João Maroco

ISPA Instituto Universitário | ISPA · William James Centre for Research

COVID-19 rapidly and extensively changed the normal everyday practices of societies, and there is no going back to the past. Universities also had to adapt and re-establish their normal routines, from policies to practices. In this article, we explore university students’ experiences of web-based learning, their well-being, and engagement during th...

Background The resilience construct is considered a personal trait composed of multiple aspects. Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale is a standard tool composed of five factors and 25 items. This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of this scale. Methods In this cross-sectional study, after the scale translation, the factorial struct...

Background The resilience construct is considered a personal trait composed of multiple aspects. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale is a standard tool composed of five factors and 25 items. This study aimed to determine the psycho-metric properties of this scale. Methods In this cross-sectional study, after the scale translation, the factorial struct...

Background The Oxford Food and Activity Behaviors (OxFAB) taxonomy systematize the cognitive-behavioral strategies adopted by individuals who are attempting to manage their weight. The present study aimed to (1) develop a questionnaire based on the OxFAB taxonomy, specifically adapted for middle-aged women—the OxFAB-MAW—stage of life and sex, which...

Introduction Symptoms related to mental health disorders became the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, and psychologists had to adapt to the demands, while they themselves were exposed to the pandemic and its stressors. Objectives To identify demographic and professional characteristics of Brazilian psychologists in different phases of pandemic...

People can develop eating disorders due to excessive body image concerns. The primary objective of this study was to examine the relationship between attention to body shape, social physique anxiety, and personal characteristics in a sample of Brazilians. The secondary objective was to evaluate the correlation of the constructs with the participant...

Aims 1. to elaborate a general model of physical appearance taking into account body image (BI) and orofacial appearance (OA) components; and 2. to evaluate the impact of BI and OA on life satisfaction among Brazilian adults. Methods This is a cross-sectional observational study. The cognitive, behavioral, affective, and satisfaction/dissatisfacti...

Background Identifying the motives why people exercise is interesting for the planning of effective health promoting strategies. Objectives To estimate the psychometric properties of the exercise motivations inventory (EMI-2) in Brazilian and Portuguese university students, and to compare motive-related factors for exercise among students. Method...

(1) Background: Breast cancer (BC) shows significant epidemiological differences between Eastern and Western countries. These may arise from socio-cultural factors influencing how healthy young women perceive this condition, their risk of getting cancer, and the implications for preventive screening behaviors. In this study, the illness perceptions...

Ao registar-se na mulher um pico de incidência de perdas de urina na meia idade, o King´s Health Questionnaire(KHQ) permite avaliar o impacto dos sintomas de Incontinência Urinária(IU) na Qualidade de Vida. O presente estudo pretende avaliar as qualidades psicométricas deste instrumento numa amostra de meia-idade com micções involuntárias. Método:...

Background Acceptance of diabetes is a psychological adaptation to the potential limitations of the disease. Poor acceptance of diabetes impairs effective self-management of diabetes, leading to worsening metabolic control. This study aimed at determining the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Diabetes Acceptance Scale. Methods...

Student engagement is a critical component of e-learning, which became an important focus for most academic institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. University students’ engagement is measured using various scales with different subscales. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the University Student En...

Purpose: The use of psychometric instruments to measure latent concepts is common. The development of these instruments usually involves mechanisms to reduce response bias, such as the inclusion of reversed items. The aim of this study was to investigate method effects related to the wording direction of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS) it...

The first aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ)—using the original model—in a sample of 1480 Brazilian adults (69.5% female). The second aim was to rank the reasons underlying the participants' food choices using average FCQ scores and 95% confidence interval. The third aim was to evalu...

Objectives: To identify the strategies used by Brazilian adults for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and to verify the effect of these strategies on subjective distress. Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study with online data collection in May/June 2020, November/December 2020, and May/June 2021. The BriefCOPE Inventory and the...

Purposes To develop a Brazilian Portuguese version of the Eating and Appraisal due to Emotions and Stress (EADES) Questionnaire and estimate the psychometric properties of the EADES factorial model for young Brazilian adults and also to assess the association between EADES factors and age, body mass index (BMI), and economic level. Methods The cro...

Objective: To assess the psychometric properties of the Academic Experience Satisfaction Scale (ESEA) applied to Pharmacy and Dentistry students and investigate the effect of demographic and course-related characteristics on the ESEA factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Academic satisfaction was assessed by the ESEA. Construct validi...

Dark Triad traits and self-control are considered viable causal precursors to antisocial and criminal outcomes in youth. The purpose of the present study is to concurrently compare how Dark Triad traits and self-control differ in terms of predicting self-reported juvenile delinquency, CD symptoms, proactive overt aggression, and crime seriousness....

Objective: (i) To study the measurement invariance of Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES) and Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ), (ii) to compare the perception of orofacial appearance (OA) and (iii) to study the frequency of individuals who have sought or received aesthetic dental treatment between Brazil and Finland. Meth...

Background In the Middle East region, the incidence of breast cancer (BC) has substantially increased in the last years. Despite a considerable body of research about BC in Arab countries, how illness perceptions of healthy women about BC may influence risk perception is unknown. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 298 yo...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of negative consequences for higher education students. We explored the generalizability of the control-value theory of achievement emotions for e-learning, focusing on their antecedents. We involved 17019 higher education students from 13 countries, who completed an online survey during th...

The present study investigates whether self-reported psychopathic traits moderate the relationships between delinquent career features (i.e., age of first detention in a juvenile detention center, crime frequency, crime diversity, crime charges, and Conduct Disorder) and one-year general delinquency and violent delinquency recidivism outcomes. The...

Our purpose with this study was to analyze construct validity evidence for the Motor Coordination Test with Ball (MCTB). Our participant sample included 1620 students (741 girls; 879 boys) aged between 10-12 years. Evidence for construct-validity of the four tasks using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and adequacy indices confirmed a good fit of...

O Programa Transforma foi o Programa Oficial de Educação Olímpica e Paralímpica Rio 2016 com o objetivo de ensinar valores, promover ideais e contribuir para o desenvolvimento humano. O presente estudo examina seu legado educacional explorando o desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais, a formação olímpica e a partilha de experiência entre os profes...

The objectives of the study were to develop a Portuguese version of Attention to Body Shape Scale (ABS), estimate the psychometric properties of the ABS for Brazilian data, and compare the ABS scores between the sexes and the different sample characteristics. The Portuguese version was developed following a standardized protocol. The factorial and...

Grasmick et al.’s Low Self-Control Scale (LSCS) is considered the gold-standard of self-control measures due to the frequency of its use in criminology. The aim of the present study is to examine the psychometric properties of the LSCS from a more modern psychometric perspective and develop a shorter version. Our sample consisted of young adults (N...

The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a long-established test to screen for dementia, estimate the severity and monitor the progression of cognitive impairment. The MMSE total score is dependent upon demographic factors, particularly education, but little is known about how education influences the 6 distinct MMSE cognitive domains. The prese...

Since psychosocial factors have some impact on andropause, and this phenomenon can affect conjugal relationships (and women tend to be health information seekers) it becomes important to study the representations of andropause using the Common-Sense Model - a model used to understand the representations of menopause. This research aimed to assess P...

Introduction The influence of burnout, academic engagement, and their interaction in dropout intention among medical students should be further studied. Current research shows its consequences are relevant, however, there is little understanding on burnout and academic engagement moderation in dropout intention. The current study tested a model tha...

Objective: We examined time perspective in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Prior research has shown that aMCI is associated with difficulties in experiencing time duration and succession. However, this line of inquiry has not been extended to time perspective. We examined associations between aMCI and multiple dimensions of...

Risk perception is a psychological construct influenced by the available information about specific illnesses or conditions and several psychosocial variables. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand people´s perceptions about the illness and their subsequent behaviour. In the present study we aimed to assess risk and...

Introducción: el compromiso académico hace referencia a la predisposición que los estudiantes tienen a participar de manera activa en la vida universitaria, asistiendo a las clases, entregando los trabajos a tiempo y siguiendo las instrucciones de los docentes. Existe evidencia que demuestra que el compromiso académico predice positivamente el éxit...

The Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) has been used to assess the impact that oral health problems can have on an individual’s life. Different theoretical models were proposed to evaluate the results. The aims of this study were to evaluate the fit of different factorial models of the OHIP-14 to non-dental patients (NDP) and dental patients (...

The Dark Triad composed of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, and also self-control are consistently related to 10 antisocial and criminal externalizing outcomes. In the present study, we examined whether self-control mediates the relationships between the Dark Triad and delinquency, conduct disorder, and crime seriousness outcomes. The...

ObjectivesThis is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To compare the effectiveness of different individual interventions in recovery from work.

PurposeConfirmatory factor analysis was employed to investigate an instrument developed to assess body satisfaction of Brazilian women and men and to identify participants’ body satisfaction level.Methods Brazilian young adults completed the Body Satisfaction Situational Scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire. A total of 1481 individuals (femal...

Self-control and psychopathy are correlated with antisocial behaviors among diverse samples, and a spate of recent studies examined their direct associations with criminal outcomes. However, research has largely overlooked mediation effects between psychopathy, self-control and deviant outcomes. The current study examined self-control mediation eff...

It is vital to study spectator responses to environmental campaigns to advance environmental sustainability initiatives. Therefore, this investigation aimed to identify which factors influence spectator sustainable transport intentions and perform a spectator segmentation based on their responses. Data were collected from 355 spectators at an inter...

The present study set out to explore the impact of beliefs and coping strategies to manage UI, as well as UI symptoms on sexual function, social isolation, and work productivity in peri-/post-menopausal women.

Background. Due to the different factorial models available for the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS), a psychometric study is needed to identify the most appropriate structure of the scale for a Brazilian sample. Objectives: to estimate the psychometric properties of the SPAS when applied to a sample of Brazilian adults and to explore a factori...

Objectives To perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) to the Portuguese language and estimate its internal consistency in a sample of Brazilian young adults. Methods The cross-cultural adaptation process followed international references based on five stages (translation, synthesis, back-translation, expe...

Hosting the Olympics is subject to socio-educational outcomes, which can represent intangible and peripheral assets for host communities. The current study explores the Games’ intangible legacy on teachers’ attitudes at different points in time. Data were collected among teachers who attended the Rio 2016 Education Program at three different stages...

Objectives Relationship quality (RQ) between a person with dementia and a family carer may influence their health and quality of life. However, evidence regarding its course and influencing factors is limited. We aimed to explore RQ trajectories in dementia, and identify predictors of change. Methods We analysed longitudinal data from a cohort of...

Objective: to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Work Limitations Questionnaire and to measure presenteeism in a sample of nursing workers. Method: a cross-sectional study, with non-probabilistic sampling. Data was collected between July 2018 and February 2019 in two high-complexity hospitals, and the sample was composed of 304 particip...

The study's objectives were to adapt the Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES) to Brazilian Portuguese, estimate its psychometric properties in a sample of young adults, and verify (separately for each sex) the relationship between age and BMI and dietary intake during stress. Adaptation of the SSES to Portuguese was performed according to the consol...

Different methodologies applied in human and non‐human primate studies limit the comparisons that can be made. The early communicative gestures of 10 children between 7 and 12 months were analysed using a descriptive approach usually found in non‐human primate studies. Silent‐visual gestures were the most used, followed by contact and audible gestu...

An individual's capacity for self-control is an important factor when considering the link between aggression and delinquency outcomes. The aim of the present study is to examine the possible role of self-control as a moderator of the aggression-antisociality/delinquency link among a sample of 567 youth (M = 15.91 years, SD = .99 years, age range =...

The Dark Triad is a term used to describe a constellation of three socially undesirable personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Dirty Dozen scale, a brief measure of the Dark Triad, among a sample of 412 at-risk youths from Portugal (M = 13.19...

Background: Studies of previous pandemics indicate that healthcare workers have a high risk of developing symptoms related to mental health, especially depression, anxiety, and stress. Objective: To identify mental disorder symptoms among Brazilian healthcare workers during the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic and compare findings in different work categorie...

Excess skin and disordered eating behaviors are referred to as some of the major negative consequences of bariatric surgery as well as body image shame. This study sought to explore how discomfort with excessive skin, body image shame, psychological distress, eating-related psychopathology, and negative urgency interact to understand uncontrolled e...

Health information sources and the level of trust in a particular source may influence the subsequent adoption of advocated health behaviors. Information source preference and levels of trust are also likely to be influenced by sociodemographic (culture, age, gender) variables. Understanding these source-trust-behavior relationships across various...

The aims for this study were to perform a Portuguese language cross-cultural adaptation of the Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS) and to evaluate the scale’s psychometric properties, including verifying the frequency of behaviors characteristic of orthorexia nervosa and healthy orthorexia, among a group of Brazilian gym users. First, we adapted the Span...

Frequent body checking and avoidance are commonly related to psychopathologies; therefore, these behaviors are important to be investigated with appropriate measures. In this study, we investigated the factorial model for Body Checking and Avoidance Questionnaire (BCAQ) and used the structure with the best fit to the data to verify the frequency of...

Objective To identify people with history of mental health disorders before the COVID-19 pandemic in the Brazilian population and estimate the prevalence of mood swings and the subjective distress of the pandemic among individuals with or without mental health disorders. Methods Through an online survey, participants were asked about presence or a...

The aim of the present study is to examine the possible role of psychopathic traits as a moderator of the aggression-antisociality/delinquency link. Our sample was composed of 567 youth (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, age range = 14-18 years) from Portugal. Results indicated that psychopathic features significantly moderate four different forms...

Urinary Incontinence (UI) is a public health problem of high prevalence among peri- and post-menopausal women and UI dysfunctional coping may result into symptoms’ worsening. This study aimed to establish evidence of the validity and reliability of The Coping Strategies Instrument - a scale designed to access functional and dysfunctional coping str...

Background The goal of this article was to research the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF(PT) instrument in a sample of elderly citizens residing in a rural area in their own homes or at family members’ or friends’ homes and to compare the results: (i) to those reported by the team of Portuguese researchers that undertaken the instrument's...

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was originally proposed in the English language to measure the individual’s overall perception in relation to life. The study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of SWLS when applied to young adults and estimate the influence of demographic characteristics on life satisfaction, in a non-probabilistic...

Openness toward organizational change is central to employees' responses to organiza-tions' strategic actions. This study aims to assess the validity evidence of the Openness Toward Organizational Change Scale (OTOCS) by examining the internal structure of the measure (e.g., dimensionality, reliability, measurement invariance) and its relations wit...

Objective This study aimed to estimate the psychometric properties of the Body Area Scale (BAS) applied to a sample of Brazilian university students to support the validity and reliability of the obtained data. Methods We performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the Comparative Fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), and Root Mean Squ...

Academic engagement describes students’ investment in academic learning and achievement and is an important indicator of students’ adjustment to university life, particularly in the first year. A tridimensional conceptualization of academic engagement has been accepted (behavioral, emotional and cognitive dimensions). This paper tests the dimension...