Ana Laura Mendes

• MS
• University of Coimbra

Some studies have demonstrated the link between the recall of early affiliative experiences and psychopathological symptoms in adolescence. However, literature seems to be scarce in relation to the association between these early memories and adolescent well-being, as well as in relation to the processes and mechanisms that may mediate this relatio...

PurposeFeelings of shame and social comparison focused on physical appearance have been identified as important risk factors for the engagement in disordered eating behaviours. Further, recent studies have emphasized the role of body-image psychological (in)flexibility in the association between several risk factors and eating psychopathology. The...

An extensive body of research has showed the impact of major life events on depressive symptoms. However, the underlying psychological processes that contribute to this association are still unclear. The present study aims to explore the mediating role of external shame and fears of receiving compassion on the associations of the number of major li...

The need to examine the associations between emotion regulation and mental health and well-being among adolescents is increasingly recognized. Adolescence is a critical time characterized by increased vulnerability towards emotional struggles and difficulties, especially related with body image and eating behaviours. Thus, it seems particularly imp...

The need for a transnational validation is imperative at the stage of development of the CompACT, a self-report measure of psychological flexibility. This study aimed to translate, validate and test the factor structure of the Portuguese version of the CompACT and to conduct a measurement invariance analysis comparing the scale’s performance in Por...

Adolescence is considered a transitional stage characterized by several physicals, psychological and social changes. During this period, there is an increased propensity for the emergence of emotional difficulties, especially those related to body image and eating attitudes and behaviours. In particular, shame has been pointed out as a key risk fac...

Objetivos: O objetivo do presente estudo foi testar o papel mediador do medo de receber compaixão dos outros e dos sentimentos de segurança e proximidade, em contexto social, na associação entre vergonha externa e o bem-estar psicológico dos adolescentes. Foi hipotetizado que adolescentes com elevados níveis de vergonha externa apresentem uma dimin...

Purpose Recent literature has documented the relationship between fears of compassion and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours. However, research on the processes underlying this association is still in the early stages. As such, this study tested a mediator model where insecure striving and inflexible eating (i.e. psychological inflexibility...

The relationship between self-compassion and well-being and health (e.g. a lower proneness for eating-related disturbances) is well stressed in the literature. However, the specific contribution of self-compassionate attributes, actions, and body compassion remains scarcely studied. The main aim of the present study was to examine whether the link...

Objective In accordance to ACT theory, psychological inflexibility may influence the well-known link between learned helplessness and depression symptomatology. This exploratory preliminary study aims to analyse whether psychological flexibility moderates the relationship between these variables. Methods A community sample of 84 Portuguese partici...

Literature has emphasized the significant role of social acceptance and connectedness in well-being and the benefits of cultivating a positive body image in the prevention and treatment of body and eating-related difficulties. The current study aims to examine whether strategies of self-reassurance and body-image appreciation mediate the associatio...

Purpose Major life events have been positively associated with depression symptoms. Although psychological flexibility has been associated with adaptive coping skills and negatively linked with depression symptoms, it remains unclear whether psychological flexibility may be a protective process against the pervasive impact of major life events. Thu...

Early affiliative experiences play an important role in social and emotional development. Several authors have suggested that early positive experiences may be recorded as memories of warmth and soothing. However, the relationship between such memories and current feelings of social safeness and connectedness remains scarcely studied. The current s...

Literature suggested that the recall of early positive experiences have a major impact on the promotion of feelings of connectedness and social safeness, and seems to protect individuals against psychopathology. Recent research has also demonstrated that the absence of these positive rearing memories play a key role on disordered eating-related beh...

Several meta-analyses have suggested that more studies should test mindfulness-based interventions in cancer patients due to the small effect sizes usually found in mental and physical health outcomes. The MIND Programme (which includes 8 weekly group sessions) is an acceptance, mindfulness and compassion-based intervention, and the first programme...

In research, it has been suggested that early threatening emotional experiences, characterized by abuse, rejection, neglect or absence of affiliative signals may activate maladaptive defensive responses. Further, several studies have emphasised the association between the recall of early emotional experiences and eating psychopathology. However, th...

Diferentes processos de regulação emocional parecem estar envolvidos na relação entre a avaliação negativa da imagem corporal e a psicopatologia alimentar. O presente estudo pretendeu clarificar, numa amostra de 369 mulheres, os efeitos distintos da fusão cognitiva e do apreço pela imagem corporal na relação entre a discrepância sentida entre o cor...

This study tested a model examining the impact that early affiliative memories (both with family and peers) on eating psychopathology, and whether these links are carried by the mechanisms of external shame and body image-related perfectionistic self-presentation, in a sample of 480 female college students. Path analyses’ results revealed that this...

Recent literature has emphasized the role played by early emotional experiences on body image and eating-related psychopathology. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying the link between positive rearing experiences and eating psychopathology remain scarcely explored. Thus, this study aimed to explore a model in which it was hypothesized that early...

In modern western societies, the female body is a predominantly used dimension in self and social evaluations. In fact, the perceived discrepancy between one’s current and ideal body image may act as a pathogenic phenomenon on women’s well-being. Furthermore, significant differences in the tendency to engage in disordered eating attitudes and behav...

Feelings of social safeness and connectedness have been associated with adaptive emotion regulation processes and well-being indicators. Further, literature has demonstrated that interpersonal experiences play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of body and eating psychopathology. However, the study of the role of social variables and...

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Research on human development and functioning has highlighted the importance of early emotional and relational experiences. Particularly, an association between the absence of early positive memories and the presence of disordered eating has been evidenced by recent investigations. However, the study of the mechanisms underlying this association re...

Committed action is defined as the ability to take action guided by personal life values, i.e., to be persistent in valued behaviours even when such pursuit implicates facing setbacks and experiencing discomfort. This is a key process for acceptance and commitment therapy, and is linked to several positive mental health outcomes. Although current l...

Shame experiences have been highly associated with the engagement in maladaptive strategies (such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion) to cope with unwanted thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, these maladaptive processes have been linked to different psychopathological conditions. The current study aimed to test the mediational effect of...

Shame is a universal emotion, that has been emphasized as a pathogenic phenomenon in well-being and mental health. In fact, although shame has been considered an adaptive defensive response, higher levels of this painful emotion are strongly associated with different mental health conditions. The current study aimed to test whether the association...

Shame is defined as a painful affect, associated with the perception that one's personal characteristics and/or behaviours are seen by others as unattractive. Since it signals the possibility of rejection, high levels of shame associate with high psychological suffering and several psychopathological conditions, namely depression. In contrast, body...

Self-reassurance and social safeness are both positive factors linked with a lighter experience of shame and depression symptoms. Self-reassurance is defined as an adaptive emotion regulation process, and social safeness as an emotion experience related to feelings of being safe around others, accepted by others, and connected to one's social world...

Body image-related cognitive fusion is described as the perception that undesired and distressing internal events related to body image are reliable representations of reality. This maladaptive emotion regulation process is known for its impact on human suffering, namely eating psychopathology. On the contrary, body appreciation is a positive body...

Experiential avoidance, considered a main process of psychological inflexibility, has been defined as the unwillingness to be in contact with particular unwanted inner experiences and the effort to control or avoid its form, frequency and the context in which they occur. On the other hand, decentering, conceptualized as the ability to deal with fee...

Positive experiences from childhood have been consistently associated with well-being and with feelings of social safeness and connectedness. On the other hand, the lack of early experiences characterized by warmth, soothing and care may lead to the later experience of fearing to receive compassion from others, to the engagement in self-judgment, a...

The present study aimed to explore the role of early affiliative memories with peers on the adoption of disordered eating attitudes and behaviours through the mechanisms of external shame and self-judgment. The sample used in the current study comprised 632 women from the community, aged between 18 and 60 years old.The tested model explained 22 % o...

Shame has been for long associated with the development and maintenance of body image and eating-related difficulties. However, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. Therefore, the current study sought to examine the mechanisms of self-judgment and fears of receiving compassion from others in the association between external sh...

Studies on body image-related disturbances have recently embraced a fresh and innovative construct: body appreciation. Body appreciation, an aspect of positive body image, defines as the detention of a balanced, affectionate and health-conscious relationship with one's own body's features. Its exploration is considered to be essential to the succes...

Research has emphasized the important role of recalling childhood experiences on adult mental health, and also the benefits of self-compassion on well-being. This study explored self-compassion as a mediator between early memories with family and peers and quality of life, on a wide age range female sample (N = 645). Path analysis revealed that sel...

It is widely accepted that shame plays a significant role in the development and maintenance psychopathology, namely depressive symptoms. In fact, the experience of shame is highly associated with the adoption of maladaptive strategies to cope with negative feelings, such as experiential avoidance (i.e., the unavailability to accept one's private e...

The inability of recalling warm and safe memories with parents and close relatives has been often associated in literature with a negative and judgmental sense of self, and a higher proneness to experience feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and defectiveness. Thus, intending to deal with self-judgment and inferiority, individuals may become submi...

Introduction Although spiritual care is commonly regarded as a nursing task, in practice, it is often provided inadequately. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine relationship between attitude toward spirituality and the attitude and performance of spiritual care among nurses who working in hospitals of Iran university of medical scie...

Shame is considered a painful emotion that emerges in social contexts when the individual perceives that others see the self as inferior, inadequate or defective. This emotion is associated with decreased levels of self-compassion and may trigger several defensive responses, such as the need to present a perfect body image. Furthermore, shame has b...

Early positive interactions have been positively associated with positive mental health outcomes. In contrast, the lack of these early affiliative experiences of warmth and safeness can have negative consequences on the individual's physical, emotional and social development. The current study tests a mediation model that examines the mediator effe...

Intuitive eating entails the ability to connect with and understand one's internal hunger and satiety signals, instead of engaging in reactive maladaptive eating behaviours. The current study aimed at examining the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) in the Portuguese population. Also, it aimed at...

A conceptualização do voluntariado como uma atividade não proveitosa para o voluntário tem sido amplamente refutada pela investigação, pela demonstração da associação entre a prática de voluntariado e o acréscimo do bem-estar do voluntário. Um forte argumento a favor do caráter benéfico do trabalho voluntário é o sentido de afiliação e ligação aos...