating task focus (authenticity versus emotional category) and visual condition (with versus without visual deprivation). ERPs were recorded from 43 participants while they listened to vocalizations and evaluated their authenticity (volitional versus spontaneous) or emotional meaning (sad versus amused). Twenty-two of the participants were blindfolded and tested in a dark room, and 21 were tested in standard visual conditions. As compared to volitional vocalizations, spontaneous ones were associated with reduced N1 amplitude in the case of laughter, and increased P2 in the case of crying. At later cognitive processing stages, more positive amplitudes were observed for spontaneous (versus volitional) laughs and cries (1000-1400 msec), with earlier effects for laughs (700-1000 msec). Visual condition affected brain responses to emotional authenticity at early (P2 range) and late processing stages (middle and late LPP ranges). Task focus did not influence neural responses to authenticity. Our findings suggest that authenticity information is encoded early and automatically during vocal emotional processing. They also point to a potentially faster encoding of authenticity in laughter compared to crying., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We have no known conflict of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a cardinal symptom of schizophrenia but are also reported in the general population without need for psychiatric care. Previous evidence suggests that AVH may reflect an imbalance of prior expectation and sensory information, and that altered salience processing is characteristic of both psychotic and non-clinical voice hearers. However, it remains to be shown how such an imbalance affects the categorisation of vocal emotions in perceptual ambiguity. Methods: Neutral and emotional nonverbal vocalisations were morphed along two continua differing in valence (anger; pleasure), each including 11 morphing steps at intervals of 10%. College students ( N  = 234) differing in AVH proneness (measured with the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale) evaluated the emotional quality of the vocalisations. Results: Increased AVH proneness was associated with more frequent categorisation of ambiguous vocalisations as 'neutral', irrespective of valence. Similarly, the perceptual boundary for emotional classification was shifted by AVH proneness: participants needed more emotional information to categorise a voice as emotional. Conclusions: These findings suggest that emotional salience in vocalisations is dampened as a function of increased AVH proneness. This could be related to changes in the acoustic representations of emotions or reflect top-down expectations of less salient information in the social environment.

Objectives: The Personal Social Capital Scale 16 (PSCS-16) is a self-report measure used to assess social capital, as a social determinant of health. To guarantee validated measures of this construct, the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the PSCS-16 were studied., Methods: The PSCS-16 comprises 16 items, organized in two scales: bonding and bridging social capital. A convenience sample of 280 participants was collected through an online survey. For construct validity, we used confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent and discriminant validity through the average variance extracted (AVE) and correlations. For reliability, we used: The Spearman-Brown split-half and the omega hierarchical coefficient. Correlations were made between the PSCS-16 and socio-demographic variables., Results: A first-order model depicting two oblique factors was supported, suggesting the use of the two scales. Evidence of convergent validity was achieved: acceptable AVE and associations between social capital and emotional self-disclosure. For discriminant validity, the AVE values surpassed the squared correlation between bonding and bridging, and associations with sexual health were found to be absent. Reliability was good. Additional correlations: A positive association between the education level and bridging social capital and participants with an immigrant status having more bridging social capital., Conclusions: Preliminary findings support the Portuguese version of PSCS-16 as suitable to evaluate social capital. Contributions are highlighted: the need to study correlates of social capital, particularly crossing migrations, social capital and mental health; and confirming the structure found by measuring its invariance., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Caregivers' influence on young children's eating behaviors is widely recognized. Nutritional interventions that focus on the promotion of children's healthy diet should actively involve parents, focusing on their feeding behaviors and practices., Methods: This work aims to describe the development and study protocol of the SmartFeeding4Kids (SF4K) program, an online self-guided 7-session intervention for parents of young (2-6 years old) children. The program is informed by social cognitive, self-regulation, and habit formation theoretical models and uses self-regulatory techniques as self-monitoring, goal setting, and feedback to promote behavior change. We propose to examine the intervention efficacy on children's intake of fruit, vegetables, and added sugars, and parental feeding practices with a two-arm randomized controlled with four times repeated measures design (baseline, immediately, 3 and 6 months after intervention). Parental perceived barriers about food and feeding, food parenting self-efficacy, and motivation to change will be analyzed as secondary outcomes. The study of the predictors of parents' dropout rates and the trajectories of parents' and children's outcomes are also objectives of this work., Discussion: The SmartFeeding4Kids program relies on technological resources to deliver parents' self-regulation techniques that proved effective in promoting health behaviors. The study design can enhance the knowledge about the most effective methodologies to change parental feeding practices and children's food intake. As a self-guided online program, SmartFeeding4Kids might overcome parents' attrition more effectively, besides being easy to disseminate and cost-effective., Trial Registration: The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT04591496 ) on October 19, 2020., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

This research aims to understand how children conceptualise lying and how they associate it with moral reasoning within a narrative that contains everyday moral transgressions. This study also explores whether children are willing to lie when they are asked to do so by close adults, such as mothers, fathers and teachers, even after declaring that lying is wrong. We interviewed children (N = 146) from first to fourth grade on these themes, and discovered a developmental trend in the concept of lying, which is associated with other moral reasoning dimensions. Most children could define lying in a reasonable and accurate manner, and considered it inappropriate behaviour, but half admitted to lying after a close adult requested it., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Successful use of conceptual knowledge entails the assembling of semantic representations and control processes to access the subsets of knowledge relevant in each situation. Research has suggested that representation and control mechanisms interact to support categorization. Notably, depleted representations in semantic dementia and disrupted control processes in semantic aphasia impair categorization of atypical concepts. Yet, it remains unclear how knowledge accumulation and control decay in healthy ageing impact categorization. To address this question, we compared young and older adults' performance in a categorization task of items varying in concept typicality. Critically, older adults were more accurate in categorizing atypical concepts than the younger counterparts, as indicated by the interaction between group and typicality. Moreover, the elderly outperformed the younger in categorizing atypical concepts that were also less familiar. Thus, the decay in semantic control observed along ageing did not significantly hinder the categorization of atypical items. Our data suggest that, relative to young adults, older adults possess enriched conceptual knowledge, which supports retrieval of the category-related features needed for categorizing atypical and less familiar exemplars., (© 2021. Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Teaching is among the most emotionally demanding jobs, impacting teachers' personal lives and job performance. Since teaching-specific stressors are mainly socio-emotional related, social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions targeting teachers have increased rapidly in recent years. This study conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis of 43 empirical studies which evaluated the efficacy of school-based SEL interventions involving 3,004 in-service preK-12 teachers. The initial systematic review showed that these interventions were very heterogeneous and the research on their efficacy assessed widely distinct outcome variables. Concerning the meta-analysis, results showed statistically significant small to medium effect sizes favoring the experimental group, with SEL interventions impacting teachers' social and emotional competence [ g = 0.59, 95% CI (0.29, 0.90)], well-being [ g = 0.35, 95% CI (0.16, 0.54)], and psychological distress [ g = -0.34, 95% CI (-0.57, -0.10)]. Meta-regressions did not reveal significant values of the explanatory variables, and publication bias was found for social and emotional competence and well-being domains. Findings add to growing empirical evidence regarding the impact of these interventions and contribute to the development of guidelines for the design of effective SEL interventions for teachers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Oliveira, Roberto, Pereira, Marques-Pinto and Veiga-Simão.)

Web-based parent interventions designed to promote children's healthy eating patterns can enhance parents' engagement and facilitate behavior change. However, it is still unclear how much the existing programs focus on changing parental feeding practices, and if so, which behavioral methodologies are used and how effective these interventions are in changing these parental behaviors. This systematic review and meta-analysis studied randomized controlled trials of web-based interventions targeting parents of 0-12-year-old children, aiming to promote children's healthy diet or prevent nutrition-related problems and reporting parental feeding behaviors as one of the outcomes. We conducted an electronic search in four databases from the earliest publication date until February 2020. Of the 1271 records found, we retained twelve studies about nine programs, comprising 1766 parents that completed the baseline evaluation. We found recent interventions, mainly directed to parents of young children, with small, non-clinical samples, and mostly theory-based. The programs were heterogeneous regarding the type of intervention delivered and its duration. The most assessed parental feeding practices were Restriction, Pressure to eat, and Food availability/accessibility. The behavior change techniques Instruction on how to perform the behavior, Demonstration of the behavior, and Identification of self as role model were frequently used. Meta-analytic results indicated that most programs' effects were small for the evaluated parental practices, except for Food availability/accessibility that benefited the intervention group only when all follow-up measurements were considered. The development of high-quality and controlled trials with larger samples is needed to determine with greater certainty the interventions' impact on parental feeding behaviors. The more frequent inclusion of measures to evaluate parental practices to support children's autonomy and of self-regulatory strategies as intervention components should be considered when designing programs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objective: Illness perceptions (IP) are important predictors of emotional and behavioral responses in many diseases. The current study aims to investigate the COVID-19-related IP throughout Europe. The specific goals are to understand the temporal development, identify predictors (within demographics and contact with COVID-19) and examine the impacts of IP on perceived stress and preventive behaviors. Methods: This was a time-series-cross-section study of 7,032 participants from 16 European countries using multilevel modeling from April to June 2020. IP were measured with the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Temporal patterns were observed considering the date of participation and the date recoded to account the epidemiological evolution of each country. The outcomes considered were perceived stress and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Results: There were significant trends, over time, for several IP, suggesting a small decrease in negativity in the perception of COVID-19 in the community. Age, gender, and education level related to some, but not all, IP. Considering the self-regulation model, perceptions consistently predicted general stress and were less consistently related to preventive behaviors. Country showed no effect in the predictive model, suggesting that national differences may have little relevance for IP, in this context. Conclusion: The present study provides a comprehensive picture of COVID-19 IP in Europe in an early stage of the pandemic. The results shed light on the process of IP formation with implications for health-related outcomes and their evolution., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Dias Neto, Nunes da Silva, Roberto, Lubenko, Constantinou, Nicolaou, Lamnisos, Papacostas, Höfer, Presti, Squatrito, Vasiliou, McHugh, Monestès, Baban, Alvarez-Galvez, Paez-Blarrina, Montesinos, Valdivia-Salas, Ori, Lappalainen, Kleszcz, Gloster, Karekla and Kassianos.)

Objectives: Teachers' stress can affect their occupational health and negatively impact classroom climate and students' well-being. This study aims to evaluate the proximal and distal effects of a mindfulness-based program, specially developed to promote teachers' social-emotional competencies (SEC), across teachers, classroom climates, and students' outcomes., Methods: The study followed a randomized trial design with two data collection points (pretest and posttest). Participants in the experimental group (EG) included 123 elementary school teachers, their 1503 students, and these students' parents (1494), while the control group (CG) comprised 105 elementary school teachers, their 947 students, and these students' parents (913). A mixed data collection strategy was used that included teachers' and students' (self-) report, observational ratings of teachers' classroom behaviors, and parents' reports on students., Results: After the intervention, EG teachers, compared to CG teachers, reported a significant increase in mindfulness and emotional regulation competencies, self-efficacy, and well-being and a decrease in burnout symptoms. Similarly, a significant improvement was found in EG teachers' classroom behaviors related to students' engagement. Additionally, significant improvements were also found in EG students' perceptions of the quality of their teachers' involvement in classroom relationships, self-reported effect, and social competencies perceived by their parents., Conclusions: These findings further the knowledge on the role played by mindfulness-based SEC interventions in reducing teachers' burnout symptoms and cultivating their SEC and well-being, in promoting a nurturing classroom climate and also in promoting the SEC and well-being of students., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-021-01635-3., Competing Interests: Competing InterestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

Sexual distress is a core characteristic of sexual dysfunction; however, little is known about its correlates. In the current study, we aimed to contribute to the understanding of both sexual distress and its positive counterpart, sexual pleasure, by taking a transdiagnostic approach to sexual distress using two types of repetitive negative thinking: worry and rumination. Because sexual activity mostly occurs in a dyadic context, we also looked at the potential mediating effect of co-worry and co-rumination, and we used them as mediators. Our preliminary exploratory quantitative study used a cross-sectional design, with a sample of 206 partnered heterosexual people. We used path analysis with parallel mediation, with structural equation modelling being performed using lavaan designed for R environment. Overall, our results show that repetitive negative thinking is associated with both sexual distress and sexual pleasure, and that neither co-rumination nor co-worry mediates these associations. The exception is the indirect effect of rumination on sexual pleasure that is mediated by co-rumination. These results demonstrate that a transdiagnostic approach to sexual distress is a new field worth exploring, and they contribute to establishing the relevance of a cognitive approach to sexual dysfunction.

Purpose: This study aimed to describe parents' preferences regarding their role in treatment decision-making when a child has cancer and examines whether their preferences were related to parents sociodemographic characteristics (sex and education level), patients' characteristics (age group and treatment status), and healthcare context features (parents' perception of family-centered care)., Methods: Two hundred and twenty-eight parents of children/adolescents with cancer were recruited from two Portuguese pediatric oncology wards. Participants provided sociodemographic and clinical information. The Control Preferences Scale for Pediatrics was used to assess the parents' preferred role in treatment decision-making. The Measure of Process of Care assessed the parents' perception of family-centered care (family-centered services and providing general information subscales)., Results: Results showed that parents preferred a passive-collaborative role (45.2%), followed by collaborative (27.2%), passive (21.0%), and active-collaborative (6.6%). None preferred an active role. Chi-square test showed that the group of parents preferring a passive role had a lower proportion of more-educated parents, compared to those preferring active-collaborative or collaborative roles. Additionally, groups did not proportionally differ according to the parents' sex, patients' age, and treatment status. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that parents preferring an active-collaborative role reported lower mean scores on family-centered services compared to those preferring passive-collaborative and passive roles. Finally, no significant differences were found concerning providing general information., Conclusions: This study's findings may guide professionals in identifying parents' preferences regarding their participation in treatment decision-making process. Mapping their preferences may support professionals in promoting desirable levels of parental involvement in decisions in pediatric oncology context.

Objective: To investigate the effects of using an intra-oral camera (IOC) during a dental hygiene consultation and mobile text messages (TM) between appointments on clinical, behavioural and psychological parameters of patients with gingivitis., Materials and Methods: Patients were randomly assigned into four conditions: IOC, TM, IOC + TM and control, and examined at three assessment points over eight months (N = 142). Bleeding on marginal probing (BOMP), dental hygiene (brushing and flossing) and social cognitive determinants of behaviour change (outcome expectancies, action and volitional self-efficacy, intention, planning and action control) were evaluated in an examiner-blind controlled study. Mixed-effects modelling was employed to examine changes in study outcomes. Mediations by the psychological determinants were inspected for the effect on treatment groups in clinical parameters and behaviour., Results: Compared to the control group, all treatment conditions improved dental hygiene and revealed a significant decrease in BOMP from baseline to 4 months, maintained at 8 months; this was clinically relevant in the IOC + TM group, where individuals had more positive outcome expectancies as well as higher levels of action self-efficacy and intention from baseline to four months, maintained at eight months. Volitional self-efficacy was reinforced in all treatments. The psychological determinants did not prove to be the mechanisms responsible for these effects., Conclusions: A multiple-strategy benefit from using the IOC in consultation and TM between appointments improves clinical, behavioural and psychological parameters of periodontal health four months after treatment, maintained at eight months' follow-up. Insights are provided for the efficacy of the images and text messages for oral hygiene changes., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a core symptom of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia but are also reported in 10-15% of the general population. Impairments in self-voice recognition are frequently reported in schizophrenia and associated with the severity of AVH, particularly when the self-voice has a negative quality. However, whether self-voice processing is also affected in nonclinical voice hearers remains to be specified. Methods: Thirty-five nonclinical participants varying in hallucination predisposition based on the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale, listened to prerecorded words and vocalisations differing in identity (self/other) and emotional quality. In Experiment 1, participants indicated whether words were spoken in their own voice, another voice, or whether they were unsure (recognition task). They were also asked whether pairs of words/vocalisations were uttered by the same or by a different speaker (discrimination task). In Experiment 2, participants judged the emotional quality of the words/vocalisations. Results: In Experiment 1, hallucination predisposition affected voice discrimination and recognition, irrespective of stimulus valence. Hallucination predisposition did not affect the evaluation of the emotional valence of words/vocalisations (Experiment 2). Conclusions: These findings suggest that nonclinical participants with high HP experience altered voice identity processing, whereas HP does not affect the perception of vocal emotion. Specific alterations in self-voice perception in clinical and nonclinical voice hearers may establish a core feature of the psychosis continuum.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot study of a parental school-based intervention to promote healthy eating behaviours in young children., Design: A quasi-experimental longitudinal design with three conditions (complete intervention (CIG), minimal intervention (MIG), control (CG)), with repeated measures at baseline, immediately after the intervention, 6 months and 1 year after intervention., Setting: Fourteen public and state-funded kindergartens near Lisbon, Portugal., Subjects: Parents (n 349) of 3- to 6-year-old children assigned to the three conditions completed the baseline protocol. The 'Red Apple' intervention included four parental group sessions about young children's growth, nutritional guidelines and positive parental feeding strategies, which was combined with adult-child activities at home and in the classroom, and newsletters (CIG). MIG included only a single nutritional counselling session, whereas the CG had no intervention. At the end, thirty-eight, twenty-six and fifty-four parents in the CIG, MIG and CG, respectively, had completed all evaluation components. Data regarding parental perception of children's weight, self-efficacy, nutritional knowledge, feeding strategies, eating behaviours and BMI were collected at the four assessment moments., Results: The CIG showed improvements in children's healthy food intake, compared with the MIG and CG. Parental self-efficacy regarding the regulation of children's eating behaviours decreased in the CG but not in both intervention groups., Conclusions: Considering the low dosage of the intervention, the results obtained were positive. Future studies should offer additional solutions to overcome barriers to parents' participation.

The nature of the turnover process calls for the study of more complex relationships among variables beyond simple bivariate or multiple associations between predictors and turnover intentions. The present article aims to examine the predictive value of job demands and resources in the explanation of nurses' intention to leave the organization and to test the mediating roles of professional burnout and engagement in these relationships, within a Portuguese nursing population. The research models were tested within the scope of the Registered Nurse Forecasting project. Data included the self-report questionnaires of 2,235 Portuguese nurses from 31 hospitals, collected through stratified random sampling procedures. The statistical analyses of the structural models showed that nurses' participation in hospital affairs, a job resource at the work organization level, was the only significant predictor of nurses´ intention to leave the organization (β = -.45, p < .001). Analyses of the mediation models revealed that the emotional exhaustion symptoms of burnout (β = -.11, p < .001) and job engagement feelings (β = -.15, p < .001) were both significant mediators between nurses' decisional involvement and their intentions to leave the organization. Results suggest that including nurses in decision-making processes regarding their professional practice policy and environment, and improving nurses' professional well-being are two crucial strategies to reduce nurses' turnover intentions.

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Beliefs About Appearance Scale (BAAS) in terms of its factorial structure and invariance, reliability, and validity when applied to adults from the community., Methods: Participants consisted of 810 heterosexual Portuguese individuals in a committed relationship. As a confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original structure of the BAAS, an exploratory factor analysis was performed., Results: A 12-item version was extracted comprising two dimensions: one personal and the other social. The factorial model depicting this bidimensional structure revealed an adequate fit following confirmatory factor analysis. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated invariance across gender. Concurrent and discriminant validities and internal consistency were estimated and observed to be adequate., Conclusions: This shorter measure of the BAAS can accurately assess body appearance beliefs and may be used in different research settings and contexts.

This study examined the role of theoretically meaningful mediators of therapeutic change-interpretation bias, perceived control, and coping strategies-in a cognitive-behavioral intervention for anxious youth. This is one of the few studies that examined the change in potential mediator and outcome variables by means of a longitudinal design that included four assessment points: pretreatment, in-treatment, post-treatment, and at 4-months follow-up. Forty-seven 8- to 12-year-old children with a principal DSM-IV diagnosis of anxiety disorder participated in the study. On each assessment point, questionnaires assessing the mediator variables and a standardized anxiety scale were administered to the children. The results showed that perceived control and interpretation bias (but not coping strategies) accounted for a significant proportion in the variability of various types of anxiety symptoms, providing a preliminary support for the notion that these cognitive dimensions' act as mechanisms of therapeutic change in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious children.

This study analyzed the influence of perceived time pressure, role clarity, working conditions and peer social support on the personal well-being (subjective, psychological and social well-being) of higher education students, in a sample of 128 Portuguese students from the University of Lisbon. A model was proposed which predicts a negative influence of time pressure and a positive influence of role clarity, working conditions and peer social support on students' personal well-being, throughout the academic year. Data was collected by means of a longitudinal design, at the beginning and end of the academic year, through self-report questionnaires. Structural equation models were used to analyze cross-sectional and cross-lagged relations among the variables. At cross-sectional level, results revealed a good fit to data (CFI = .928; IFI = .931; RMSEA = .060) illustrating that the perception of academic context variables was related to well-being dimensions. At longitudinal level, however, cross-lagged models did not fit so well to the data (CFI = .863; IFI = .869; RMSEA = .058) with both perceptions of time pressure (β = .167; p = .037) and role clarity (β = -.288; p = .031) significantly predicting well-being, but not in the expected direction, encouraging the accomplishment of studies to further a broader understanding of higher education students' well-being and its predictors. Implications for higher education scholars and practitioners and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This study examines social and moral norms towards the intention to comply with hand hygiene among Portuguese medical students from 1st and 6th years (N = 175; 121 from the 1st year, 54 from the 6th year). The study extended the theory of planned behaviour theoretical principles and hypothesised that both subjective and moral norms will be the best predictors of 1st and 6th year medical students' intention to comply with hand hygiene; however, these predictors ability to explain intention variance will change according to medical students' school year. Results indicated that the subjective norm, whose referent focuses on professors, is a relevant predictor of 1st year medical students' intention, while the subjective norm that emphasises the relevance of colleagues predicts the intentions of medical students from the 6th year. In terms of the moral norm, 6th year students' intention is better predicted by a norm that interferes with compliance; whereas intentions from 1st year students are better predicted by a norm that favours compliance. Implications of the findings highlight the importance of role models and mentors as key factors in teaching hand hygiene in medical undergraduate curricula.