Catarina Pinheiro Mota

University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro | utad · Departamento de Educação e Psicologia

Mentalization-based treatments for parents have consistently shown promising effects in reducing parental stress and improving parental self-efficacy, sensitivity and reflective function. Considering the scarce use of online interventions for hard-to-reach populations, this study aims to explore the perceived changes of an online 12-session version...

Sense of personal agency (SPA) is crucial for adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and well-being. The relationships with parents and peers, as well as the adolescent’s sex, have been suggested as important correlates of adolescents’ SPA. Nevertheless, no prior study has adopted a gender perspective to analyze how the intertwining of relationships...

The characteristics of Western societies pose significant challenges to how emerging adults view their futures. In the present study, we analyzed the associations between romantic attachment, self-regulation, and future expectations of emerging adults controlling the sex and age of participants. More specifically, we analyzed the moderating role of...

Bullying is a social phenomenon that involves the repetition of aggressive, intentional and harmful behaviors directed at a specific person. Currently, one in three children is a victim of bullying. The present study aimed to analyze the relationship between the quality of the relationship with teachers, memories of childhood care and bullying in a...

Establishing goals for young people in residential care (RC) is a gap in the literature, especially in terms of the relationship between family support and resilience. The literature suggests that RC is associated with the breakdown of family relationships, so the possibility of the family playing a positive role in establishing life goals for youn...

Research demonstrates that young people value mental health support that is tailored to their needs and preferences, rather than a “one size fits all” offer, which is often not equitably accessible (National Children’s Bureau, 2021). Understanding young people’s lived experiences across different sociocultural contexts is important. The aim of this...

Social support enhances the development of adaptive strategies to cope with difficulties, which may affect psychological well-being. Sleep quality has been highlighted as having a relevant role in psychological well-being. The present study aimed to analyse the role of social support and sleep quality in the psychological well-being of health profe...

In the context of the existing research on families, sibling violence is a less explored area. However, it has seemingly received more attention recently, and it can assume a relevant role in understanding the maladaptive behavior of youngsters and bullying. Additionally, adolescents involved in bullying and self-esteem are associated with disrupti...

This article aimed to provide a systematic narrative synthesis of existing studies on the mediators of change in psychotherapy with adolescents (10–19 years) and transition age youth (TAY) (20–29 years) who have experienced trauma-related symptoms or posttraumatic disorder. Additionally, we were interested in identifying psychotherapy-, trauma type...

(1) Background: Research regarding sibling violence is still scarce, although it is the most common type of intrafamily violence. Every sibling’s position in the sibling dyad seems to influence this type of violent conduct since every status has its characteristics. Siblings involved in aggressive behavior seem to be described as having low self-es...

According to the attachment theory, the establishment of emotional bonds with significant figures is an important process in human development throughout life. The quality of the relationships between adolescents and their caregivers in residential care (RC) may act as a protective factor for internal reorganisation and the development of emotional...

Although the literature recognizes the relevance of sense of agency during adolescence, little is known about which factors can promotes or undermines this belief. Identifying the factors that determine adolescents' sense of agency is a challenging task that must consider influences assessed at both the individual and structural levels for a more c...

Investigação participativa Lighthouse Portugal

Objetivo. Analisar em que medida a qualidade da vinculação amorosa, a presença de sintomatologia psicopatológica e os conflitos interparentais predizem os conflitos no namoro em jovens adultos. Método. A amostra foi constituída por 505 indivíduos, 366 (72.5%) do sexo feminino, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 25 anos (M = 20.59; DP = 1.78)...

According to the attachment theory, early experiences with primary caregivers are the foundation of the expectations and beliefs about the self, others, and the world. It becomes particularly relevant in youth living in Residential Care (RC) settings, due to their past adversities. In this context, care workers can provide emotional healing experie...

Although literature states that individual, relational, and contextual factors contribute to adolescents’ sense of agency, more research is needed to clarify and understand how adolescents develop this belief over time. The current study examined the stability/change trajectories of the sense of agency during adolescence, specifically across high s...

Psychotherapeutic treatment of adolescents requires age-specific approaches and thus plausibly also involves different change mechanisms than adult psychotherapy. To guide further research and improve therapeutic outcomes for adolescents, we reviewed all RCTs investigating mechanisms of change in the psychological treatment of adolescents to identi...

A literatura suporta a importância da relação entre os jovens e as figuras parentais para um desenvolvimento adaptativo, nomeadamente capacidades pró-sociais e menor envolvimento em comportamentos de risco. A qualidade das relações com os pares pode também desempenhar um papel protetor no que respeita ao consumo de álcool. O objetivo deste estudo f...

Background/objective: The parenting styles and social skills are important factors to emotional development of young people and can associate, positive or negative way, to suicidal thoughts of adolescents. The current study analyzed the contribution of parenting styles of mother and father and social skills on suicidal ideation of adolescents. Furt...

Although there is a growing interest in the concept of sense of personal agency in adolescence and young adulthood, its operationalization and assessment have been inconsistent. We propose and test a preliminary assessment model of sense of agency combining four of the most relevant indicators suggested by the literature for its assessment (setting...

The current study examined the stability/change trajectories of sense of agency across high school, analyzing whether these trajectories are influenced by attachment to parents over time, as well as adolescent’s sex, psychosocial risk in baseline, and pandemic stress. The sample includes 467 Portuguese adolescents (59.3% were females; Mage = 15.58...

A literatura sugere que a qualidade relacional na díade pais-filhos poderá assumir-se como fator de risco ou protetor na formulação e projeção de aspirações de vida e no desenvolvimento de sintomatologia psicopatológica de natureza depressiva. O objetivo do presente estudo prende-se com a análise do papel da qualidade da vinculação aos pais no dese...

Ser um agente ativo e ter a capacidade de moldar a própria vida é um recurso importante, mas também um desafio que os jovens enfrentam na adolescência e é necessário analisar as variáveis explicativas da agência pessoal na adolescência. Os contextos relacionais e sociais dos adolescentes têm sido sugeridos como importantes correlatos das crenças da...

Embora exista um interesse crescente no conceito do sentido de agência pessoal na adolescência e na idade adulta emergente, a sua operacionalização e avaliação têm sido inconsistentes. O presente estudo propõe e testa um modelo preliminar de avaliação das crenças de agência pessoal, combinando quatro indicadores apontados pela literatura como os ma...

A teoria da vinculação preconiza que os laços afetivos estabelecidos e mantidos com as figuras parentais representam um marco no desenvolvimento afetivo dos indivíduos ao longo da vida. Na jovem adultícia, tanto a vinculação aos pais como a autoeficácia podem ter um contributo no modo como os jovens estabelecem expectativas futuras. O presente estu...

Introduction Adolescents in residential care are more likely to report insecure and especially disorganized attachments, which lead to difficulties in emotion regulation and compromise the quality of their interpersonal relationships. In residential care, it is expected that sensitive and responsive caregivers are able to help adolescents regulate...

Residential care (RC) in Portugal has been the subject of an important scrutiny. Considering the relevance that the media assumes in public opinion, this study will focus on the main themes addressed in the scope of the RC in daily and weekly newspapers in the last 5 years. The document analysis focused, firstly, on RC news content and, secondly, o...

Portugal is one of the countries in Europe with the highest rates of children/young people in Residential Care (RC), with the majority being in adolescence. In this article, a comparative analysis of psychological adjustment indicators published in the Annual Characterization of the Situation of Out-of-Home Care reports in the last decade is carrie...

Attachment theory (AT) is one of the most popular theories used among professionals working in children and family welfare worldwide. An important contribution relies on the central role of professionals in creating an emotional environment for children and youth psychosocial adaptation and development. Nevertheless, little research has been focuse...

Quality of attachment relationships developed within an institutional environment may be a risk or protective factor for the creation of life aspirations and for emotion regulation abilities among adolescents in residential care contexts. The present study aims to analyze the predictive role of attachment on life aspirations for adolescents in a re...

The conditions imposed by the Covid-19 outbreaks forced residential care (RC) facilities to experience new challenges and to adopt new practices. The aim of the current study is to analyze how RC facilities have experienced and managed confinement during the 1st wave of the pandemic. A thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews were conduct...

Background Externalising behaviours are becoming a remarkably prevalent problem during adolescence, often precipitating both externalising and internalising disorders in later adulthood. Psychological treatments aim to increase the social functioning of adolescents in order for them to live a more balanced life and prevent these negative trajectori...

Guided by attachment theory, we explored in the current study the links between parental emotion-coaching, attachment to parents and adolescent's sense of agency. Further, we examined a possible mediating role of adolescent’s attachment to parents in the association between parental emotion-coaching and sense of agency. All models control for cumul...

This chapter makes known the reality of Portuguese families with children diagnosed with a rare disease. The parenting, romantic attachment, coping and emotional regulation strategies, resilience, and personality characteristics of parental figures are the main focus of research carried out in Portugal. In this research participated 160 parental fi...

Various health settings have advocated for involving patients and members of the public (PPI) in research as a means to increase quality and relevance of the produced knowledge. However, youth PPI has been an understudied area. This protocol paper describes a new project that aims to summarize what is known about PPI with young people in mental hea...

This study focuses on emerging adults’ personal agency, an individual feature associated with enhanced adaptive and resilient developmental trajectories. The two objectives were to explore the role of demographic, psychosocial risk, and relational factors in predicting personal agency and analyze whether romantic attachment mediates the connection...

Background Children and youth residential care institutions were forced to introduce adaptations to their regular functioning in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic challenges. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the lockdown on the adolescents’ psychological adjustment and whether adolescents’ perceived cohesio...

Background: Personality disorders (PDs) are a severe health issue already prevalent among adolescents and young adults. Early detection and intervention offer the opportunity to reduce disease burden and chronicity of symptoms and to enhance long-term functional outcomes. While psychological treatments for PDs have been shown to be effective for yo...

Introduction Anxiety and depressive disorders are a significant problem that starts in childhood or adolescence and should be addressed early to avoid chronic mental conditions. There is strong evidence to demonstrate that psychological treatments are effective for these disorders, however, little is known on mediators and mechanisms of change of p...

Background: Personality disorders (PDs) are a severe health issue already prevalent among adolescents and young adults. Early detection and intervention offer the opportunity to reduce disease burden and chronicity of symptoms and to enhance long-term functional outcomes. While psychological treatments for personality disorders have been shown to b...

There is a scarcity of studies that relate attachment, emotional regulation difficulties and perception of the institutional environment among adolescents in a residential care context (RCC). Research has suggested the negative effects of RCC on the physical, cognitive and emotional development of children. Nonetheless, there appears to be signific...

A vivência emocional das crianças e jovens em contexto de acolhimento residencial é pouco conhecida, e, por vezes, objecto de muitas ideias pré-concebidas. Este livro aborda a questão do acolhimento residencial na perspectiva das crianças e jovens, mas também na perspectiva dos cuidadores, numa aproximação às dificuldades sentidas por ambas as part...

De acordo com Baumrind, a relação entre a díade pais-filhos constitui-se como base da aprendizagem de competências e interações sociais. Um estilo parental baseado na assertividade e responsividade assume um papel significativo e protetor face ao risco do uso das redes sociais dos adolescentes e jovens adultos. Pretende-se analisar o efeito dos est...

Objective: Symptom improvement is often examined as an indicator of a good outcome of accessing mental health services. However, there is little evidence of whether symptom improvement is associated with other indicators of a good outcome, such as a mutual agreement to end treatment. The aim of this study was to examine whether young people accessi...

INTRODUCTION Approximately 75% of mental disorders emerge before the age of 25 years but less than half receive appropriate treatment. Little is known about the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic change of adolescents in psychotherapy. The ‘European Network of Individualised Psychotherapy Treatment of Young People with Mental Disorders’, funded...

O presente estudo teve como objetivo principal analisar o papel moderador das estratégias de coping na associação entre personalidade e investimento na aparência. A amostra foi constituída por 948 jovens adultos (327 do sexo masculino – 34.5 % e 621 do sexo feminino – 65.5 %), entre os 18 e os 30 anos (M = 21.76, DP = 3.31), tendo sido utilizados i...

Adolescents‘ well-being is an important marker of psychosocial adjustment and quality of life. However, few studies have been conducted about adolescents‘ well-being in residential care and its stability during time. Moreover, according to attachment theory, the quality of the relationship between adolescents and caregivers constitutes a relevant f...

The relationships w ith p arental fi gures are important for young adults in t he d eveloping of appropriated coping strategies and social skills. The presence of a democratic parenting style seems to minimize the involvement of the children in risk behaviors, namely the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The present study aims to ana...

Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied, and their importance on both developmental and educational practices has led to the development of assessment tools. The Aspiration Index scale (AI; Grouzet et al., 2005), which was developed to measure people`s life aspirations, was translated and validated into Portuguese. A sa...

Creating expectations helps adolescents to prepare themselves for the future. Relationships established with parents also prepare adolescents to face challenges and to assume responsibilities in order to achieve future projects. Peer relationships become gradually more significant due to reciprocity and mutual understanding and adolescents can deve...

Peer relationships are significant for adolescents' development and the way they perceive challenges, adapt and overcome difficulties. The socio-cultural context also plays an important role in the of personal agency developmental process. The current study aims to analyze the contribution of attachment to peers and cumulative psychosocial risk on...

Although the importance of parents on adolescents' development has long captured the attention of researchers, only a few studies addressed personal agency. The individual capacity to be an actor on their own life course constitutes a great challenge to adolescents living in Western societies characterized by uncertainty and unpredictability. The w...

As ligações estabelecidas precocemente com as figuras parentais assumem um papel importante no desenvolvimento da individuação dos jovens adultos, na construção da sua personalidade e na manifestação do bem-estar psicológico. O presente estudo tem como objetivo estudar o papel preditor da separação-individuação aos pais e da personalidade no bem-es...

RESUMO O suporte social e as características da personalidade são evidenciados na literatura como fatores relevantes na promoção do bem-estar psicológico de jovens. Pretendeu-se analisar o efeito preditor do suporte social e da personalidade no bem-estar psicológico, testando ainda o efeito moderador dos contextos relacionais na associação anterior...

Background: There is a high prevalence of children and young people (CYP) experiencing mental health (MH) problems. Owing to accessibility, affordability, and scalability, an increasing number of digital health interventions (DHIs) have been developed and incorporated into MH treatment. Studies have shown the potential of DHIs to improve MH outcom...

Objectives The Father and Mother Attachment Questionnaire (FMAQ) is a 30-item self-report measure developed for assessing adolescents’ and young adults’ representations of attachment relationships with each parental figure separately, across three dimensions: quality of emotional bond, separation anxiety, and inhibition of exploration and individua...

La calidad del apego establecido con los pares en la adolescencia ha sido referenciada en la literatura como un factor protector en relación con la participación en comportamientos de violencia escolar. La presencia de una asociación entre el apego a los pares y el desarrollo de la autoestima podrá ejercer un efecto significativo como factor protec...

This chapter makes known the reality of Portuguese families with children diagnosed with a rare disease. The parenting, romantic attachment, coping and emotional regulation strategies, resilience, and personality characteristics of parental figures are the main focus of research carried out in Portugal. In this research participated 160 parental fi...

Os estilos parentais caracterizam a natureza afetiva e a relação entre os pais e os filhos, apresentando por isso, uma contribuição importante para o desenvolvimento psicossocial dos jovens. A vivência familiar, a relação mantida com os pares e o desenvolvimento do adolescente contribuem para a formação da sua personalidade, sendo esta que dita mui...

A secure peer attachment appears in the literature as a protective factor against bullying behavior. The present study seeks to test the predictor effect of peer attachment on different types of bullying and to examine the mediating role of gender on the same association. The sample consists of 351 individuals of both genders, between the ages of 1...

Adolescents in residential care have an increased risk of developing psychosocial problems, however, not all adolescents are equally vulnerable. This study aims to provide a review and methodological evaluation of current studies, which focus on protective and risk factors associated with the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents in residential ca...

The quality of the relationship between adolescents and significant figures constitutes a relevant factor to emotional and adaptive functioning. Caregivers at the institution have a significant responsibility in caring for adolescents and represent a key determinant in adolescents’ adaptation. However, less attention has been devoted to how adolesc...

BACKGROUND There is a high prevalence of children and young people (CYP) experiencing mental health (MH) problems. Due to the accessibility, affordability and scalability, an increasing number of digital interventions (DIs) have been developed and are being incorporated into MH treatment for CYP. Studies show DI’s potential for improving MH outcome...

As vivências afetivas experienciadas no seio familiar têm um papel privilegiado no desenvolvimento dos jovens. A presente investigação teve como objetivo analisar o efeito dos estilos parentais no desenvolvimento das competências sociais e testar o papel mediador da personalidade. A amostra incluiu 1976 jovens com idades entre os 14 e os 25 anos. O...

The study of personal agency assumes especial relevance during the complex process of transition from adolescence to adulthood, particularly in contemporary Western societies characterized by high levels of unpredictability. Despite the importance of this individual capacity, little is known about the factors that predict personal agency. The curre...

Although there is a growing interest in the concept of personal agency in adolescence and emerging adulthood, few efforts have been made to operationalize the concept. This study proposes and tests an assessment model of personal agency. The sample is composed of 692 emerging adults aged 18 to 30 years. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) revealed a...

O presente estudo procura adaptar para a população portuguesa o Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA) e analisar as suas características psicométricas. A amostra em estudo foi constituída por 432 adultos emergentes portugueses com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 30 anos. A análise fatorial confirmatória revelou índices de ajustamento...

Os vínculos afetivos que se estabelecem na infância podem ter efeitos no desenvolvimento emocional dos jovens. A vinculação segura pode potenciar a capacidade de regulação emocional e proporcionar uma imagem de si mais positiva, gerando comportamentos ajustados de investimento na aparência. A presente investigação objetivou analisar o papel da vinc...

Over the last decades, the bullying phenomenon had countless repercussions, however, it still remains an issue that need to be addressed according to a comprehensive and relational approach of young's experiences. The present study aims to analyse the perceived parenting styles (either to mother or the father) and to test their involvement on bully...

The Father and Mother Attachment Questionnaire (FMAQ; Matos & Costa, 2001) is a 30-item self-report measure developed for assessing adolescents' and young adults’ representations of attachment relationships with each parental figure separately, across three dimensions: quality of parental bond, inhibition of exploration and individuality, and separ...

This study aims to test the predictive effect of the quality of relationship to significant figures (teachers, school and institutional staff) in the development of self-concept of young people. Another objective is to test the mediational effect of the quality of relationship to peers and the moderating effect of the time of residential care in th...

O desenvolvimento de relações de vinculação seguras com as figuras significativas e os estilos parentais, sugerem assumir um papel importante para o jovem adulto na transição e adaptação aos desafios externos, nomeadamente, à adaptação ao contexto académico e à manutenção de um bem-estar psicológico. O presente estudo objetivou analisar o papel dos...

O presente trabalho procura problematizar a dinâmica relacional/afetiva das crianças e jovens no contexto escolar, onde se destacam distúrbios comportamentais e a importância dos limites internos e externos. Professores, funcionários da escola e pares assumem relevância enquanto figuras significativas de afeto, no sentido de promover um desenvolvim...

O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar a contribuição das experiências adversas na infância no desenvolvimento de objetivos de vida na adultícia, sendo testado o papel mediador da vinculação aos pais na associação anterior. A amostra foi constituída por 511 indivíduos, com idades compreendidas entre os 25 e os 50 anos de idade. Para a recolha...

O presente estudo testa o efeito preditor da qualidade da ligação a figuras significativas (professores, funcionários da escola e da instituição) no desenvolvimento do autoconceito dos jovens. Pretende-se ainda testar o efeito mediador da qualidade da ligação aos pares e o efeito moderador do tempo de acolhimento residencial nesta associação. A amo...

A qualidade das relações estabelecidas precocemente com as figuras primordiais de afeto mostram-se de extrema relevância no desenvolvimento físico e emocional dos jovens. O desenvolvimento de bases seguras sugerem maior disponibilidade para o estabelecimento de relações fora do seio familiar, nomeadamente com o par amoroso. O presente estudo tem co...

The present study aims to analyze the role of quality of attachment to parents in the association between adverse childhood experiences and the psychopathological symptoms in adulthood. The sample was composed by 511 adults, aged 25 to 50 (M = 34.69; DP = 7.82). For data collection we resorted to the self-report questionnaires. Results suggest that...

Social support has been shown in the literature as relevance with respect to the planning and establishment of young adolescent life goals. Adverse emotional experiences within the family, including significant losses and transitions may, however, limit this process. This research aims to analyze the role of social support in the development of lif...

A vinculação às figuras primordiais e os estilos parentais assumem especial relevância na forma como os jovens adultos estabelecem as suas relações e transições ao longo do seu percurso afetivo. As relações satisfatórias entre a díade pais-filhos exercem um papel preponderante no estabelecimento de relações amorosas seguras e na manutenção ou aumen...

O presente estudo procura analisar as propriedades psicométricas do Parenting Styles and Dimension Questionnaire (pSDQ) e adaptar para a população portuguesa a sua versão de heterorrelato. A amostra foi constituída por 604 adolescentes com idades entre os 15 e os 18 anos (m=15.99, dp=.97). A confiabilidade foi avaliada através do alfa de Cronbach,...

Este estudio, de naturaleza cuantitativa, tuvo como principal objetivo analizar el papel de la vinculación a los padres y de las habilidades sociales en el desarrollo de ideación suicida en los adolescentes. La muestra se constituyó con 604 individuos, con edades comprendidas entre 15 y 18 años de edad. Para la recolección de los datos, se utilizó...

O presente estudo, de natureza quantitativa, teve como principal objetivo analisar o papel da vinculação aos pais e das competências sociais no desenvolvimento de ideação suicida em adolescentes. A amostra foi constituída por 604 indivíduos, com idades entre os 15 e os 18 anos de idade. Para a recolha dos dados, recorreu-se ao Questionário de Vincu...