Maria Barbosa Ducharne

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Porto

Background According to the DSM-5, attachment disorders can be categorized as two distinct types: Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED). The literature has suggested that children who have experienced emotional and social care deprivation tend to show signs of these disorders. Thus, attachment is a ce...

The school represents one of the primary developmental contexts for children. Therefore, teachers are in a privileged position to enable their well-being, satisfaction and integration in school. Regarding adopted children, the teacher’s role becomes even more crucial in overcoming the specific challenges they may encounter in the school context due...

A população NEET (Not in Employment, Education and Training) representava, no 3º trimestre de 2023, 9.4% da população portuguesa e 9.9% da população jovem da zona Norte. O impacto psicológico individual e socioeconómico global de ser NEET tem sido crescentemente reconhecido. Este estudo pretende identificar as dimensões psicológicas que caracteriza...

Background: Entering the labour market constitutes an essential task for adolescents transitioning to adulthood, which is particularly challenging for those from vulnerable backgrounds, such as youth with experience in Residential Care (RC). Failure in the transition from education to the labour market places youth in NEET (Not in Employment, Educa...

In recent years, adoption research has been paying increased attention to the lived experience of adoption, mainly from the adoptees’ perspective. This study considers the adoption experience as lived by the adoptive parents. Also, typically, parent-child influences have been described following the cascade metaphor, with downstream influences from...

O insucesso na transição da educação para o mercado de trabalho coloca os jovens em situação NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). De facto, a entrada no mercado de trabalho constitui importante transição na trajetória desenvolvimental, particularmente desafiadora para os jovens sem retaguarda familiar. Em Portugal, em 2022 a população N...

There are several motives underlying the process of deciding to become an adoptive family. However, research exploring this issue is scarce and essentially focused on infertility as the main motivation. The present mixed‐method study aims to fill in this gap by exploring, retrospectively, the motives to adopt of 126 Portuguese adoptive parents. The...

In Portugal in 2021, 85% of children placed in out-of-home care were in non-specialized residential care. Evidence on discipline strategies used in these childcare contexts is scarce. This study aims at analyzing the discipline strategies used by caregivers in residential care based on multiple informants’ reports - children/adolescents in care, ca...

Revitalizing Residential Care for Children and Youth: Cross-National Trends and Challenges addresses the question of how societies with developed welfare and social service systems assess current needs and future directions in their residential child and youth care sectors. This includes dealing with historical concerns raised about the placement o...

There are several motives underlying the process of deciding to become an adoptive family. However, research exploring this issue is scarce and essentially focused on infertility as the main motivation. The present mixed-method study aims to fill in this gap by exploring the motives to adopt of 126 Portuguese adoptive parents. The Parents’ Intervie...

Adoption provides a unique opportunity to study the simultaneous effect on adoptees’ development of environmental influences related to adoptive parenting, and children’s biology-based characteristics. In this paper, two Hybrid Dyadic Models were tested to study the mediational role of the adoptees’ negative reactivity on the relationship between m...

Keynote presented at ICAR 7 Abstract: The ability to adaptively function in social contexts and to engage in positive social relationships, establishing and maintaining friendships and close relationships has been labeled social competence. There is multiple evidence showing that this ability can be hampered by early adversity. Experiences of abus...

Background: The NEET population - Not in Employment, Education, and Training - accounts for 10,3% of the Portuguese population and 9,5% of the young population in Northern Portugal. Being NEET has an important psychological meaning for those who are in this situation, and constitutes a socially and economically expensive reality for the community/s...

In Portugal, 98% children under the age of three removed from their birth families are living in Residential Care (RC) centres. The early placement of children in RC can dramatically affect their development. This study aims to: identify the frequency of internalizing, externalizing and total problems, as well as the average number of words used by...

Em Portugal, 98% das crianças com menos de três anos de idade retiradas das suas famílias de nascimento vivem em casas de Acolhimento Residencial (AR). A colocação precoce de crianças em AR pode afetar drasticamente seu desenvolvimento. Este estudo tem como objetivo: identificar a frequência de Problemas de Internalização, Externalização e Total, b...

Parenting stress is related to the characteristics of both the child and the parents, as well as to parent–child interactions. In adoptive families, parenting stress has been identified as an indicator of the family's adjustment to adoption. The stress experienced by parents of adopted adolescents deserves special consideration, as adolescence is a...

This study examines how adolescents’ perceptions of fathers’ and mothers’ parenting behaviors predict outcomes in the domains of academic achievement and social skills, and whether these outcomes differ according to the adolescents’ gender. Participants included 168 students enrolled in the 10th (13.14%) and 11th (86.86%) grade in the only two publ...

Objective To explore potential postadoption moderators of the link between preadoption experiences and adoptees' social competence. Background In the context of the limited and inconsistent knowledge about adopted children's social competence, our hypotheses concern the interplay between preadoption parental neglect and adoptive parents' emotion s...

Restriction of living environment refers to limits, rules, and structures in place in an out‐of‐home residential placement for children/youth. This article describes the process of revising a measure of out‐of‐home living restrictiveness to be culturally congruent for Portugal, providing preliminary data on validity and reliability, and discusses t...

Adoption involves strong emotions. From the adoptee’s point of view, adoption means not only the gain of a new family but also inevitable losses. This study aims at analyzing adoption-related feelings, which include the feelings of loss and the ensuing curiosity about the birth family and pre-adoption life. A total of 81 adopted adolescents, aged 1...

In Portugal there are more than 8,000 children in Residential Care (RC). Seventy-seven children in RC (63.6% boys) participated in this study. Using the ASEBA Battery it was possible to observe that the participants presented clinical levels of mental health problems (mainly the girls), which were related to the reasons of being in care and the kin...

Adoption provides stability, loving care, security, and family interactions for children that have been separated from their birth parents. It also entails many challenges and difficulties, especially for adoptees in middle childhood, since feelings of loss can be particularly strong at this developmental stage. Aiming to use empirical evidence to...

Research suggests that mental health problems in adolescents in residential care (RC) are more prevalent than for youth in the community, and that psychosocial competencies are protective factors of mental health. This study compared adolescents in RC in Portugal, with a Portuguese community sample on the incidence of mental health problems and psy...

Residential care (RC) in Portugal accounts for almost 90% of out-of-home placements of children. Since the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are the most commonly used psychological (mal)adjustment screening instruments, it is important to analyze their comparative validity specifically in the context of...

O sistema de acolhimento residencial português é composto por mais de 400 casas de acolhimento sobre a tutela de cinco en-dades diferentes. As casas de acolhimento têm um certo grau de autonomia quanto ao po de cuidados que disponibilizam às crian-ças e jovens aí acolhidos e são muito dis ntas entre si nos recursos (incluindo recursos humanos) e no...

In the decision making process for becoming an adoptive family, several underlying motivations can be found. Adoption literature has shown that parents’ adoption motivations can influence the adoption process itself and the parent-child relationship success. However, scarce research exploring the adoption-related motivations in depth has been devel...

Adoption is as old as humanity. However, the way we think, practice and assess adoption has suffered many changes over time. Currently adoption is guided by the best interest of the child and prioritizes the well-being of the adoptee, being recognized as increasingly more frequent way of building a family. The acceptance and valorization of adoptio...

Este artigo apresenta o Questionário de Estilos Educativos Parentais revisto (QEEP-r), que oferece uma medida da perceção dos adolescentes quanto aos estilos educativos parentais (tal como a sua primeira versão, o QEEP), mas distinguindo o alvo da avaliação em pai e mãe e focando a dimensão da promoção da autonomia. São estudadas as propriedades ps...

Purpose A rich and heterogeneous body of knowledge about adoption breakdown has accumulated in recent years. The goal of this article is to review the existing research literature on the topic. Method A comprehensive review of journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports addressing the issue of adoption breakdown was conducted. Results...

Purpose The main goals were to determine the incidence of preadoption breakdown in Portugal, describe preadoptive parents’ reasons for ending placement, compare intact/disrupted placements, and identify adoption disruption risk and protective factors. Method A matched design involving a case file analysis of 71 disrupted and 71 intact preadoptive...

Adopted adolescents are frequently identified as being at risk in terms of social competence. This study aimed at analysing the social competence of a group of adopted adolescents, by comparing them with a group of adolescents in residential care and another one with no referral to Child Protection Services. One-hundred-thirty-five adolescents aged...

Adoption experiences are emotionally embedded and take on an individual meaning which influences the unique emotionality of the adoptee’s adoption history. Even when the adoption experiences are positive and adoptees show a good psychological adjustment, the adoption history triggers a mixture of feelings and negative emotions are less acknowledged...

El ajuste psicológico de los adolescentes adoptados ha sido ampliamente estudiado. Aunque varios autores informan que estos adolescentes tienen problemas de ajuste en comparación a los adolescentes no adoptados, otros apuntan a la ausencia de problemas de ajuste de este grupo. La exploración de las cuestiones da identidad es más complexa en este gr...

La adopción no sólo significa el gaño de una nueva familia, sino también la pérdida inevitable. El presente estudio pretende analizar los sentimientos de pérdida inherentes a la adopción, manifestados por la curiosidad sobre la familia biológica y la vida antes de la adopción y los sentimientos negativos que los adolescentes nutren sobre sí mismos,...

Understanding if adoptees present a higher risk of developing psychological problems, compared to non-adopted peers, is a research topic that has aroused considerable interest. This paper reviews research results focusing on the psychological adjustment in intercountry and domestic adopted adolescents. Two hundred and fifty-eight publications were...

The establishment of emotional bonds is one of the most important tasks of the adoptive family. Most research about attachment in adoption focuses on young adopted children, as opposed to adoptees in other stages of development. The present study aims at assessing the adopted adolescents' self-perception of attachment relationships with their adopt...

The experience of being adopted and the development of an adoption related identity are unique and dependent on both individual and interpersonal variables. The way the adoption story is lived can have an impact on the adoptee's wellbeing and adaptation, both at home and in the school context. The goal of this study is to analyze, from the adoptee'...

Background: Acknowledgement/rejection of adoption related differences and communication about adoption are two of the most important features of adoptive family dynamics. The present study focuses on the role played by these two variables on the adoptees’ emotion regulation. Method: The adoptive parents of 70 school-aged children participated in th...

The psychological well-being of adopted individuals has been a great concern in the investigation in adoption field for many decades. However, studies in this particular area have not always been conclusive in determining if adoption works as a successful intervention measure in the development of a healthy psychological adjustment of children who...

A adoção é tão antiga como a humanidade. Contudo, a maneira como a pensamos, praticamos e avaliamos tem sofrido muitas mudanças ao longo do tempo. Atualmente, a adoção orienta-se pelo superior interesse da criança, tem como prioridade o bem-estar do adotado e é reconhecida como uma outra forma de constituir família cada vez mais frequente. A aceita...

Communication about adoption is a family interaction process which is more than the simple exchange of information. Adoption communication can be characterized in terms of the level of openness of family conversations regarding the child's past and the degree of the family's adoption social disclosure. The objective of this study is to explore the...

Adopted adolescents are frequently identified as at risk in regard to the development of behavior problems, but there is very little scientific evidence concerning their social competence. The aim of this study was to analyze the perceived social competence of a group of adopted adolescents, by comparing them with a group of adolescents that had no...

The development of attachment relationships between adopted children and their adoptive parents has been the focus of many research in the adoption field for many decades. However, most of research about attachment focuses on young children, as opposed to other stages of development such as adolescence, where a wide range of physical, psychological...

Adoption communication is a key topic in adoption research. Still there are few studies which address adoption communication simultaneously in terms of quantity, quality and content of communication, taking into account specific age groups of adoptees. The main purpose of this study is to characterize family adoption communication according to pare...

Sexual satisfaction has been related to communication with the partner and with contraceptive self-efficacy. This study aims to examine sex differences not only at sexual satisfaction, communication skills with a new sexual partner, and perception of contraceptive self-efficacy, but also the associations between these variables. The sample consiste...

Este estudo tem como objetivo validar, em uma população portuguesa jovem, a Escala de Percepção de Funcionamento Parental (EPFP) desenvolvida com base na versão espanhola Estilos Educativos Materno y Paterno. Seiscentos e cinco participantes, equitativamente divididos pelos dois sexos, responderam à EPFP. A estrutura fatorial original composta por...

This study aimed to validate the Parental Functioning Perception Scale – Mother and Father (EPFP), as the Portuguese language version of the Spanish scale Estilos Educativos Materno y Paterno (Maternal and Paternal Educational Styles). A sample of 605 college students participated, equally divided by gender, who responded to the EPFP regarding the...

Approximately 8000 Portuguese children are currently in residential care. In 2012, they represented more than 90% of all the children that the protection system has separated from their biological family for their own good. Residential care for children and young people in Portugal developed and has changed, until now, without a service quality eva...

Child socialisation settings as well and the way they intertwine to form daily and weekly routines, play an outstanding role in children’s development. In order to know the organization and diversity of Portuguese four-year-olds’ socialisation settings, a survey was conducted on a national representative sample, within the scope of a larger interna...

Residential care (RC) of children in Portugal has changed without an evaluation of its quality and the improvements made were not based on sound criteria. Little research has been carried out in Portugal on residential child care emphasizing the relevance of a study on the quality assessment of the Portuguese RC system. The results of a pilot study...

Understanding the complexity of school failure and school dropout has been one of the main concerns of research in recent decades, being not only the object of general interest, but also providing the substance for critics regarding a school of masses. The present research focuses on the analysis of family and individual predictors of adolescents’...

Considering that any adoptive family is primarily a family, that grandparents are an integral part of the family and that currently the different generations of a family have more opportunities for socializing for increasingly extended periods of time along the life-span, the purpose of this study is to analyse the adoption process from an intergen...

In adoption, gains and losses are closely connected. A common characteristic of all adoptees is the experience of relinquishment or separation from their birth parents, losing the possibility of growing up in their birth family, and the gain of a new family of which they have become a member. Adoption losses are related to the loss of the birth fam...

l acogimiento residencial es una de las medidas de promoción y protección de los niños y jóve-nes en peligro consagradas en la legislación nacional portuguesa y representa más del 90% de las medidas de colocación extra familiar aplicadas en Portugal. A diferencia de la legislación española (Ley de Acogimiento y Adopción de 1987 y Ley Orgánica de Pr...

This article describes the evolution of residential care for children and young people in Portugal and how it developed. Institutional care in Portugal has changed and is still changing, but achieved improvements are not truly based on sound criteria and wide service quality evaluation. In comparison to Spanish reality, a research review in Portuga...

Understanding the complexity of school failure and school dropout has been one of the main concerns of research in recent decades, being not only the object of general interest, but also providing the substance for critics regarding a school of masses. The present research focuses on the analysis of family and individual predictors of adolescents'...

Considering that an adoptive family is above all a family, that the grandparents are an essential part of the family and that currently the various generations of a family have more opportunities for interaction for increasingly extended periods of time, it seems appropriate to introduce an intergenerational approach in family processes, such the a...

The purpose of this study is to confirm the structural validity of the Questioná-rio de Estilos Educativos Parentais (QEEP) in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. This instrument is an adaptation of the Parenting Scales to the Portuguese popu-lation and intends to evaluate adolescents' perceptions of the rearing style of their parents. It is compos...

The purpose of this study is to confirm the structural validity of the Questioná-rio de Estilos Educativos Parentais (QEEP) in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. This instrument is an adaptation of the Parenting Scales to the Portuguese popu-lation and intends to evaluate adolescents' perceptions of the rearing style of their parents. It is compos...

Este estudo tem como objectivo confirmar a estrutura factorial do Questionário de Estilos Educativos Parentais (QEEP) numa amostra de adolescentes portugueses. Este instrumento constitui a versão adaptada à população portuguesa das Parenting Scales e pretende avaliar a percepção que os adolescentes têm dos estilos educativos dos pais. É composto po...

The purpose of this study is to confirm the structural validity of the Questionário de Estilos Educativos Parentais (QEEP) in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. This instrument is an adaptation of the Parenting Scales to the Portuguese population and intends to evaluate adolescents' perceptions of the rearing style of their parents. It is composed...

Apesar de a discussáo das questóes relativas ¿ educaqáo das crian9as no contexto familiar ter provavelmente urna história táo longa quanto a própria história da familia, a intervengan estruturada e intencionalizada na parentalidade é algo de relativamente recente. Ao longo deste artigo pretendemos mostrar que a intervengáo na parentalidade faz uso...

The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children has been used widely by researchers and practicians interested in young children’ self-perception. Considering both the advantages of a reliable and valid instrument of young children self-perception assessment, and that a sound use of this scale with children diff...

The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children has been used widely by researchers and practicians interested in young children' self-perception. Considering both the advantages of a reliable and valid instrument of young children self-perception assessment, and that a sound use of this scale with children diff...

Provas de Aptidão Pedagógica e Capacidade Científica, relatório de aula

Provas de Aptidão Pedagógica e Capacidade Científica, trabalho de síntese