Maria Gaspar

• Phd
• Professor (Associate) at University of Coimbra

Parenting programs have proven effective in reducing disruptive child behavior. However, not all families benefit equally, and, to date, we have little insight into who benefits more or less and why. One possible solution is to explore how different potential moderators cluster together in individual families and whether such family profiles predic...

Parenting programs have proven effective in reducing disruptive child behavior. However, not all families benefit equally, and, to date, we have little insight into who benefits more or less, and why. One possible solution is to explore how different potential moderators cluster together in individual families and whether such family profiles predi...

The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management program (IY-TCM) is an evidence-based program with documented effectiveness and positive outcomes for teachers, children and parents. However, most of the research relies on quantitative approaches, with fewer qualitative studies exploring teachers' personal perspectives. The aim of this study is t...

Practitioners are recognized as one of the key components that make parenting interventions meaningful and helpful to families, and the impact of practitioners' skills on the outcomes of parenting interventions has been consistently recognized in research. However, the mechanisms and ongoing processes through which the practitioners' actions and sk...

Introduction The delivery of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that are developmentally school-based and evidence-based has the potential to benefit many children, and as such, greater efforts are needed to disseminate these programs more widely within the community. The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management (IY-TCM) has shown p...

Parental burnout (PB) is a pervasive phenomenon. Parenting is embedded in cultural values, and previous research has shown the role of individualism in PB. In this paper, we reanalyze previously collected data to identify profiles based on the four dimensions of PB, and explore whether these profiles vary across countries’ levels of collectivistic-...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Practitioners' characteristics and actions influence the implementation of evidence-based programs, but little is known about the practitioner's role in the implementation of parent-based programs. The present qualitative study is the first to explore the perceptions of parents and professionals regarding the practitioners' characteristics and acti...

What is it to be “an ideal parent”? Does the answer differ across countries and social classes? To answer these questions in a way that minimizes bias and ethnocentrism, we used open-ended questions to explore ideal-parent beliefs among 8,357 mothers and 3,517 fathers from 37 countries. Leximancer Semantic Network Analysis was utilized to first det...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Transition to school may be experienced as a critical event for both children and their families. Within an ecological framework of transition, the scope of the concept of school readiness in recent years has decentered from the child to the environment, including the readiness of (pre)school education to develop core skills in children. This study...

Little attention has been given to the role of practitioners in evidence-based parenting programs and to the evaluation that parents make of their importance in the process of change. This study aims to explore the role that parents assign to the facilitators of the Incredible Years (IY) program in enabling long-term life changes, as well as the as...

There is a social gradient to the determinants of health; low socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked to reduced educational attainment and employment prospects, which in turn affect physical and mental wellbeing. One goal of preventive interventions, such as parenting programs, is to reduce these health inequalities by supporting families with...

Coparenting conflict is predictive of parents’ and children’s adjustment to divorce. An accurate assessment of postdivorce acrimonious coparenting relationships is critical for research, clinical, forensic, and public policy purposes. The Acrimony Scale (AS) is a measure commonly used to assess coparenting conflict. We translated and cross-cultural...

Research Findings: The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY-TCM) program has shown efficacy in reducing behavioral problems and improving social skills among children experiencing poverty. However, quantitative studies that concentrate on its efficacy in relation to “proximal classroom outcomes” (e.g., classroom emotional and manageria...

In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even...

Impact and Implications The results of this unique international study by the International Investigation of Parental Burnout – which includes Western and non-Western countries across the globe – point to the importance of considering parental burnout as a syndrome helping to meet specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of all the potentiall...

Objective: This work aimed to analyze parental burnout (PB) and establish a comparison between the times before (Wave 1) and during (Wave 2) the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional stress to families. The pandemic could be particularly difficult for parents experiencing parental burnout, a condition that involves...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...

Enquadramento: Os problemas de comportamentos, entre eles a hiperatividade, podem estar presentes tão cedo como em idade pré-escolar e são cada vez mais identificados nesta faixa etária. A investigação nesta área tem demonstrado que a intervenção precoce, antes de estarem presentes efeitos secundários negativos, é eficaz, podendo contribuir para pr...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...

This study aimed to examine the validity of the Brazilian–Portuguese version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA), the current gold‐standard measure of parental burnout (PB). We surveyed parents in Portugal (N = 407) and Brazil (N = 301). We (a) compared the factor structure of the Brazilian–Portuguese version with the original structure of the...

The present review systematically explored research examining the relationship between therapist-related factors and the outcomes of parent interventions directed at children's behavior problems. A systematic search of the literature was conducted with online scientific databases, parenting programs, web sites, and bibliographic references of the s...

Parent interventions are the most effective type of interventions for the prevention and treatment of children and adolescent behavior problems. Primarily directed at parents, most of them are parenting programs, which are generally structured, short-term interventions, provided individually or in a group format, by a range of helping professionals...

Children vary in the extent to which they benefit from parenting programs for conduct problems. How does parental mental health change if children benefit less or more? We assessed whether changes in conduct problems and maternal depressive symptoms co-occur following participation in the Incredible Years parenting program. We integrated individual...

Objetivo Compreender o impacto de uma formação breve centrada em estratégias de parentalidade positiva e gestão do comportamento de crianças em idade pré-escolar no aconselhamento realizado por profissionais dos cuidados de saúde primários (CSP). Método Participaram 152 profissionais (e.g., enfermeiros, médicos, psicólogos) de unidades dos CSP do...

Background: Childhood conduct problems are a costly public health problem and are five times more common in socially disadvantaged groups than they are in advantaged groups. Untreated, conduct problems have a poor prognosis, with increasing gaps between socioeconomic groups, and high rates of subsequent criminality. Incredible Years is a high qual...

The literature provides solid documentation of the negative consequences of poor psychosocial functioning and behavioral problems in early childhood. Children facing economic disadvantage are at higher risk for poor socio-emotional development and problem behaviors, which draws attention to the need for prevention targeted at this risk group. The a...

Purpose: Conjunctival melanoma is a rare but potentially lethal tumor. Its biologic profile is still largely unknown, with recent studies aiming at establishing histopathological and genetic tumor profiles. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between clinicopathological characteristics and tumor expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX...

The purpose of this study was to present the Portuguese version of the Teacher-Pupil Observation Tool (T-POT), in terms of agreement and reliability among observers and the categories of behaviors observed in teachers when used in preschool setting. Three observers were trained in scoring 11 T-POT teacher's behavior categories. Subsequently, 65 pre...

Objective. To identify the main difficulties first-time mothers experience in the postpartum period, during the first six months of the baby’s life. Methods. Level I qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study. The sample consisted of 11 first-time mothers of full-term healthy newborns. The data were collected through the “focus group” method. The...

This study explored the correspondence and differences between school staff perceptions of preschool children's social skills and behavior problems. One hundred preschoolers were assessed by 14 pairs of teachers and classroom aides with the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – 2nd Edition (PKBS‐2 Portuguese version). Indexes of agreement an...

Purpose Conjunctival melanoma is a rare but potentially lethal tumour. Its biologic profile is still largely unknown, with recent studies aiming at establishing histopathological and genetic tumour profiles. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between clinicopathological characteristics and tumour expression of cyclooxygenase‐2 (CO...

O rastreio e encaminhamento precoces de crianças em risco de Perturbação de Hiperatividade/ Défice de Atenção constituem desafios para médicos de cuidados primários, pediatras, psicólogos e pedopsiquiatras, interessados em interromper trajetórias de desenvolvimento desadaptativas. Este artigo analisa características psicométricas da versão portugue...

Objectives: To determine if experienced health care providers (HCPs) can recognise patients with fibromyalgia (FM) based on a limited set of personality items, exploring the existence of a FM personality. Methods: From the 240-item NEO-PI-R personality questionnaire, 8 HCPs from two different countries each selected 20 items they considered most...

Nas últimas duas décadas a investigação científica a nível internacional tem-se debruçado consistentemente sobre o tema das competências socioemocionais, dando importantes contributos para a sua conceptualização e suporte empírico ao papel fundamental destas competências na saúde-mental, no bem-estar e no sucesso académico ao longo da vida. Este li...

A «PLENatITUDE» é uma metodologia de formação de professores desenvolvida num contexto de um projeto do Doutoramento em Ciências da Educação, especialização em Formação de Professores, da Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra. Tem dois objetivos gerais : (1) promover uma prática docente eficiente fundamentada em...

The aims of this study were to examine the efficacy of the Incredible Years program (IY) with Portuguese families of preschoolers, moderator and mediator effects, and sustainability of results. Design: randomized controlled design with pre- and post-intervention, and 12 and 18 months assessments. Participants: 124 children aged 3–6 years, at risk o...

A Licenciatura em Ciências da Educação na Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra comemora 25 anos da sua existência, no mesmo ano em que a Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências da Educação celebra o mesmo aniversário e a Faculdade em que se integra perfaz 35 anos da sua existência. Estando prevista desde a criação das...

This qualitative and exploratory study aims to understand the perceptions of professionals, who work in a day care centre and a mental health service for children (Psychosocial Attention Centre for Childhood – CAPSi), about the formal parental social support they offer within contexts of adversity. It also aims to understand the perceptions of pare...

This paper analyses the improvement over 12 months of two groups of Portuguese preschoolers after a parental intervention with the Incredible Years Basic Parent Program (IY). The groups were defined by the children’s initial levels of hyperactivity behaviors (High-hyperactivity, n = 34; Low-hyperactivity, n = 18). Changes in the children´s reported...

O objetivo desta pesquisa consistiu em reforçar os estudos de validade e de precisão da escala de Sentido de Competência Parental (PSOC) com pais de crianças portuguesas. O estudo assentou numa amostra de 436 pais de crianças com 3 a 6 anos. A AFC confirmou o ajustamento dos dados a um modelo de dois fatores (Satisfação e Eficácia). As duas subesca...

The main goal of this research was to reinforce validity and reliability studies of the Parenting Sense of Competence scale (PSOC) with parents of Portuguese children. The study was based on a sample of 436 parents of 3 to 6 year old children. CFA confirmed the data adjustment to a bi-factorial model (Satisfaction and Efficacy). Both subscales had...

Children with behavior externalizing disorders are difficult to cope with and might have a negative impact on parent–child interactions and couples relationships, as well as on parents’ psychological adjustment. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of a parent training program [Incredible Years (IY) Basic Program] for improving positive re...

Children in residential care have experienced high levels of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and behaviour control by staff is an issue of concern. This study evaluated a parenting intervention, Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme (IY), delivered in Portuguese short-term residential child care centres. In a non-randomised control...

The aim of the present study was to investigate residential child care staff satisfaction with their involvement in the Webster-Stratton Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme (IY). In an exploratory, not randomized study, 27 professionals from two different short-term Portuguese residential child care centres (IG1, n = 15; IG2; n = 12) completed...

There is lack of research on the importance of including fathers in parent training programs. This study’s´ main purpose is to examine the short-term effects of fathers attending an Incredible Years Parent Training (IY) for Portuguese preschoolers with oppositional/defiant symptoms. Thirty-six children (whose fathers were willing to attend a parent...

Residential child care has to be a quality answer to the children who are in placements. Positive professional care practices are crucial. In Portugal, little has been done to equip residential child care staff with effective child behavior management strategies. This paper provides an overview of the state of the Portuguese residential child care...

Child abuse attains, by its individual, family and social consequences, in the short, medium and long run, a leading role in what concerns child protection, and it is therefore becoming a pressing social and political concern. The data of the Portuguese protective system draw attention to the high rates of reopening of promotion and protection proc...

Background Evidence-based psychosocial interventions such as parent training programs are strongly recommended as first-line treatment for preschool-age children with or at-risk of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). Objective Evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible Years Basic Parent Training (IY) in hyperactive and inattentive...

To evaluate the 12-month efficacy of a parent-based intervention programme on children's and mothers' outcomes in a sample of Portuguese preschoolers displaying early hyperactive and inattentive behaviours (AD/HD behaviours), 52 preschool children whose mothers had received the Incredible Years basic parent training (IY) were followed from baseline...

Externalizing Behavior Disorder (EBD) are one of the major causes for searching mental health services in preschool children. However, there still is no agreement to what concerns making diagnoses in preschool years. With this literature review, it’s our goal to make a general description of EBD, specially Oppositional Disorder, in preschool years,...

Externalizing Behavior Disorder (EBD) are one of the major causes for searching mental health services in preschool children. However, there still is no agreement to what concerns making diagnoses in preschool years. With this literature review, it's our goal to make a general description of EBD, specially Oppositional Disorder, in preschool years,...

With this literature review we intend to characterize AD/HD in preschool children. In the last years this diagnosis is increasingly being made under the age of 5, stressing the need for a better clarification of early identification and diagnosis. The use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in preschool years has been...

La frecuencia de trastornos de conducta en la infancia parece estar en aumento. Sin embargo, hay evidencias de que en la medida en que los niños y niñas son más jóvenes en el momento de la intervención, serán mejores los efectos en su ajuste comportamental tanto en el domicilio como en el colegio. La educación parental puede ser una forma efectiva...

Parenting education programmes are becoming widespread practices and are being recognized by the scientific community as promising interventions for preventing child maltreatment. However, a diversity of programme objectives and implementation conditions can be related to different outcomes in parental competencies and child adjustment. In this pap...

Purpose - To determine if there were changes in personality’s profile of medical students throughout their academic career in Medical School, and the direction of those changes if confirmed. Method - In this longitudinal study, Revised NEO Personality Inventory was administered at 146 students from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimb...

O presente artigo tem como objetivo fazer uma revisão dos diferentes momentos e processos da avaliação formativa de professores, pressupondo que esta tem como objetivo a melhoria da qualidade do ensino.Deste modo, o artigo apresenta um resumo dos passos a seguir para amelhoria do desempenho docente, esclarecendo em primeiro lugar o papel da avaliaç...

O mal trato infantil assume, pelas suas consequências individuais, familiares e sociais, a curto, médio e longo prazo, um papel preponderante no âmbito da proteção à infância, assume-se como uma preocupação social e política. Os dados do sistema protetivo português apontam para as taxas elevadas de reabertura dos processos de promoção e protecção n...

Child abuse attains, by its individual, family and social consequences, in the short, medium and long run, a leading role in what concerns child protection, and it is therefore becoming a pressing social and political concern. The data of the Portuguese protective system draw attention to the high rates of reopening of promotion and protection proc...

With this literature review we intend to characterize AD/HD in preschool children. In the last years this diagnosis is increasingly being made under the age of 5, stressing the need for a better clarification of early identification and diagnosis. The use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in preschool years has been...

This paper addresses issues related to the agreement between parents and teachers when they assess children's development, and to what extend those assessments are related to children's cognitive abilities. A hundred seventy three preschoolers were independently classified by their parents and teachers regarding different developmental domains. The...

Societal conditions impacting on parenting have radically changed during the past two decades. There is variation between and within societies depending on social, cultural, political and economic factors. Today, Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) services play an increasingly important role in supporting families with young children during birth to t...

The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching quality assessment questionnaire and assess its reliability by using it with a sample of first-year medical students. Principal components analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation resulted in the development of a 12-item, two-component tool, adequate for use in lectures and smallgroup sessions. T...

Definida como uma falta de consistência dos padrões de comportamento familiar e dos sistemas de regulação familiar, a imprevisibilidade familiar surge como um constructo interessante para apreender a forma como a família, e muito particularmente o sub-sistema parental, exerce o seu papel e o seu poder executivo. Pesquisas diversas têm associado mai...

The family unpredictability is defined as a lack of consistency in standards of familiar behaviour and the familiar regulation systems. It is interesting for the understanding of how the family, and particularly the parental subsystem exerts its roles and executive power. Higher family unpredictability has been associated with higher disturbances o...

Poster. I Congresso Internacional “Intervenção com crianças, jovens e famílias”. Braga, 8, 9 e 10 de Fevereiro de 2007.

"Poor teaching performance is tolerated, whereas poor quality in research or substandard patient care is not. It is time to professionalize teaching and education" (Steinert, 2005). The Faculty of Medicine in the University of Coimbra (FMUC), Portugal, is a traditional medical school with no tradition in the evaluation of teaching, and with a consi...

1. Enquadramento do estudo empírico A sociedade moderna espera do médico, competências que ultrapassam largamente as do mero perito técnico (“Medical Expert”). O médico deve ser capaz de compreender o sofrimento alheio sem se deixar dominar por ele, de apaziguar o sofrimento para além da medicação, de transmitir confiança, empatia e esperança, de m...

This paper reports a selection of completed or ongoing studies that have evaluated or applied the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in five countries of Southern Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, and France. In Italy, the SDQ has been used to study its concurrent validity with other norm-based instruments (Child Behavior Checkli...

A recent and compelling study entitled "Neurons to Neighborhoods", conducted by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine (USA) calls attention to the importance of early emotional development in young children. Based on a careful review of neuroscience and developmental science, it highlights compelling evidence that...