Summary of the main aims and conclusions:

Central aims:

1. To study the Portuguese version of the Children Chronotype Questionnaire for Children (CCTQ) of Werner, LeBourgeois, Geiger and Jenni (2009) in a national sample of preschool and primary school children, aged 4 to 11 years-old, in order to obtain a reliable and valid instrument to measure diurnal type/chronotype (morningness-eveningness);
2. To study the influence of chronotype (morningness-eveningness), and time of the day, on primary school children’s performance in standardized psychoeducational measures used for assessing reading and writing skills and to inform diagnostic decisions regarding impairment of these skills. That is, we sought to determine whether the congruence versus incongruence between children chronotype and time-of-the-day has an effect on the performance scores of the children tested.

Main general conclusions:

• I part/aim of the project: the Portuguese version of the CCTQ is a reliable and valid questionnaire to estimate chronotypes and in particular morningnesss-eveningness (diurnal type) in children. Besides, this Portuguese study contribute to the knowledge about children morningness-eveningness, given the large sample size collected and the available data to characterize 9-11 years old pubertal children too (in addition to non-pubertal ones).

• II part/aim of the project: children performance in standardized measures used in psychoeducational assessments of reading/writing competencies/difficulties, and school learning skills, might be affected by time of day depending on their diurnal type. However, our results show that the relationships between diurnal type and time of day are far more complex than the initial simplistic supposition that better performance would be achieved in the optimal time. Therefore, for the moment, no specific recommendation seems to be possible regarding our initial concern on whether test norms should take into account children diurnal type. In reality, non-optimal times might eventually favour performances in specific tasks.

Our results suggest that studies concerned with synchrony effects should anticipate asynchrony findings, and should consider also the nature of the tasks, as the combined effects of diurnal type and time of day seem to be highly variable depending on specific cognitive processes and demands involved. In conclusion, our results in school children raised new research questions and hypothesis that deserve further investigation.

https://www.fct.pt/apoios/projectos/consulta/vglobal_projecto.phtml.en?idProjecto=120003&idElemConcurso=4236

The competitive context that characterizes modern Western societies and the requirement for performance / goals of excellence are considered crucial factors in the explanation of psychopathology in adolescence, particularly eating psychopathology among young women.

This project’s main goal is to develop, apply and test an innovative intervention program for female adolescents that integrates components of different 3rd generation psychotherapeutic approaches based on acceptance and compassion, which have shown promising results. The intervention aims to reduce maladaptive processes / patterns (social comparison, self-criticism, competition and / or avoidance) and to promote the development of adaptive processes (self-compassion and self-acceptance). Additionally, a longitudinal study will clarify the impact of the modification of these mechanisms on different psychopathological indicators, especially regarding body image and eating-related behaviours.

This work constitutes a new approach to adolescence, as a phase of particular opportunities for the development of a compassionate mentality and of affiliative skills, known as promotors of psychosocial well-being.

The main aims of this project were to identify a risk profile for the development of depression in adolescence, comprising genetic factors, and to study the efficacy of an intervention that included a program for adolescents (adapted from the Mind and Health program by Arnarson & Craighead, 2009, 2011) and an innovative parenting program with components of 3rd wave cognitive-behavioral intervention, developed by Pinheiro & Matos, 2013). Intervention manuals for adolescents and parents and assessment tools (e.g., diagnostic interviews – Kiddie-Sads, ALife and CDRS-R, and self-report questionnaires) were translated, adapted and constructed. A follow-up of 2 years was carried out on samples of at-risk and community-based youth. Results of several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of moderation and mediation, including efficacy results, have been published. Outputs of this project continue to be disseminated.

The main aims of this project were to complete follow ups of the program study and to continue analysis and dissemination of data, initiated in the research project PTDC/MHC-PCL/4824/2012.

The main aim of this investigation is to study depression in adolescence in the Portuguese population, identifying context variables and psychological processes that characterize it. Following this preliminary study, a new group intervention protocol is developed and applied to depressed adolescents, randomly placed in the experimental condition and in the control condition (treatment as usual condition). The results of this intervention are further evaluated and monitored every six months, in a two-year follow-up period. This investigation will be an important step in the understanding of Depression, by focusing on an early stage of its development and extending the follow-up for more than a year. It will also have the added value of the construction of a manualized intervention protocol, which will be available to the therapeutic community.

The Department of Psychological Medicine (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Medicine) and the Cognitive and Behavioral Center for Research and Intervention (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) developed a new semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of the psychotic-spectrum. The “Clinical Interview for Psychotic Disorders” (CIPD is used thereafter), based on DSM5 (2013) criteria, is divided in four main sections: 1) Psychosis-spectrum disorders; 2) Mood-related disorders; 3) Substance-related disorders; 4) Co-morbidity and Associated Symptoms. The sections are independent, and individual sections can be used independently (e.g. psychosis-spectrum) to assess change (e.g. after psychopharmacological intervention). The CIPD has two types of scores: a) diagnosis scores (absence/presence of symptoms; total score for symptom severity and frequency – positive and negative symptoms); and extra-diagnosis scores (total score of conviction regarding delusions; total score for empowerment with psychotic symptoms; total score of interference caused by symptoms of all sections; total score for suicide risk – considering psychotic and humor-related symptoms, past and present). The CIPD also have a total score for severity of psychotic illness (considering the different contributions of different symptoms to the diagnosis and a score for treatment adherence. This score can be useful in assessing overall change due to treatment. The CIPD has two types of raters – there are clinician-rated questions and patient-rated questions. The CIPD has already been submitted to an expert panel evaluation in order to assess: the relevance of the items and the clarity of language (for the specific population. Results from the panel highlight the adequacy and clinical pertinence of the CIPD. This Project aims at studying the psychometric properties of the CIPD in a sample of patients with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder.

Objectives and Hypothesis:

1. Primary

• Specific objective: Validating the CIPD in a clinical Portuguese population with a diagnosis of a psychotic-spectrum disorder (DSM-5).
• Hypothesis:

1.1. The CIPD will have high inter-rater agreement;

1.2. The CIPD will have sensitivity and specificity – the ability to detect differences in different psychotic diagnostic categories and ability to correctly identify the diagnosis.

2. Secondary

• Hypothesis:

2.1. Specific sections of the CIPD (e.g. psychotic symptoms) will have good convergent and divergent validity;

2.2. Quantitative ratings will fit acceptably to factorial models.

3. Other

• Hypothesis:

3.1. The CIPD will have predictive validity as evaluated by measuring change after a clinical (e.g. psychotherapeutic) intervention (1 week after the intervention).

3.2. The CIPD will be well accepted by the patients and the interview will not be an aversive moment.

Project that is part of the Psychology of terrorism stream that examined the relationships between national identity, discrimination, paranoia and Islamic Terrorism.

Preliminary study on the feasibility of an online compassionate focused intervention for patients suffering from cancer in the UK.

Schizophrenia is a complex heritable brain disorder, entailing significant costs to healthcare that, by its nature and phenomenology, presents severe social (e.g. family) and psychological consequences(decreased wellbeing, autonomy and life expectancy). The progress in understanding the pathophysiology of schizophrenia points to the integration of genetic and neurobiological methods as an important venue of research. Recent research trends have shifted the focus from ‘fuzzy’ phenotypic descriptions of this heterogeneous disease to the endophenotypic aspects, as a way to empirically study and systematize the underpinnings of schizophrenia. The application of neurobehavioral measures as endophenotypes in studies in schizophrenia is in vogue, particularly the inquiry on the relationship of those variables amongst themselves and their impact on functional outcome. This investigation aims to provide an empirical contribute to the understanding of the endophenotypic aspects involved in schizophrenia in the PIC (Portuguese Island Cohort), proposing new intervention targets and psychosocial approaches for families and patients.

In this project Celia Barreto Carvalho, PhD, is proposing to extend the Portuguese Island Cohort (PIC) study through recontact of families ascertained over the last 20 years. To do this, she is proposing funding from the University of Southern California, through the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort study. In designing the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort study, Michele and Carlos Pato balanced the desirability of careful characterization of phenotype and careful selection of controls, with the major focus on the rapid collection of the subjects for this study and the financial resources available for this project. Further, greater phenotypic characterization will be possible because an inherent element in our design, is that we will clinically follow-up the majority of the subjects and have the ability through consent, to re-contact patients as we define new genomic, environmental, and phenotypic characteristics for future study.

This study propose to extend the Portuguese Island Cohort (PIC) study through the identification and study of new individuals with schizophrenia and parents and siblings of this patients from Azores Islands. To do this, she is proposing funding from the University of Southern California, through the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort study. The budget for this study is tied to productivity. In designing the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort study, Michele and Carlos Pato balanced the desirability of careful characterization of phenotype and careful selection of controls, with the major focus on the rapid collection of the subjects for this study and the financial resources available for this project. Further, greater phenotypic characterization will be possible because an inherent element in our design, is that we will clinically follow-up the majority of the subjects and have the ability, through consent, to re-contact patients as we define new genomic, environmental, and phenotypic characteristics for future study.

Relations between sociocognitive, affective, relational, and situational factors have challenged sex education to increase protective sexual behaviours and to decrease risky sexual behaviours. In this line, the main aim of the present work was to explore relations between personal (knowledge, views and attitudes regarding sexuality and sex education), educational (sex education practices by parents and teachers) and relational (communication and relationship quality with educators and romantic partners) variables, and to integrate these relations in a comprehensive model of youngsters’ protective sexual experiences. The operationalization of the variables under study required the adaptation, development, and validation of several instruments.

This research project includes thirteen empirical studies conducted with three different samples, namely, adolescents (N=1586), parents (N=367) and teachers (N=144). In these studies, a quantitative analysis using descriptive, differential, and correlational approaches prevailed, which allowed the development of a comprehensive path analysis model of adolescents’ protective sexual behaviours.

The studies conducted with the three samples showed that knowledge, attitudes and opinions, although diverse, are generally favourable to sex education in school and in the family. Regarding adolescents, results suggested the importance of communication competencies and strategies with partners, parents, and teachers. Regarding the sex education curriculum, adolescents showed a preference for themes related to sexual pleasure. Additionally, results showed that teachers have more knowledge and less limiting beliefs about sexuality when compared to parents and adolescents. Results also showed divergences between educators and adolescents in the perception of communication strategies about sexuality and sex education: adolescents would like to talk more with their parents and only seldom talk to their teachers, as well as they attribute to both educators higher levels of communication strategies based on manipulation than educators’ self-ratings. In line with these divergences, path analysis showed that the use of communication strategies based on manipulation by teachers has a negative impact on favourable attitudes about the negotiation of the use of condoms with the sexual partner. In the same line, communication competencies with the romantic partner based on controlling the other and on ambience management, emotional negligence and inattentiveness in the romantic relationship, were also predictors of condom use negotiation. This model also showed that positive attitudes about negotiation of the use of condoms mediated the relation between communication with the romantic partner and with teachers, besides mediating the motivational intention to use a condom in the next sexual encounter. Taken together, communication variables explain 40% of the variance of the negotiation attitude. Motivational intention, in turn, had a positive direct effect on the protective sexual behaviour index, as did the number of years of sex education in school and positive attitudes regarding sexual pleasure related to condom use. Hence, in addition to the indirect effect mediated by the motivational intention to use a condom in the next sexual encounter, positive attitudes regarding sexual pleasure related to condom use have a direct effect on protective sexual behaviour.

In general, results from the empirical studies offer new perspectives regarding the nature of protective sexual behaviours. Favourable attitudes towards sexual pleasure associated with condom use, communication with the sexual partner, negotiation of the use of condom, quality of the interpersonal relationship with the romantic partner, and communication with teachers and years of sex education in school are variables that directly or indirectly interfere with the motivational intention to use condom in the next sexual encounter, as well as with one’s protective sexual behaviour (consistent condom use). This work presents new challenges and provides new support for research and intervention. Implications for the promotion of youngsters’ sexual and reproductive health are presented, as well as recommendations for parents, health technicians and education professionals. Lastly, this work provides guidelines for the development of sex education programs and for the update of health policies and practices directed to the promotion of sexual and reproductive health in adolescents.

This project investigated the role of contextual variables (e.g., early negative experiences, stigmatizing context) and negative emotions and self-evaluations (shame, body image shame, social comparison) on disordered eating symptoms, eating disinhibition and binge eating, and in difficulties in regulating weight, in different populations (adolescents, adult populations, nonclinical and clinical populations, with different weight ranges). This project led to the development of an integrative conceptualization model of the continuum of binge eating symptomatology, and to the development of a pilot ICT-based low intensity intervention for binge eating problems.

This project aims to assess brain circuitry of ED patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with a focus on functional and effective connectivity, and to develop and test the efficacy of a mindfulness, acceptance, and self-compassion based intervention program for ED patients. The integrative approach intervention allows to intervene in reducing important maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as shame, self-criticism, and rumination. The results of this study could significantly contribute to our understanding of brain processes and psychological mechanisms in the development and maintenance of ED.

The project ObesInCrisis aim to develop prospective and comparative studies about changes in families’ behaviour and in environmental infrastructures from 2009 to 2015-16 and to assess their impact in childhood obesity. The outcome of this project will provide clues for the policymakers and authorities of different arenas – health care, social security, education, transportation – and at different levels – local, regional and national – to overcome health risks and help the most vulnerable people.

This research project aims to investigate the changeability of psychopathic traits in young offenders placed in juvenile detention facilities.

First studies include research on a new evolutionary based model, explaining psychopathic traits as an adaptive strategy to cope with harsh rearing life-scenarios. Early toxic experiences (including shame experiences and the lack of warmth and safeness experiences), through the promotion of intense shame feelings later in live and preferred maladaptive shame coping strategies are proposed as the pathways for the development of psychopathic traits. This model will be tested both in community and forensic samples.

A 20-session compassion based therapeutic intervention will be developed to fit these offenders intervention needs. Finally, a randomized control trial will be implemented in order to test for treatment effects across time on psychopathic traits, shame related variables and the development of compassion towards the self and others.

This project will have implications both at a theoretical level (testing for a new model explaining psychopathy in youths; establishing compassion focused therapy as an appropriate treatment within juvenile justice settings), and at a clinical level, offering a new structured psychotherapeutic intervention to be delivered to youths with severe behavioral problems.

Assessment and therapeutic intervention program for the Portuguese Juvenile Justice system (PAIPA) was a partnership between the General Directorship for Rehabilitation and Prison Services of the Portuguese Ministry of Justice, the CINEICC at the University of Coimbra and other governmental agencies (e.g., National Health Services). The main goal was to investigate young offenders mental health intervention needs in youth placed in juvenile detention facilities but also in youth receiving juvenile justice interventions within community based settings. More than 200 randomly selected participants were assessed via a structured clinical interview for children and adolescents (MINI-KID) and brief psychotherapeutic intervention was offered to 20 youth in an exploratory study. This project offered training to psychologists working within the juvenile justice system in innovative psychological interventions to be delivered to those youths. This research project contributed to a greater attention to young offenders’ mental health treatment needs.

The GPS – Growing Pro-Social, is a group based prevention and rehabilitation program for individuals with anti-social behavior. The main goal of the GPS is to reduce the prominence of dysfunctional information processing structures, promoting a more functional processing of social information, with the consequent adjustment of emotional, motivational and behavioural patterns. To achieve this effect, the program is made of 40 sessions, organized into five modules: Communication Process, Interpersonal Behaviour, Thinking Errors (cognitive distortions), Emotions Meaning and Function, and Life Traps (Early Maladaptive Schemas).The main goal of this research project was to study the efficacy of the GPS in the reduction of anti-social behaviour and cognitive and emotional correlates, in two different samples: adolescents under a corrective educational measure and adult prison inmates. In both samples, the experimental group was compared with a control group (TAU, Treatment As Usual in forensic settings). Finally, it was expected that desired changes after program completion should be maintained over time (6 months follow up measurement). Outcome research has been published in recent years and findings are still being disseminated. This Project offered support for the use of GPS as a cognitive-behavioral rehabilitation program in the Portuguese Justice System.

Primary Insomnia is the more prevalent sleep disorder both in clinical and community samples. One of the most frequent subtypes is psychophysiological insomnia (PI). The hyperarousal at different levels – biological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral – and the maladaptive conditioning between sleep related stimuli and arousal are two major features of PI. Since this is a disorder which assumes an important role in public health, we performed 4 empirical studies recurring to fMRI: In the first study, we compared neurobiological activation between a group of PI patients (n=5) and a sex- and age-matched control group (n=5) when they were exposed to words concerning to past/present worries, future worries and neutral words; in the second study, we explored the activity of default-mode network (DMN) and other brain resting states in the same groups as study 1; in the third and fourth studies, we repeated both experiments in a clinical group of patients with PI (N=2) after they underwent cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). In general, it was observed that PI patients exhibited a generalized pattern of hyperarousal in several brain areas associated with DMN when they were confronted with affective stimuli and when they were resting in the fMRI scanner. In terms of activation of brain resting networks, we observed that the clinical group presented significant dysfunctions. After CBT-I, it was detected that the dysfunctional indicators observed in previous studies normalize, approaching the activation patterns typical of healthy individuals. The obtained results enhance the idea that the hyperarousal in PI is present during the 24-hours of the day; besides, the key role that cognitive arousal may be in the etiology and therapy of insomnia is also highlighted. In conclusion, this work contributes to a better understanding of neurobiology of insomnia and suggests that it might be possible to identify neural mechanisms underlying modifications accounted by CBT-I.

http://hdl.handle.net/10773/16787

Psychopathy (i.e. the combination of grandiose-manipulative, callous-unemotional, and impulsive-irresponsible traits) is a condition highly associated with antisocial behavior and considered difficult to treat. However, few studies tested the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions specifically designed to treat young offenders with psychopathic traits. This research aims to: study psychopathic traits within an evolutionary framework; develop and test the efficacy of an individualized psychotherapeutic program based on Compassion Focused Therapy (20 sessions).

Literature indicates borderline personality disturbance (ppb) as a very severe disturbance and with serious characteristics like impulsivity, instability, emotional damage and self-damage. These characteristics have developed through time and can be identified soon in adolescence. The early signing of these difficulties is the first step in the prevention of development and / or escalation of these features for a personality disorder. In this sense, this study proposes to evaluate and adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 years, for two years, contributing to the understanding of patoplasty and maintenance of the pbp, allowing to find guidelines for the design of psychotherapeutic interventions in the prevention and future empirical studies.

This dissertation describes three studies that were conducted in order to analyze the relationship between morning-evening types in interaction with the time-of-day performance in school-age children. Using a double-blind experimental design Morning [MT] and Evening [ET] Types children classified according to the Children Chronotype Questionnaire (CCQT) were tested in randomly assigned at different times-of-day, and completed a battery of tests related to basic learning skills (BPE, BAPAE, ALEPE). Significant results (p<.05) show that: (i) the “synchrony effect” may be a simplistic hypothesis, i.e., depending on the type of cognitive task involved, MT and ET performance may benefit not only from optimal – synchrony effect, but also from its non-optimal moments – asynchrony effect; (ii) M-E Types performance not only varies throughout the time-of-day, but also, it seems to vary throughout the day-of-week; (iii) in young children Eveningness seems to be associated with better cognitive abilities performed, and Morningness seems to be associated with better academic achievement; (iv) better performances are not necessarily associated to early hours of the school day; (v) Tuesday and Thursday may be an optimal day and Friday a non-optimal day for the school performance. Replication studies are now needed.

This PhD project had two main aims: a) to prospectively analyse the impact of emotion regulation processes (e.g., experiential avoidance/acceptance, cognitive fusion) on physical and mental health outcomes in patients with chronic health conditions (e.g., inflammatory bowel disease; cancer); b) and to develop, apply, and assess the efficacy of an acceptance, mindfulness, and compassion-based psychotherapeutic intervention for cancer patients – the MIND programme.

Throughout the years, psychotherapy research has tried to understand how psychological change occurs and which mechanisms are involved in this process, but there are still many questions with no answer about how psychotherapy works. The assimilation model proposes that therapeutic change occurs trough the gradual assimilation of problematic experiences/voices in the self. Several empirical studies have found an association between assimilation and good outcome. However, more empirical evidence is needed to validate this assumption. This project aims to respond to this need by analyzing 1) whether there is a predictive relationship between assimilation and clinical symptomatology and the direction of this prediction. 2) What is the relationship between assimilation and emotional valence 3) What is the role of instability in assimilation in the decrease of clinical symptoms and in the assimilation progression throughout therapy.   

This project examined whether adding compassionate mind training-based online video exercises in a commercial weight-management programme improved psychological and behavioural outcomes, compared to the regular programme, in a large sample of overweight and obese women.

The main research interest focus on the analysis of mediational effects of emotional regulation processes, specifically cognitive fusion, rumination, acceptance, self-compassion and mindfulness, using advanced statistical methods to data analysis. Indeed, the research aim to identify and, to deep understand, trans-diagnostic relationship processes that may enhance psychological adjustment and psychopathology (e.g., anxiety, depression, stress) taking into account temperamental traits and adverse family environments. This research is based in several clinical conditions both mental and physical health groups, such as chronic pain, diabetes, hypertension, oncologic disease, obesity, depression, anxiety, gastrointestinal disease, involving more than 1200 individuals.

The research intends to develop a structured group intervention program for caregivers of patients with mood disorders, based on mindfulness and compassion.  The key objective is the development of adaptive emotional regulation skills, which can be alternatives to maladjusted processes that generate suffering to the caregiver and are reflected in the health status of the patient with mood pathology. At this moment the program is under construction and development.

BEfree is the first program integrating psychoeducation, mindfulness, and compassion-based components for treating women with binge eating and obesity. Research has provided evidence of the acceptability and effectiveness of BEfree program to diminishing binge eating, eating psychopathology and depression, and increasing quality of life in women with Obesity, with results maintained up to 6-month post-intervention.

http://www.uc.pt/en/fpce/research/CINEICC/interventionprograms/BEfree

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental disorder characterized by episodes of mania/hypomania and depression. Compared to the general population, these individuals present functional impairment, higher mood instability and suicide rates and lower quality of life. This study aims to explore evolutionary variables and their contribution to reframe conceptualization and treatment of BD; explore emotional memories and coping mechanisms and their influence in bipolar symptoms; and assess contextual behavioral therapies (DBT skills training, MBCT) efficiency in BD.

Given the absence of evidence-based programs of competences promotion for caregivers of young people in residential care, this research aims to improve the quality of care, through a Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) intervention aimed at caregivers. The promotion of an affiliative mentality of caring, warmth and affection in the residential care setting is operationalized in the development of compassionate caring skills, being this project an innovative approach for the creation of therapeutic environments, as recommended by the Portuguese law and international guidelines. The presented clinical trial aim to evaluate the results and impact of the CMT program on the quality of caregivers’ care processes and practices, helping to broaden the scientific knowledge of the compassionate approach to the Residential Care setting and to provide a new model and intervention tool for the Residential Care.

This research project aims to develop, implement and assess the efficacy of a compassion and mindfulness based intervention program: the Be Compassionately Aware (BeCA), in promoting mental and physical well-being in individuals from the general population, pregnant women and corporative staff; investigate the genetic sensitivity to and physiological correlates of shame and shame experiences; test the impact of the BeCA on epigenetic mechanisms and physiological stress responses to psychosocial stress; and examine mediator and moderator processes of change associated with the effectiveness of the BeCA.

This research project aimed at developing a protocol for a relatively brief (two weeks) Compassion Mind Training (CMT) intervention that provided psycho-educational materials and audio CMT exercises. This study aimed to test this CMT intervention in a randomized controlled trial exploring its impact on self-report variables including compassion, fears of compassion, shame, self-criticism, self-reassurance, types of positive affect, and depression, anxiety and stress. In addition, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of this CMT intervention on Heart Rate Variability. This study also explored indicators of practice quality of the brief CMT intervention and their impact on the development of an inner sense of one’s compassionate self and a range of self-report measures. Finally, this study examined the processes of change that mediate the impact of the CMT intervention on self-evaluative processes, and negative and positive affect.

Projet’Ar-te is a structured psychosocial and socioeducational intervention, aimed at young people in residential care. It aims to promote the autonomy of young people, during and after the residential care. Organized on a multilevel model, it articulates a program for the promotion of emotional regulation (Level I), a personal and social skills program (Level II) and an innovative support and accompaniment follow-up structure (Level III).

Disordered body and eating attitudes and behaviours, widespread among Western societies’ females, are known to entail severe consequences on well-being and health. These attitudes and behaviours are highly prevalent in female adolescents, and seem to emerge from a critical relationship with one’s own appearance and as a body-concealing behaviour, which may induce the onset of clinically significant eating disorders.

A balanced, caring and protective relationship with body image may be understood as emerging from a self-accepting and compassionate attitude. The main aim of this study is to develop and test the effectiveness of a programme for the promotion of psychological flexibility and compassion (“#KindGirlsInACTion”), in the adoption of protective attitudes towards the body and in well-being levels, in teenage girls. This innovative integration of third generation models (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy) may constitute an important contribution for the comprehension and prevention of eating psychopathology in adolescent girls.

The present project aims:

(1) To contribute to the development and validation of adequate assessment tools through the development and validation of a clinical interview for psychotic disorders based on the recovery model (Clinical Interview for Psychotic Disorders – CIPD); and the development and/or validation of self-report measures (Voices Acceptance and Action Scale; Delusions Scale and the Anti-Psychotic Medication Adherence Scale);

(2) To extend the understanding on processes underlying the development and maintenance of psychotic symptoms and their impact (e.g. fears of compassion, mindfulness, positive affect);

(3) To develop, implement and evaluate a new compassion-based group intervention for people with early psychosis – the Compassionate Approach to Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder (COMPASS).

The number of new cases of cancer in Azores and the transfer of oncological patients to mainland Portugal for specialized treatment raise concerns about psychological adaptation and suitable support care. Further studies regarding the lack of support interventions available to meet the needs of azorean oncological patients and survivors are required. The main objectives of this study are: 1) to evaluate psychosocial needs and other psychological adaptation variables among adult oncological survivors from the Azores; and 2), ensuing from objective 1), to develop a pilot study to test a model of support with a group of oncological patients from the Azores. Two studies will be performed. The first deals with objective 1) as described. Based on results obtained, a randomized control trial assessment, will be run to test a support model based on the Patient Advocacy Movement with oncological patients. The assessment protocol will be administrated three times: before and after the model´s implementation and, again, as a follow-up. Results should enhance knowlegde of assessing psychological adaptation variables involved in disease trajectory while testing a support model addressing this study major concerns. These, as suggested, relate to lack of support interventions to meet the psychosocial needs of oncological patients and survivors from the Azores. Given the peculiar experience of azorean oncological patients’, while away from their homes, there is a need to ensure adequate health care services on their behalf. Hence, the importance of devising ways to monitor their psychosocial needs in order to overcome some of these constraints.

The DIYbetes project developed a mobile application to be used by patients with type 2 diabetes for personal and personalized management of the disease. The goal of this solution was to serve as a ‘personal digital mentor’ in disease management by providing personalized and on-demand information, advice and recommendations using biometric information (activity, eating, mood, etc.) to adjust the feedback provided to the patient.

This study aims to develop and test the efficacy of a brief lifestyle modification program (i.e., 6 sessions) for the modification of cardiovascular risk factors and the maintenance of therapeutic improvements over time (i.e., 24 months follow-up), through the promotion of psychological flexibility and self-compassion skills.

The behavioral expression of relational aggression has been associated to the fear of negative evaluation, bringing out severe consequences to the intra and interpersonal functioning. However, the distinction between this scenario in relation to typical social anxiety, proactive aggressive behavior, and normal population, is still unclear. Likewise, the intervention programs for fear of negative evaluation may not be prepared to adequately responding to the needs of this specific group. The current research intends to fulfill this theoretical and practical gap. Firstly, by an inter-group design, adolescents will be differentiated based on reactive relational aggression and fear of negative evaluation, in relation to their cognition, emotion, behavior, socialization, and mental health. Secondly, an intervention protocol will be developed and then implemented, as well as its efficacy investigated towards this relationally aggressive and fearful adolescents. We hope to contribute to the understanding and therapeutic support provided to this uncharacteristic group, which is, because of that, neglected.

We propose to compare the therapeutic efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion focused therapy, and of single behavior and cognitive therapy. Individual change in diagnostic criteria and self-report scores, along with mean group level change in self and other-reported symptomatology will be considered for each intervention in comparison with a control group, between multi-component interventions and between single-component interventions. All interventions are expected to decrease social fears and other associated variables, at post intervention and up to six months. Mediators of change (i.e., which variables mediate change in each specific intervention, and across time) will also be explored, as well as moderators of change (i.e., participants’ markers that may be relevant to the outcomes). Results will provide evidence on which form of intervention may be the optimal choice in general, leading to particular change processes which in turn target specific vulnerabilities associated to social fears.

The main goal of this Project consists in investigating how the narration imposes, by its rhetoric morphogenesis of self-coherence, both order and loss on lived experience. Thus, we propose a return of the hermeneutics of the self to the phenomenology of sensation, memory, imagination and symbolic experience, asking:

1. What is the temporal geometry of events and feelings? How do random, discontinuous, multilinear and multidirectional events become the matter of biographical experience and expression? How do pathos and trauma, be it psychological or historical, (un)form time, consciousness, and narrative?
2. What is the relationship between the sensorial layer of life, the autobiographical memory system and the narrative constructions? What is the degree of poiesis and mimesis in biographical writing? How does the Diltheyean triad Life-Expression-Understanding function?
3. What is the relationship between memory, imagination and language in biography? Is memory essentially a subsystem of one’s imagination and will to meaning? And is imagination the subjective appropriation of the imaginary metanarratives of a semiotic community (codified e.g. in mythic-theological discourse)?
4. What is the intentionality of a life history/story? Who are its writer, narrator, and actor? What is the relationship between life, art and truth? Is there truth in an ethical and aesthetic Self? What is narrative, historical, hermeneutical and performative truth?
5. What is the ethical and political meaning of the Narrative Self? Does moral personality lie in narrative competence? Does responsibility consist in narratability? Does struggle for recognition translate into psychosocial internarrative conflict (being unnarratable experience confined in an apolitical and amoral realm)?

Methodologically, the integrated analysis of Biographical Selfhood should become a crossdisciplinary space shared by an international, interdisciplinary network of approx. 30 scholars from Philosophy, Literary Studies and Social Sciences (besides other collaborators and graduate students). Departing from a common set of issues and sharing the same philosophical references, the researchers—most of them already in collaboration before this project—will explore with multiple perspectives the limits and virtues of the narrative paradigm of subjectivity, promoting research seminars at various institutions in constant exchange (CFUL, EHESS, UFRJ, ULaval, UCLouvain, UParis3, UParis4, USP). The Seminars will be coordinated and integrated to fulfill joint research tasks requiring the implementation of a collective process of co-reading/writing, which leads to joint publications and organization of regular plenary meetings and conferences. Philosophy will offer analytical devices and formulate the theoretical hypotheses to be tested in the empirical laboratories of Literature and Social Sciences.

We carried out a comprehensive study of the way as several contextual, cognitive and motivational variables combine to predict differentiated trajectories of career decision-making and adjustment in adolescents who are making the transition from high school to higher education/job market. With this purpose in mind, we developed and tested an integrative conceptual model, which includes constructs obtained from motivational, social cognitive and clinical models. The study presented has a longitudinal research design with two measurement waves: the first was carried out in the first term of the 2012-2013 school year and a second in the third term of the 2013-2014 school year. In this study participated 12th grade students enrolled in Portuguese secondary schools. Students were assessed in several constructs, including perceived parenting, psychological needs, career self-efficacy beliefs, dysfunctional schematic functioning, career exploration and commitment-making processes, regulation of career commitments and psychological well/ill-being. Findings suggest that experiences of parental need-support seem to associate to the adolescents´ feelings of higher need satisfaction and to an increased self-confidence in career decision-making, what, in turn, leads to the proactive exploration of career options, to more self-determined career choices and to feelings of higher well-being. On the other hand, they suggest that active parental need-thwarting experiences associate to the adolescents´ to an increase in feelings of psychological need frustration, which, in turn, lead to exploration and career choice processes based on dysfunctional schematic functioning, namely to ruminative exploration an exploration of career options, controlled choices and to the experience of higher ill-being. Overall, these associations seem to indicate the existence of substantively distinct pathways of career identity development and adjustment, one essentially self-determined and adaptive, and a second one more controlled and dysfunctional. This argument, despite somehow speculative, extends the SDT-based distinction between bright” and “dark” pathways of development, to the field of career development. It also suggests the need to differentiate career interventions of a promotional and remediate nature, in function of the degree of self-determination that is associated to the processes of exploration and commitment-making. We hope that with this research we have inspired the development of more integrated career interventions focused on building more self-determined psychological processes.

Adolescence has been described as an important developmental stage in the acquisition of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Evolutionary psychology models propose the threat, drive and soothing systems as the major regulators of emotion, allowing the individual/species to survive. Heart Rate (HR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) have been described as specific and accurate psychophysiological biomarkers of emotion regulation patterns. Moreover, individuals with high HRV show a more adjusted pattern of emotion regulation than individuals with low HRV (young offenders). This project intends to develop and validate audio scenarios, able to activate the three different emotion regulation systems and explore gender differences in HR/HRV patterns between community adolescents, as well as to test differences between male young offenders and community male adolescents. HR/HRV will also be explored as a psychotherapeutic physiological outcome measure of Compassion Focused Therapy for the forensic sample in an RCT.

Childhood has been acknowledged by specialized literature as central period in vocational development, a process that begins at this stage and goes throughout the entire life of the individual. Several authors argue that in early childhood there are processes that influence the individuals’ perception of vocational aspirations that are more appropriate or desirable, which can lead to early decisions that may affect future educational and occupational choices to be made later. Despite the importance of childhood, acknowledged by many, most of the research in the vocational context still focuses on studies with adolescents and adults, which has led many authors (national and international) to warn about the need to develop studies focusing on this age group, as many statements about it have been mostly inferred rather than studied. With this study we sought to deepen the knowledge regarding vocational aspirations of elementary and middle school children, using a longitudinal methodology, which allows to obtain data resulting from intra-individual differences, thus facilitating the understanding of the importance of aspects such as gender and socioeconomic status in the formation of vocational aspirations and in the early elimination of occupational aims. We also analysed the educational aspirations, as well as the interests and perceived competencies of children, and their perceptions of support from significant figures who have an influence on their vocational development, such as parents and teachers. This study presents data from 498 participants, spread across three cohorts and evaluated over three school years, starting when the children were attending the 2nd, 4th and 6th grades, corresponding the last moment of evaluation to the frequency of 4th, 6th and 8th grades, respectively. Some of the instruments used in this research were translated and adapted to Portuguese language, and data from their validation is presented.  The results obtained derive from the application of the Portuguese versions of the Inventory of Children’s Activities- Revised (ICA-R), the Career Choices Questionnaire (CCQ), the Teacher Support Scale (TSS), and the adaptation of the Parental Support Behaviors during Childhood scale. The results obtained from this investigation indicate that the majority of participants state that they have vocational goals, and these aspirations are fairly stable over the duration of this study. There are differences between boys and girls in relation to their vocational aspirations, as well as in relation to but also in their interests and competence perceptions. The socioeconomic status has also generated differences in the results, particularly in the educational aspirations of the participants. Parents and teachers are perceived as facilitators who support the vocational development of children. From the conclusions of this study, we drew implications for the implementation of educational practices and interventions that are able to facilitate healthy educational and occupational trajectories.

The COMP.ACT project aims at developing and testing the efficacy of an acceptance- and compassion-based group intervention for chronic pain, as well as to track the mechanisms of therapeutic change.

The thesis main aims were to explore the psychometric properties of two mindfulness measures; explore longitudinally the mediator role of dispositional mindfulness in negative emotional states of undergraduate students; compare the emotional impact of rumination and thought suppression with that of an experimental induction of mindfulness; and, as last, explore a pilot mindfulness-based program adapted for test anxiety in university students.

The individuals’ subjective notions about time represent a vast and relevant topic with strong implications not only for the understanding of human behaviour, but also because they function as the backbone for critical cognitive processes and permeate the objects’ perceptive process. Among these very unique and individual notions there is one that has gained tremendous prominence in recent decades and it is called Time Perspective. This construct has been considered for many years as a keystone in the motivational domain, more specifically in the school context, mainly through its future frame or Future Time Perspective. Recent theoretical and empirical developments have also demonstrated the importance of Time Perspective in a wide array of behaviours and cognitions. Yet, although empirically validated by several authors, in different countries and with different methodologies, there is still a lack of information about which external influences affect the stability of Time Perspective as a cognitive-motivational process. In this project, the factor structure of Time Perspective was addressed, with the development of an integrative model of Time Perspective, which combines Zimbardo & Boyd’s (1999) 5-dimension model, the Transcendental Future (Boyd & Zimbardo, 1997) and the notion indirectly referred to by Lewin (1965) of Future Negative. This model’s predictive and conceptual validity was tested through a series of studies using Structural Equation Modelling, in which Time Perspective appears as an important predictor of several well-known psychological traits such as Consideration of Future Consequences, Hope and Self-Esteem.  The issue of Time Perspective stability as also addressed, via a short-term longitudinal study analyzing the differences observed in Time Perspective after a one-year time period. The obtained results suggest that context has little or no effect on Time Perspective, since no strong differences were found between the assessments in the college and the home context. Regarding the temporal stability of Time Perspective, the results allow us to consider that in a one-year period Time Perspective is a quite stable construct, since there were no significant differences in any of its dimensions.

Depression will be the second leading cause of disability in 2020, and the leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide by 2030 (WHO, WFMH, 2012). Adding the occurrence of the first depressive episode increases significantly during adolescence, at the age of 15 (Fergusson et al., 2005; Hankin et al., 1998).

The aim of this study was to research the risk and protection factors (R/PF) associated with depressive symptomatology in 1,200 adolescents aged 13 to 16 years old.

The selected bio-psychological R/PF were assessed either cross-sectional and longitudinally – panel studies (3 different moments, at 18 to 24 months in time) to analyze their effects on the variation of depressive symptomatology.

It is expected a slight contribution to the knowledge of preventive psychology through the identification, and structural analysis of cumulative effects of such factors. It might be important to enlighten the decisions related with the selection of the most powerful predictors (cost-effective and time-efficient) to maximize the usefulness of screenings and preventive interventions developmentally adjusted and timely wise.

A violência nas reações de intimidade (VRI) é reconhecida internacionalmente como problema de saúde pública, com graves consequências físicas, psicológicas e relacionais, e impacto socioeconómico. Apesar dos progressos jurídicosociais, traduzidos em intervenções cada vez mais especializadas para agressores e vítimas, não existem modelos psicológicos explicativos da VRI que considerem o papel das variáveis evolucionárias, e que se fundamentem no estudo da díade (agressor/vítima) enquanto casal. A compreensão do ajustamento diádico e dos mecanismos subjacentes à (des)regulação do afeto em sujeitos envolvidos em dinâmicas violentas nas relações de intimidade, que parecem impedir um coping adaptativo em situações de conflito conjugal, é fundamental para o desenvolvimento de estratégias de intervenção adequadas e eficazes. Privilegiando uma abordagem diádica, este estudo pretende analisar como a vergonha, associada à desregulação do afeto, se relaciona com experiências prévias de calor/afeto e segurança, influenciando estratégias disfuncionais de coping com a vergonha e, consequentemente, com o conflito conjugal.

O projeto LIFEwithIBD pretende adaptar para a Doença Intestinal Inflamatória (DII) uma intervenção psicoterapêutica grupal inovadora (Programa MIND para doentes oncológicos). LIFEwithIBD representa a primeira intervenção que incorpora aceitação, mindfulness e compaixão na promoção da regulação emocional na DII, através de i) uma intervenção em grupo presencial e ii) uma intervenção baseada nas tecnologias da comunicação. A eficácia da intervenção grupal na melhoria da qualidade de vida, saúde mental, e dos índices de atividade da doença, será testada numa amostra de pacientes portugueses. O formato ICT deste programa de intervenção será desenvolvido e implementado em Portugal, Reino Unido e Brasil e disseminado pelas associações de doentes de cada país. O principal objetivo deste projeto é promover a eficácia dos cuidados de saúde na DII, através da criação de estratégias inovadoras, sustentáveis e holísticas na oferta de opções de tratamento a estes doentes.

O projeto Compassionate Schools: Development and efficacy study of a compassion based intervention to promote teachers and children’s wellbeing visa desenvolver uma intervenção baseada na compaixão para o contexto escolar destinada a professores e a alunos, e testar a sua aceitabilidade, eficácia e impacto em indicadores fisiológicos de stresse, e investigar os seus mecanismos de mudança, através de estudos randomizados controlados em escolas de Portugal e Inglaterra. Envolve investigadores do Reino Unido (Paul Gilbert, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, College of Health and Social Care Research Centre, University of Derby, School of Sciences, Derby, United Kingdom; Frances Maratos, University of Derby; Mary Welford, Compassionate Mind Foundation), Estados Unidos (Brooke Dodson-Lavelle, Mind & Life Institute), Austrália (James Kirby, Universidade de Queensland) e Portugal (investigadores do CINEICC). Este projeto com duração de três anos é financiado pelo Compassionate Mind Foundation Research Funding (Total: 108.000,00€; Portugal: 54.000,00€). Data de início: maio de 2017.

O projeto de investigação The effects of compassion mind training on well-being, compassion orientation, and physiological and epigenetic correlates of prosociality and stress pretende estudar o impacto de uma intervenção focada na compaixão em indicadores de bem-estar e regulação emocional, em respostas fisiológicos e marcadores epigenéticos de stress e prosociaidade. Este projeto é financiado pelo Compassionate Mind Foundation Research Funding (10.000,00€), e equipa é composta por Paul Gilbert (Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, UK), Robert Kumsta (Department of Genetic Psychology, Research Department of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany), José Pinto-Gouveia (CINEICC), tendo como Instituição de Acolhimento a Universidade de Coimbra (UC)/ Centro de Investigação do Núcleo de Estudos e Intervenção Cognitivo-Comportamental (CINEICC). Data de início: setembro de 2018.

Este projeto visa desenvolver e implementar uma intervenção TIC para a autogestão da dor crónica (DC)

Referência do projeto: T495807423-00033154

Montante financiado: 239.957,56€

Social anxiety in adolescence may develop to a psychopathological expression. Still, there is a lack of empirically validated therapies for social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adolescence that may be applied in schools, where adolescents face most of their (feared) social challenges. This research will evaluate the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral, compassion-focused, and acceptance and commitment therapies, as applied to adolescents’ SAD, in comparison with waiting-listed and non-disordered controls, after intervention and at follow-up. Therapeutic change process and moderators of change underlying different interventions will be investigated. The courses of adolescents’ social anxiety will be studied from a clinical and a normative perspective. Findings will provide evidence on which intervention may be the optimal choice for changing the course of SAD in general, and when dealing with specific vulnerabilities that mediate and moderate therapeutic change in this developmental period.

OBJETIVO PRINCIPAL:

O desenvolvimento turístico em áreas rurais periféricas tem tido pouca atenção e a maioria das comunidades rurais não está preparada para lidar com mudanças estruturais na sua economia. As pessoas que aí vivem trabalham normalmente na agricultura ou na pesca, têm baixa escolaridade e não possuem as competências adequadas para estabelecer relações sinergéticas com turistas e empresas de turismo. É, pois, fundamental capitalizar os pontos fortes dessas comunidades, especialmente no que se refere à relação com recursos naturais, atividades económicas tradicionais, folclore, gastronomia, festividades e rituais. Através destes elementos, o GREAT procurará formas de criar experiências turísticas inovadoras em áreas rurais e criar valor para as comunidades locais, contribuindo para a redução da pobreza e da exclusão social e aumento do emprego. Os objetivos gerais são:

• Avaliar o potencial turístico de zonas periféricas das ilhas dos Açores;
• Compreender como potenciar o desenvolvimento de pequenas zonas periféricas através do turismo;
• Contribuir para a diversificação da oferta e da procura turística nos Açores;
• Fomentar o desenvolvimento de serviços e competências para o turismo em zonas rurais.

ENTIDADE BENEFICIÁRIA: Fundação Gaspar Frutuoso / Universidade dos Açores

CUSTO TOTAL ELEGÍVEL: 177.997,19€

FUNDO EUROPEU DE DESENVOLVIMENTO REGIONAL (FEDER): 148.237,61€

DESCRIÇÃO:

No projeto GREAT, a investigação será especialmente orientada para o desenvolvimento do turismo em áreas periféricas/remotas, como pequenas freguesias e comunidades rurais, que têm sentido menos impactos do turismo na economia local. O objetivo é estudar o seu potencial turístico e formas de originar novos produtos e experiências nas áreas mais remotas das ilhas, especialmente através do Turismo de Natureza e do Turismo Rural (lato sensu).

RESULTADOS:

Os principais resultados a atingir são os seguintes:

• Definição do perfil típico dos turistas que procuram experiências em áreas rurais;
• Revelação do potencial turístico de zonas rurais periféricas específicas dos Açores;
• Identificação de um modelo de empowerment para agricultores e pescadores que facilite a exploração do turismo através das suas atividades profissionais principais (ex.: agroturismo e pesca-turismo);
• Caracterização dos princípios de marketing digital para promoção do turismo rural em áreas periféricas dos Açores;
• Caracterização das necessidades de formação turística de líderes e empreendedores locais em pequenas comunidades periféricas dos Açores.

Adolescence is a critical period for acquiring adaptive emotion regulation strategies and difficulties is this acquisition have been associated with a wide range of mental health problems. The evolutionary perspective proposes the existence of three emotion regulation systems, aimed at survival and thrive: threat system, related with defense/protection; drive system, associated with acquisition of resources/pursuit of pleasure; and soothing system, linked to attachment/safeness. A recent trend in research establishes heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) as important biomarkers of emotional (dys)regulation and there is now evidence that they can grasp the activation of those different emotional regulations systems. When these systems are unbalanced, individuals are prone to develop different forms of psychopathology.

The main goal of this research project is to explore specific patterns of HR/HRV when each specific emotion regulation system is triggered, and to compare those patterns among samples of normative, behaviorally disordered and socially anxious youth. Additionally, an intervention study will test if a compassion based therapy is able to improve emotion regulation (assessed via self-report and psychophysiological measures), in a sample of severely behaviorally disordered youth. Three main studies will be carried out. The first includes the development and validation of audio scripts aimed to trigger each emotion regulation system. These scripts will be validated using expert and youth samples. One scenario for each system will be selected to be used as stimuli for following studies. The second study will test for HR/HRV patterns associated with the activation of different emotion regulation systems, contrasting three youth samples: with no psychiatric disorders, with internalizing problems (i.e., social anxiety disorder), and with externalizing problems (i.e., conduct disorder); gender will be taken as a covariate in these comparisons. The third study will apply a RCT design for testing the impact of a compassion-based psychotherapeutic intervention in promoting emotion regulation in youth with severe behavioral problems (i.e., male young offenders). Follow-up assessments will inform about change maintenance over time.

Findings from these concerted studies will add to knowledge on the relevance of HR/HRV as psychophysiological markers of emotion regulation in both disturbed and non-disturbed youth. They will add to the state-of-the-art research because HR/HRV will be linked to the triggering of different emotion regulation systems. Contrasting different clinical groups will also shed light on the different psychophysiological vulnerabilities underlying diverse manifestations of psychiatric disorders in adolescents. Finally, outcomes from the RCT study will help to establish compassion focused therapy as an appropriate treatment modality in a group of severely disturbed male youth.

O comportamento agressivo, nas suas diferentes formas (i.e., verbal, física ou relacional), tem sido definido como um comportamento que visa causar dano ou dor nos outros. Trata-se de um comportamento cada vez praticado entre adolescentes, contribuindo para o seu desajustamento psicossocial e, consequentemente, para climas escolares hostis. Tais comportamentos, quando não devidamente identificados e intervencionados nas fases mais precoces do seu desenvolvimento, podem culminar em trajetórias de vida antissociais. Nos últimos anos, tem-se verificado que a intervenção para a prevenção e/ou diminuição destes comportamentos em meio escolar não tem sido suficientemente eficaz, talvez por não ser fundamentada em modelos teórico-práticos empiricamente validados e/ou por ser restrita aos adolescentes agressores, descurando o papel da vítima e do observador, nomeadamente o professor.

Este projeto visa desenvolver, implementar e avaliar uma abordagem holística (i.e., incluindo vários intervenientes, nomeadamente agressores, vítimas e observadores) à intervenção no comportamento agressivo em escolas sinalizadas pelo Programa Territórios Educativos de Intervenção Prioritária (TEIP) da região Norte do país. Esta abordagem incluirá dois programas de intervenção em grupo, um para alunos e outro para professores. A eficácia desta abordagem será testada de forma individual (i.e., intervenção apenas com alunos ou apenas com professores) e combinada (i.e., intervenção com alunos e seus professores). Serão estudados os efeitos diferenciais intervenções ao longo de três momentos (i.e., pré- e pós-intervenção e follow-up a três meses), entre si e em relação a um grupo de controlo de alunos com comportamento agressivo. Espera-se que, ao longo do tempo, os grupos alvo de intervenção, sobretudo os de intervenção combinada (i.e., alunos e professores), manifestem uma redução dos padrões interpessoais agressivos e um aumento de padrões interpessoais prossociais e/ou assertivos, comparativamente com os do grupo de controlo (que não serão alvo de intervenção).

Da bolsa de doutorado sanduíche: 88887.363292/2019-00Acolhido pela linha CBCP do CINEICC (FPCE-UC) e pelo NEIC (Núcleo de Estudos e Intervenções em Carreira), da UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)

Test anxiety is a highly prevalent and impairing condition in adolescents, significantly impacting on their mental health and well-being. Despite lack of consensus regarding its nature and features, test anxiety has been linked to social anxiety, shame and self-criticism. Furthermore, it associates to low self-compassion, acceptance and mindfulness, which have been increasingly noted in the literature as fundamental competencies to cope with human suffering in general, and with academic difficulties in particular. However, programs with these components with adolescents are, from our knowledge, nonexistent. This project, therefore, aims to reduce the scientific gap
on test anxiety literature in two ways: building a more comprehensive model of test anxiety; and designing and implementing a group program with adolescent students, developing processes (i.e., compassion, acceptance and mindfulness) that have been proved adaptive and useful in several human difficulties, and that may also help decrease test anxiety, as well as increase general well-being.

Ainda que a despatologização da homossexualidade tenha acontecido há mais de 30 anos, o estigma relativamente às pessoas lésbicas, gays e bissexuais (LGB) prevalece na sociedade atual. São inquestionáveis os desafios acrescidos que as pessoas LGB experienciam devido ao estigma. Os efeitos do estigma na saúde e bem-estar físico e mental destas pessoas estão comprovados, sendo importante que os profissionais de saúde mental tenham uma compreensão mais rigorosa das especificidades desta população e ferramentas de intervenção eficazes devidamente validados. Nesse sentido, este projeto pretende explorar e relacionar variáveis psicológicas e socioculturais de pessoas LGB (e.g. experiências precoces, regulação emocional e stress minoritário) e o seu impacto na saúde mental (psicopatologia e bem-estar). Pretende ainda realizar um estudo piloto de eficácia de uma intervenção baseada na compaixão, adaptada às especificidades destes indivíduos, pretendendo diminuir níveis de psicopatologia, promover uma relação mais saudável consigo próprios e aumentar a satisfação com a vida.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic polysymptomatic condition that significantly restrains the individual’s functioning. The lack of crosstalk between psychological and neurophysiological lines of research has hindered a better understanding/management of fibromyalgia. In an effort to overcome this, we have developed an integrative model, according to which fibromyalgia is rooted in an imbalance between three affect regulation systems: threat, soothing, and drive. As yet, evidence supporting the model is circumstantial in part due to the lack of tools capable of assessing differential activation of these systems. Thus, we aim to develop a new instrument to assess these systems and use it to characterize and contrast fibromyalgia patients with clinical and nonclinical samples. The results will inform the development and evaluation of an integrated psychotherapeutic program, combining complimentary contextual cognitive-behavioural therapies, aimed at rebalancing the affect regulation systems. If proven effective, it will constitute a valuable new resource in fibromyalgia treatment.

Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep complaint with multiple consequences at several levels. Despite the proved efficacy of Cognitive-behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) at diminishing insomnia symptoms and severity, some of its behavioural components have been shown to be of difficult compliance leading to intervention failure. One of the causes for the lack of compliance relates to difficulty in tolerate unpleasant feelings, thoughts and emotions. The third wave CBT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy [ACT] and Compassion Focused Therapy [CFT]) act on psychological and behavioural flexibility, acceptance of unpleasant internal experiences and work on developing a compassionate attitude toward oneself. Considering these aspects, the adaptation of third wave CBT to insomnia treatment appears to be and advantageous new approach; as such, the main objectives of this study are to develop an ACT and compassion based protocol for insomnia treatment and test its efficacy in comparison to CBT-I.

https://www.fpce.uc.pt/covid19study/

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with detrimental effects on physical and mental wellbeing. In fact, the WHO has issued advice on the importance of protecting mental wellbeing during this pandemic. There are reports in the media about increased stress, anxiety and isolation for the entire population, but especially for health professionals and vulnerable groups (e.g. elderly). There is evidence from numerous studies that self-compassion and compassion for others can act as a buffer against mental distress (e.g. depression, anxiety) and promote feelings of social safeness and connectedness. Therefore, this project aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emotion regulation, coping, feelings of social safeness, isolation, traumatic stress, psychopathological symptoms, and post traumatic growth, throughout the pandemic period, in 23 different countries from all around the world. Furthermore, this project explores the longitudinal protective effect of  compassion against the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on these indicators of mental wellbeing, across countries and pandemic waves.

https://escolascompassivas.wixsite.com/cmtescolas

The main aim of COMP-S is to test the impact of a compassion mind training intervention for teachers: Compassionate Mind Training for Teachers (CMT-T) on indicators of mental, physical and professional wellbeing, and biophysiological and epigenetic markers of prosociality and stress.

https://www.fpce.uc.pt/covid19study/

The COVID-19 crisis greatly impacts on the wellbeing of the community and vulnerable groups, including healthcare professionals. This project investigates the protective effect of compassion against the impact of the pandemic on mental health, in the general population and health professionals, across different pandemic phases; and tests the efficacy of an online evidence-based compassion intervention in promoting mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in frontline health professionals.

The SMS (Sucess, Mind and Health) project is a multilevel, longitudinal, and evidence-based intervention designed to prevent depression and promote mental health in adolescents attending the 7th-9th grade.

This project pretends to functionality promote conditions of the mind, indicators of resilience, and the psychological and social well-being of adolescents, which are known to be associated with their success and their school welfare.

This project is designed to study variables related to COVID-19, which can exponentially potentiate emotional distress and increase the prevalence of mental illness, such as social isolation from quarantine and other psychosocial variables. This project also studies the protective or vulnerable effect of internet use (functional and dysfunctional) during the several stages of COVID-19 Pandemic.

O presente projeto visa identificar, através de estudos transversais e longitudinais, potenciais preditores com distintas naturezas, associados à presença de psicopatologia em doentes com condições clínicas desmielinizantes, bem como compreender a complexa relação entre tais variáveis explicativas.

De acordo com a OMS, os ODS 2030 definem como prioritário o foco nas intervenções preventivas e na promoção da saúde mental dos adolescentes. A prevalência de perturbações mentais nesta fase é elevada e muitos jovens não têm acesso a intervenção, com impacto ao longo de toda a vida. Adquirir estratégias de regulação emocional adaptativas neste período é essencial para a prevenção de psicopatologia. O Protocolo Unificado para a Intervenção nas Perturbações Emocionais dos Adolescentes (PU-A), uma intervenção cognitivo-comportamental transdiagnóstica, mostrou ter impacto na redução da sintomatologia e na melhoria da qualidade de vida dos jovens. Apesar disso, ainda poucos estudos avaliaram a eficácia desta intervenção nesta faixa etária. Este projeto será o primeiro a testar a eficácia do PU-A também como intervenção preventiva e de promoção da saúde mental nos adolescentes das escolas portuguesas, e a avaliar mudanças nos fatores transdiagnósticos como a flexibilidade cognitiva, mindfulness e evitamento experiencial.

The aims of the project are to:

– investigate the protective role of gratitude against the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on feelings of social isolation, coping mechanisms, symptoms of psychological distress (symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress) and posttraumatic growth across time in different phases of the pandemic.

– develop, implement and test, longitudinally, the impact of a four-week gratitude intervention on one’s psychological distress (symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress), subjective well-being, compassion, feeling of social connectedness, resilience and post-traumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic

– analyse systematic intraindividual variability in participants’ levels of well-being depending on their daily events during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether one practices gratitude or not

– provide qualitative data to the existing studies through interviews on the subjective role of gratitude and gratitude practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This project aims to better prepare young people by developing emotion regulation skills that contribute to more mentally balanced lifestyles.

It includes multimodal interventions in school settings aiming at the promotion of mental wellbeing of students of the 3^rd cycle (12 to 15 years), through the implementation of a set of strategies aiming to promote mental wellbeing and prevent mental health problems:

P1 – PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS: Delivered to students, families, teachers and school staff.

P2 – INTERVENTION PROGRAM: Two group programs (one for students and another to teachers), aiming at the promotion of adaptative emotion regulation skills in order to enhance mental wellbeing and prevent mental health problems.

The Word Health Organization prioritizes preventive interventions and the promotion of adolescent mental health. Acquiring adaptive emotion regulation strategies during adolescence remains essential for the prevention of mental health problems. This project will be applied in a school setting and will be the first to test the effectiveness of an innovative universal preventive intervention based on Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A), a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral intervention that has demonstrated impact in reducing symptoms and increasing quality of life on youths. This study also aims to assess changes in transdiagnostic factors such as cognitive flexibility, mindfulness, and distress tolerance.