Ana Relvas

University of Coimbra | UC · Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences

This longitudinal study explored the impact of COVID-19 on individuals in romantic relationships. The sample spans three waves: first confinement (n = 52), deconfinement (n = 49), and second confinement (n = 26). The study tested sociodemographic factors, psychological adjustment (anxiety, depression, stress, well-being), COVID-19 threat perception...

The present study focuses on the role of family support to young adult children during COVID‐19 in ameliorating the negative financial impact of the pandemic. Guided by the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory of stress and coping, we conceptualize the negative financial impact due to COVID‐19 as a source of financial stress that would be associa...

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging adults are especially vulnerable as they experience its financial impact as a source of stress. We tested a model of psychological resilience among emerging adults (18–25 years) during the pandemic from six Western countries (Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and United States) using online survey d...

QUALIS is a research project that studies ‘the other side of courts’ by looking at the working conditions of judicial professions in Portugal and their impacts on the profession, health, family and personal life. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the results obtained, based mainly on the interviews and the online questionna...

A multidimensional model of emerging adults’ subjective financial well-being was proposed (Sorgente and Lanz, Int Journal of Behavioral Development, 43(5), 466–478 2019). The authors also developed a 5-factor scale (the Multidimensional Subjective Financial Well-being Scale, MSFWBS) intending to measure this construct in the European context. To da...

Family and community resilience in the contexts of natural disasters and climate change have earned a place of prominence in the research field. This article provides a descriptive review of the literature published between 1997 and 2023 examining family and community resilience in the context of wildfires, climate change, and sustainability. Ninet...

Objectives Advancements in medicine and science have enabled more and more people to live longer with a chronic medical condition, namely cancer. Nevertheless, the palliative care (PC) approach continues to be introduced and incorporated later in the lives of patients and families dealing with such conditions. Thus, the need for individuals to care...

Experimental approaches in neuroeconomics generally involve monetary utility. Utility in the health domain is relevant in diabetes because constant daily life decisions are critical for self-consequential long-term outcomes. We used fMRI to investigate self-consequent decision-making in the health and economic domains in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus an...

Amidst today’s complex financial world, understanding how family adaptation may be fostered in contexts of macroeconomic adversity is paramount. The present qualitative study sought to investigate how Portuguese families with emerging adult children have been managing macroeconomic-related demands since the Great Recession. Specifically, we aimed a...

The pandemic may have led to an increase in stress, anxiety and depression, especially in people with previous chronic diseases (CD) because one's perception of COVID-19 could be very important for mental health. We aimed to conduct a comparative study of people with and without CD in order to analyse the influence of the disease in predicting stre...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about social changes that have impacted the functioning and dynamics of couples in a romantic relationship, arising from the overwhelming amount of added stress they have endured. Specifically, the divorce rate in Portugal has increased after lockdown, which underscores the adverse consequences of COVID-19 on coupl...

Young people and their families around the world are especially vulnerable to macroeconomic hard times. This study sought to provide a more comprehensive view on how families with emerging adult children can successfully overcome economic distress. Specifically, we examined the links between economic strain-that is, the subjective perceptions of on...

Young adulthood (18–30 years old) is a crucial period due to its developmental tasks such as career establishment and financial independence. However, young adults’ relative lack of resources makes them vulnerable to employment disruptions (job loss and income loss), which may have both immediate and long-term effects on their financial wellbeing a...

Despite being bio-epidemiological phenomena, the causes and effects of pandemics are culturally influenced in ways that go beyond national boundaries. However, they are often studied in isolated pockets, and this fact makes it difficult to parse the unique influence of specific cultural psychologies. To help fill in this gap, the present study appl...

Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, individuals report psychological distress associated with the “new normal”—social distancing, financial hardships, and increased responsibilities while working from home. Given the interpersonal nature of stress and coping responses between romantic partners, based on the systemic transac�tio...

Although emerging adults (i.e., individuals aged 18–29 years old) may be at a lesser risk of COVID-19 severe illness and mortality, studies have found that the negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health and well-being is higher among emerging adults when compared to other age groups. The current study aimed to identify profile(s) based on resilie...

Theoretical accounts on social decision-making under uncertainty postulate that individual risk preferences are context dependent. Generalization of models of decision-making to dyadic interactions in the personal health context remain to be experimentally addressed. In economic utility-based models, interactive behavioral games provide a framework...

Current literature presents a gap in family functioning assessment instruments directed to children. The Child Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (C‐SCORE) is a self‐report instrument, based on the original SCORE‐15, that measures different aspects of family functioning from the child's perspective. This study aims to explore the psyc...

p>Background: Covid-19 has brought socioeconomic and health-related changes worldwide and unique challenges with no time for adjustment. Family caregivers of dependent patients were one of the hardest hit groups. Methods: This paper draws attention to how family caregivers navigate throughout this pandemic amid its daily changes, stressing new ob...

p>Background: Covid-19 has brought socioeconomic and health-related changes worldwide and unique challenges with no time for adjustment. Family caregivers of dependent patients were one of the hardest hit groups. Methods: This paper draws attention to how family caregivers navigate throughout this pandemic amid its daily changes, stressing new ob...

Background: Risky health decisions and impulse control profiles may impact on metabolic control in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). We hypothesize that the neural correlates of cognitive impulsivity and decision-making in T1DM relate to metabolic control trajectories. Methods: We combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), measures of...

Theoretical accounts on social decision-making under uncertainty postulate that individual risk preferences are context-dependent. Generalization of models of decision-making to dyadic interactions in the personal health context remain to be experimentally addressed. In economic utility-based models, interactive behavioral games provide a framework...

This retrospective observational study aimed to examine the expanded therapeutic alliance in relation to drop out versus retention in systemic family therapy. Forty cases randomly selected from archived records at a university center for family therapy were identified as either dropouts (n = 13) or completers (n = 27). Videotapes of all first sessi...

The present research examined the association of perceived impact of COVID-19 on emerging adults' perceptions of their future and the potential mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty on these associations. Specifically, we investigated the associations of perceived financial impact, needed resource impact, and psychological impact on percepti...

Resumo As teorias psicológicas sobre a família definem fatores que devem ser avaliados como a composição e o processo familiar, os quais incluem interações, afetividade, papéis e regras dos membros da família. Este estudo visa a análise dos instrumentos de avaliação familiar frequentemente utilizados na Europa e no Brasil nos últimos 11 anos. Selec...

OBIETTIVO Verificare se e come la RESILIENZA, intesa sia come tratto sia come insieme di fattori protettivi (supporto familiare, supporto dei pari, risorse economiche), sia in grado di mediare l'impatto psicologico del COVID-19 sul BENESSERE, inteso come Thriving, dei GIOVANI ADULTI confrontando Paesi che hanno esperito una diversa diffusione del C...

The percentage of missing data among economic-related items is likely to be particularly high. This study aimed at examining the amount, mechanisms, and variables associated with missingness of different family members participating in a family economic stress study. Portuguese emerging adults (N = 418) and their parents (N = 748) were required to...

Objective The growing prevalence and impact of cancer on the family system calls for a palliative care approach with the family as the unit of care. This study aimed at providing an overview of the intervention programs that have been developed to offer support to the family caregivers of oncologic patients receiving palliative care. Method Sixtee...

Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, individuals report psychological distress associated with the “new normal”—social distancing, financial hardships, and increased responsibilities while working from home. Given the interpersonal nature of stress and coping responses between romantic partners, based on the systemic transaction...

Macroeconomic crises occur cyclically, entailing devastating social consequences for individuals and families. Previous research addressing families’ responses to socioeconomic upheavals has been mainly conducted with couples with young or adolescent children. Less research attention has been given to middle-aged couples with emerging adult childre...

Background Neurobehavioral decision profiles have often been neglected in chronic diseases despite their direct impact on major public health issues such as treatment adherence. This remains a major concern in diabetes, despite intensive efforts and public awareness initiatives regarding its complications. We hypothesized that high rates of low adh...

This study follows up on a prior review of empirical research on African marital relationships (scientific dissemination, thematic focus, and methodology), and presents a summary of the results of empirical studies conducted in Africa (2000–2018) on psychological processes and patterns in conjugality. Forty-one empirical studies, performed predomin...

Across the world, millions of couples get married each year. One of the strongest predictors of whether partners will remain in their relationship is their reported satisfaction. Marital satisfaction is commonly found to be a key predictor of both individual and relational well-being. Despite its importance in predicting relationship longevity, the...

The present study seeks to review and integrate evidence from the empirical literature on family dynamics during the emerging adulthood years. Fifty studies were analyzed, resulting in the following research findings: (a) Emerging adulthood is a period of change in family relationships; (b) family systems anchor both individual and family developme...

Parenting educational styles represent a central dimension in the area of parenting. However, there is a lack of instruments to assess parenting styles in the Angolan population. This study presents the results of the preliminary validation (factorial and convergent validity and reliability) of the Portuguese version of the Parenting Styles and Dim...

The terminal phase of cancer is one of the most complex challenges that a family system may face. However, research about the impact of terminal cancer on family is still scarce. Therefore, the present study aims to determine the prevalence and predictors of morbid distress, depression, anxiety, somatization and complicated anticipatory grief on fa...

Objective The terminal phase of cancer represents a major crisis for the family system. Regardless of the caregiving role they undertake, family members are forced to address multiple impacts when facing the approaching death of their terminally ill loved one. International guidelines recognize the importance of integrating the family into a care p...

We present a comparison between Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal to test the cross-cultural validity of the Differentiation of Self Inventory Revised scales Emotional Cut-Off and Emotional Reactivity. Our study had the aims of focusing on the importance of in-depth analyses of the differentiation of self-constructs from a cross-cultural perspecti...

The growing use of social networking sites places them among the most popular online activities. In particular, Facebook is gaining increasing numbers of users. For some individuals, such activity can develop into addictive online behaviour. The main objective of this study was to assess the influence of sociodemographic (e.g., gender, age), indivi...

Thinking about the future is paramount in emerging adulthood. The present study examines the role of economic strain during macroeconomic hard times and family functioning on emerging adults’ domain-specific future hopes and fears and their links with psychological well-being. Participating were 418 Portuguese emerging adults aged 18–30, mean ( M)...

Resumo Hoje, as crianças nascem rodeadas de tecnologia e utilizam-na, diariamente, acedendo ao mundo com a ponta dos dedos. Mas se por um lado as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) são uma janela de oportunidades, por outro expõem crianças e famílias a uma multiplicidade de riscos. Para avaliar o impacto das TIC no contexto familiar, 179...

Cancer is a disease that impacts not only the patient but also affects the entire family. Family members experience high levels of distress. Therefore, screening for cancer-specific distress among family members of people with cancer is important but relatively unexplored. This cross-sectional study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of a...

Objective The issues surrounding a patient's terminal phase of cancer and the imminent death of the individual represent a major family crisis affecting all its members. The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of psychological morbidity in family caregivers of persons with terminal cancer in terms of psychological distress, depression,...

Based on the six key components of addiction, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) is a widely used instrument to assess Facebook addiction. This study aimed to conduct a psychometric validation in a Portuguese sample of emerging adults (ages 18 to 29 years). The construct validity analyses confirmed the one-factor solution and a statisticall...

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of alliance dimensions and involuntary versus voluntary referral status on the therapy outcomes in family therapy. The first and fourth sessions of 29 therapeutic processes with involuntary and voluntary families seen in family brief therapy were rated with the System for Observing Family Therapy...

p>The current study aims to describe the relationships between emerging adults and their families and how these evolve over emerging adult years. Through a systematic review of the literature, we extracted data from 38 empirical studies, which met the following inclusion criteria: published since 2000, included emerging adults and/or their relative...

p>The current study aims to describe the relationships between emerging adults and their families and how these evolve over emerging adult years. Through a systematic review of the literature, we extracted data from 38 empirical studies, which met the following inclusion criteria: published since 2000, included emerging adults and/or their relative...

p>The current study aims to describe the relationships between emerging adults and their families and how these evolve over emerging adult years. Through a systematic review of the literature, we extracted data from 38 empirical studies, which met the following inclusion criteria: published since 2000, included emerging adults and/or their relative...

Objectives: The terminal phase of cancer represents a major crisis for the family system. Regardless of the caregiving role they undertake, family members are forced to address multiple impacts when facing the approaching death of their terminally ill loved one. International guidelines recognize the importance of integrating the family into a care...

Scientific research has stressed the negative impact of economic and social adversity on parenting, which compromises children's adaptive trajectories throughout the life cycle. By means of a grounded theory approach, this study aims to explore and understand how mothers within socially and economically disadvantaged contexts conceptualize the “goo...

This chapter focuses on the therapeutic process with families that come to therapy unwillingly. More specifically, it aims to highlight the clinical practice and provide intervention clues that may help to promote the engagement and collaboration of families that feel forced to be in therapy. The chapter begins with a critical reflection about the...

Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or...

Nowadays, emerging adults live in a context of macroeconomic uncertainty. As the major processes of one’s identity exploration currently occur in emerging adulthood, understanding how these individuals foresee their future is of special interest. The purpose of this study was 2-fold: (i) to investigate future orientation (FO) in a sample of Portugu...

Introduction: The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Family Distress Index (FDI). The FDI is an 8-item self-report measure that assesses family maladaptation, providing an index of family outcomes within the resiliency model of family stress, adjustment, and adaptation. Method: Participants were 4...

Within family stress theories, the way in which families communicate about their hardships and issues is crucial for the family’s stress management and functioning. In the current study, we sought to validate the Portuguese version of the Family Problem Solving Communication (FPSC) Index and examine its psychometric properties. Developed within the...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake in “Results” section. The corrected text is given below: Among both family groups, the number of ICTs used was negatively and significantly related to the age of participants and to family functioning (specially to Disrupted Communication and Overwhelmed by Difficulties dimensio...

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of alliance dimensions and involuntary versus voluntary referral status on the therapy outcomes in family therapy. The first and fourth sessions of 29 therapeutic processes with involuntary and voluntary families seen in family brief therapy were rated with the System for Observing Family Therapy...

In chapter 13, the affiliation of the co-author Luciana Sotero, along with Ana Paula Relvas was incompletely published in the original version of the book.

Family and marital research remains unrepresentative in African societies. The current study is a descriptive literature review of empirical research on African marital relationships published in peer-reviewed journals since the beginning of the 21st century. The aim of this study was to describe this body of research with regard to its methodology...

Terminal cancer has a profound impact on family and its’ elements. Therefore, palliative care foresees a family support. However, there are not many studies that aim to determine the family needs within palliative care. The present study aims to determine family needs, psychological morbidity and anticipatory grief of terminal patients’ relatives,...

Nowadays, information and communication technologies (ICTs) represent an integral part of contemporary family life, introducing changes in families’ functioning. Positive, negative, and mixed aspects of this influence were identified. The present study intends to understand the relationship between ICTs and family functioning among participants fro...

Terminal illness and death are critical events that interfere in the family system. The knowledge about illness and death’s impact on the family is, still, scarce. Therefore, a critical review of literature was conducted with the general goal of determining the impact of terminal illness on the family and which are the family’s support needs. The f...

[This corrects the article on p. 1199 in vol. 8, PMID: 28785230.].

Purpose The aim of this study was to validate the Portuguese version of the Family Inventory of Needs (FIN). The FIN aims to measure important family needs and their fulfilment by a healthcare team. Methods This cross-sectional study involved a sample of 364 family members of cancer patients, recruited from three medical institutions and through o...

The Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE) is one of the most effective evaluation instruments to assess family functioning and to test family therapy results. To determine its applicability in the Portuguese context, we analysed the psychometric characteristics of the short (SCORE‐15) and long (SCORE‐28) versions using a combined...

This study’s aim was to identify characteristics with higher odds of distinguishing a group of pathological gamblers (PG) from (1) a group of gamblers without a gambling problem (NP) and 2) a sub-clinical group (SP). An additional aim was to investigate those characteristics as risk/protective factors along the continuum of problem-gambling severit...

Forms of committed relationships, including formal marriage arrangements between men and women, exist in almost every culture (Bell, 1997). Yet, similarly to many other psychological constructs (Henrich et al., 2010), marital satisfaction and its correlates have been investigated almost exclusively in Western countries (eg, Bradbury et al., 2000)....

The main goal of the present study was to compare pathological gamblers from a non-clinical sample with control participants (non-gamblers and social gamblers) in terms of individual and psychosocial variables (psychopathological symptomatology, marital/dyadic adjustment, family functioning and family quality of life), defined by the Integrative Sy...

Este trabalho integra e articula os principais resultados do projeto “Jogo patológico em 3D: Variáveis familiares, conjugais e individuais”, dispersos por cinco artigos científicos. Os resultados indicam que os jogadores patológicos constituem um grupo heterogéneo com diferentes severidades do problema jogo, revelando-se uma relação positiva entre...

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the...

The objective of this article is to understand problem gamblers’ experiences of recovery from financial difficulties caused by problem gambling. Specifically, financial social assistance from public services is considered. A sample of 17 interviews with Finnish self-identified, treatment-seeking problem gamblers from various financial positions was...