Marlene Matos

University of Minho · School of Psychology

This integrative review aims to analyze and synthesize existing literature to inform our understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of domestic violence during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, using a holistic and ecological framework. Utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) study design,...

Research about interpartner agreement on intimate partner violence (IPV) is mainly based on community and clinical samples, with forensic or court-related samples being overlooked. This study assesses interpartner agreement on IPV reports based on the Revised Conflict Tactic Scales, aiming to explore if the proxy method would be reliable in a court...

Technology‐facilitated sexual abuse refers to the use of information and communication technologies to facilitate both virtual and in‐person sexual crimes. Research on this topic has focused on rates, risk factors, and consequences. This scoping review aims to understand whether and how forensic psychological procedures are adapted to assess adoles...

Intimate Partner Violence is a global health issue with higher prevalence worldwide, mostly in women, higher social and economic costs and devastating physical and mental health consequences for the victims. Sleep disturbances has been associated with other mental health issues, being an important symptom when diagnosing post-traumatic stress disor...

Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a tragic event. Studies involving the comparison between IPH and intimate partner homicide-suicide (IPH-S) are scarce, with few studies in Portugal about this issue. The current study aims to compare IPH and IPH-S perpetrators, the victim–perpetrator relationships dynamics, and homicide circumstances. The data was...

An accurate assessment of intimate partner violence (IPV) is crucial to guide public policy and intervention. The Conflict Tactic Scales Revised (CTS-2) is one of the most widely used instruments to do so. Despite its good psychometric properties, research on interpartner agreement has pointed to low-to-moderate estimates, which generated some conc...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is widely recognized as a global public health problem with negative consequences for victims, their families, and society. The child's testimony is essential to the case outcome, given the frequent absence of physical or biological evidence of the abusive acts. Thus, the child forensic interview plays a decisive role in cr...

Some victims of interpersonal violence do not acknowledge or label their experience as criminal. This study aims to explore men’s experiences as victims of intimate partner violence and identify the key elements that contribute to their (un)acknowledgment and needs. We interviewed 10 Portuguese male victims in heterosexual relationships who request...

Stalking is characterized by persistent unwanted behaviors and can disrupt the lives of victims. Its prevalence has been increasing with time. Due to the recent criminalization of stalking in Portugal and its being an understudied phenomenon, the objective of this study is to assess the perceptions of police officers (n = 1212) about stalking post...

Cyber‐harassment refers to a pattern of repeated, intentional, and unwanted annoyances, impositions, threats, or other aggravating actions mediated by Information and Communication Technologies. Globally, substantial proportions of adolescents experience cyber‐harassment, resulting in a host of deleterious health‐related consequences. This study te...

Little is known about help seeking behaviors of male victims of intimate partner violence. This systematic review intends to summarize the help seeking experiences of male victims in terms of the usefulness of the existing services following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews recommendations. Twelve studies from five countries and...

Objective: This systematic review of the literature aims to systematize the current knowledge on psychological treatments implemented with trafficked children and adults, specifically exploring their effect on the mental health recovery of victims. Integrating this information is an important step to informing practice, as well as examining gaps i...

Children who have been trafficked may experience longer-term mental health consequences with a significant impact on all life domains. Key professionals must be prepared and adopt practices that help to prevent and fight child trafficking and the harm caused. This study aims to explore the current knowledge of professionals from Portugal on child t...

Group intervention is the one of the most widely used treatment modality with victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, in Portugal it is a recent practice, and little is known about its usefulness, namely in the female victims’ perspective. A group therapy was implemented with effectiveness proofs, in terms of the expected outcomes. The...

Objective: Little is known about formal help-seeking for mental health issues in survivors of human sex trafficking (ST) and if their experiences are different from those initiating treatment for sexual assault (SA) or domestic violence (DV). This study sought to characterize the clinical and trauma profiles of treatment-seeking survivors of ST as...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major concern across the world, and its prevalence assessment has been a priority in numerous countries. However, data about IPV prevalence in Portugal is scarce and not up-to-date. This study aims to estimate IPV prevalence in Portugal. A community sample of 1392 adults (77.4% female, mean age = 34.95 years, SD...

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...

The present study uses a qualitative approach to explore how Portuguese police perceive human trafficking and the individuals involved. Three hundred and twenty-five professionals (aged 21–54) completed an online survey about human trafficking. The resulting data suggest that Portuguese police have a narrative congruent with the European image of t...

Stalking is commonly perceived as a gendered crime, predominantly affecting women as victims. However, males can also be victims of this crime. Research has found that men may experience different types of behaviours and their coping and help-seeking may be unique due to individual, interpersonal, sociocultural factors and traditional gender stereo...

Trauma‐focused psychotherapies are increasingly offered in community‐based mental health centers, but little is known about treatment dropout in these settings. The current study explored dropout at different stages of treatment in a treatment‐seeking sample of 1,186 adults who experienced interpersonal violence and were offered trauma‐focused and...

This study aims to understand, through victims’ experiences, the impact and subsequent help-seeking and support process. The data was collected in institutional settings, through a semi-structured interview, from nine adult sheltered victims of labor exploitation of both sexes – 2 females and 7 males, aged between 42–67 years (M = 56.67; SD = 8.411...

There is consensus that intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a gender crime and that it is one of the most extreme forms of violence. This study aims to identify the differences and similarities between men and women who committed IPH. Data were collected from 75 criminal cases: 12 homicides perpetrated by women against men and 63 by men against wome...

Intimate partner violence is a well-known social, criminal and health problem. The victim's characteristics have been changing in the last years, however, intimate partner violence against male victims has not yet been the subject of sufficient social or scientific attention. The police, for many victims, is the first contact when calling for help....

Resumo Este estudo visou traduzir, adaptar e verificar evidências de validade da Escala de Crenças sobre Violência Conjugal (ECVC), bem como investigou diferenças nos índices de concordância com crenças legitimadoras de violência conjugal, considerando as variáveis gênero, escolaridade e possuir filhos. Os participantes foram adultos brasileiros (N...

This study aims to explore the knowledge of the Portuguese community on child trafficking. Through an online inventory, with a sample of 492 community members, with a mean age of 40.53 and mostly female (70.7%), participants were more knowledgeable about forms of exploitation, risk and vulnerability factors, the profile of the victims, and the situ...

This study aims to understand, through victims’ experiences, the impact and subsequent help-seeking and support process. The data was collected in institutional settings, through a semistructured interview, from nine adult sheltered victims of labor exploitation of both sexes – 2 females and 7 males, aged between 42–67 years (M = 56.67; SD = 8.411)...

Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar as crenças da comunidade luso-africana, residente em Portugal, sobre a violência na intimidade. Os participantes (n=70) responderam a um questionário online, adaptado da Escala de Crenças sobre a Violência Conjugal. Os resultados apontaram para uma reduzida legitimação da violência, na intimidade, sendo a...

As social professionals are increasingly called on to assist in human trafficking cases, the present study used a qualitative approach to explore how this crime and its victims and traffickers are perceived by these workers. Forty-eight social professionals (aged 24–57) completed an online human trafficking knowledge survey. The data reported sugge...

Introduction Intimate partner homicide is considered one of the most extreme forms of interpersonal violence, where one in seven homicides is perpetrated by an actual or former intimate partner. The aim of this study is to analyse the characteristics of the intimate partner homicide (IPH) victims as well as the dynamics of victim - perpetrator rela...

This study aims to access the experience of the victims of human trafficking, during recruitment, exploitation, and identification phases. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview, resulting in a clinical-forensic sample of nine adult victims of both sexes – two females and seven males, aged between 42 and 67 years (M = 56.67; SD...

Different shame coping strategies directly influence shame experience. However, the assessment of these strategies has received little attention. The Compass of Shame Scale (CoSS-5) was developed to assess shame-coping styles and has proven to be a valid measure. In this study, the CoSS-5 dimensionality was examined throughout confirmatory analysis...

A pandemia COVID-19 desenvolveu-se em Portugal, a partir de março de 2019, de forma acelerada, obrigando a adaptações muito rápidas das entidades públicas, dos serviços, das empresas e dos/as cidadãos/ãs, com vista a conter os seus efeitos sanitários, sociais e económicos. A incerteza que carateriza a sociedade contemporânea, em mui- tos dos seus d...

Despite the growing interest from researchers’ in recent years, stalking is a phenomenon of difficult operationalization within the scientific community. Examining the phenomenon in criminal justice professionals has become relevant since the work context is considered a fertile environment for the presence of stalking, despite underreported. This...

Objectives Research has shown that rearing styles and early emotional memories, especially those related to feelings of threat or safeness, play a key role in subsequent emotional and social adjustment throughout the lifespan. Several authors have argued for the study of early memories of warmth and safeness rather than rearing styles. The Early Me...

Introduction Human trafficking is a crime that affects adults but also children and youngsters, who are subjected to extreme violence and inhumane conditions. Associated with their immaturity, the inability to protect themselves and the difficulty accessing support systems make them even more vulnerable, creating conditions for traffickers to abuse...

Portugal is one of the European countries that implemented early protective measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Portugal declared a state of emergency on 18 March, and a set of regional and national preventive public health measures was progressively implemented. Studies on the psychological impact of pandemics show evidence of the ne...

Few studies have focused on immigrant women’s help-seeking that is due to factors such as having a history of multiple victimization. This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of help-seeking and the factors associated with informal or formal sources. The participants were 84 immigrant women in Portugal who had experienced any form of violence in...

The authors sought to identify the lifetime trajectories of multiple victimized women, the emotional adjustment and resilience. They used a convenience sample of 120 women (35 Portuguese natives and 85 immigrants). The results documented the high frequency of different types of victimization (e.g., psychological, physical, discrimination, stalking)...

With the increasing integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in adolescent’s relationships, new forms of dating violence, as digital dating abuse (DDA) begin to call more scientific attention and social interest. DDA is a serious public health problem which affects a substantial number of adolescents all around the world. Ho...

Although human trafficking is a widely studied phenomenon, there is a lack of perceptions toward its victims and offenders. The purpose of this study is to analyze Portuguese university students’ portrayals of victims and traffickers. This study included 199 participants that answered an internet survey The participants’ mean age was 23.23 (SD = 6....

Multiple victimization and their impact on the mental health of immigrant women have been understudied. This paper assesses the relationship between multiple victimization and the emotional maladjustment of immigrant women in Portugal. Data were collected from a sample of 107 immigrant women via a set of questionnaires that assessed the victimizati...

Homicide in intimate relationships is one of the most prevalent causes of death for women worldwide. This meta-analysis aims to identify and integrate, through analytical and statistical methodologies, the risk factors associated with intimate partner homicide. The research was performed in different databases and led to the inclusion of 28 empiric...

Objetivo: adaptar e validar o Cultural Competence Assessment Instrument para avaliar as competências culturais dos profissionais de ajuda. O questionário foi selecionado tendo em conta três critérios, nomeadamente: i) o processo de construção do mesmo, na sua versão original, com base numa revisão aprofundada da literatura e dos instrumentos existe...

Knowledge about trafficking in human beings has several implications for various social service and justice professionals. The aim of this study was to examine the knowledge of social service and justice professionals regarding the characterization of this phenomenon and anti-trafficking policies in Portugal. Four hundred and forty-six social servi...

The overall number of convictions for human trafficking is still very low. In order to understand the barriers and gaps to human trafficking prosecutions and convictions, it is pertinent to analyse the criminal justice processes at different stages of the criminal procedure. This study aims to respond to that gap by identifying the cases that initi...

Trafficking in human beings is a global problem, and countries worldwide have joined efforts and built strategies to fight this phenomenon. This study sought to examine the knowledge of Portuguese college students regarding trafficking in human beings. The study was conducted with 223 students from different Portuguese universities. The results rev...

Although the prevalence and associated features of stalking are well known in some countries, in many others, including Portugal, the experiences of stalking victims have remained unexplored until recently. This study aimed to identify the prevalence, characteristics, and impact of stalking victimization within a Portuguese population. A national c...

Introduction: Men are more likely than women to engage as perpetrators of violent crime [1 Wigman SA. Male victims of former-intimate stalking: A selected review. International Journal of Men’s Health. 2009;8(2):101–115. doi:10.3149/jmh.0802_101[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]]. Male victimization has remained under-researched and only more recently h...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a social, criminal and widespread problem. Research in the last decades has shown that this phenomenon has different protagonists and that both men and women can be victims and/or perpetrators in their intimate relationships. The present study aimed to capture the past year and lifetime prevalence rates of victimi...

The vast majority of studies concerning the victimization of immigrant women focus only on intimate violence, disregarding other types of interpersonal violence, other contexts of occurrence, and the potential cumulative experience of victimization. The main objectives of this study were to establish the frequency of multiple victimization in a com...

Since the adoption of the UN Trafficking Protocol in 2000, the predominant approach to combat human trafficking has been based on the criminalization of traffickers in conjunction with a concern for victims’ protection. However, few empirical studies considered the effectiveness of those measures, which makes it difficult to understand why criminal...

Cyber-aggression is the new form of interpersonal violence among adolescents. This study examines the prevalence of cyber-aggression and its differentiation in terms of adolescents' sociodemographic characteristics and digital practices, as well as parenting styles experienced by four groups: non-violent, victim, perpetrator and victim-perpetrator...

Stalking, which is a form of interpersonal violence, has been increasing and has a significant impact on affected victims. However, despite established scientific consensus, the juridical–legal system, specifically in Europe, is still extremely asymmetric. Portugal, compelled by scientific data and the Istanbul Convention, was the most recent count...

Several studies have highlighted the benefits of nature for human well-being. Nevertheless, the incorporation of nature as an operative resource in social support processes of vulnerable groups such as domestic violence victims is not a common practice. The complexity and prevalence of domestic violence result in a growing need for innovative inter...

Trafficking in human beings (THB) has been gaining prominence in the political agendas of governments, both nationally and internationally. The fight against this crime involves the entire justice system with it being the job of the police, prosecutors, and magistrates to investigate, try, and convict the violators accordingly. The objective of thi...

International research has established that men can be victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). In Portugal, this phenomenon has not yet received scientific or social attention, although since the 1990s, IPV has been acknowledged as a notable problem. An online cross-sectional study was conducted with 89 heterosexual men who, after completing th...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common phenomenon worldwide. However, there is a relative dearth of qualitative research exploring IPV in which men are the victims of their female partners. The present study used a qualitative approach to explore how Portuguese men experience IPV. Ten male victims (aged 35–75) who had sought help from domestic...

International research has established that men can be victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). In Portugal, this phenomenon has not yet received scientific or social attention, although since the 1990s, IPV has been acknowledged as a notable problem. An online cross-sectional study was conducted with 89 heterosexual men who, after completing th...

In Portugal, stalking has recently been recognized as a crime. This study used an online survey to ask 3,367 college students about their experiences of persistent harassment and targets’ and perpetrators’ perceptions of fear and conduct legitimacy. Targets (34.5%) typically mentioned that they had experienced a frightening experience but considere...

Group intervention has been widely used with female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, efficacy studies are scarce due to several research limitations. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an 8-week group intervention program, with a cognitive-behavioral orientation and attended by 23 female victims of IPV. Self-report psycho...

Introdução: A diversidade cultural coloca exigências acrescidas no atendimento a populações multiculturais, pelo que o desenvolvimento de competências culturais por parte dos profissionais de ajuda é, atualmente, uma preocupação ao nível das práticas institucionais. Material e Métodos: Este estudo avaliou a perceção sobre competência cultural dos p...

Introduction: Cultural diversity places increased demands on services to multicultural populations, so the development of cultural competence by help professionals is currently a concern in institutional practices. Material and methods: This study evaluated the perception of cultural competence of help professional of three distinct areas: healt...

At young ages there is an increase in reports of intimidation, harassment, intrusion, fear, and violence experienced through Information Technologies (IT). Hacking, spamming, identity theft, child pornography, cyber bullying, and cyber stalking are just few examples of cyber-crimes. This chapter aims to contribute, from a psychological and design p...

Interest in studying the particular case of the victimization of immigrant women has increased. This systematic review intends to document the violence that is experienced by immigrant women within their host country and its prevalence. Research was conducted using five databases: PsycArticles, Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect. We s...

Psychological assessment in child custody evaluation is one of the most demanding areas of forensic practice due to the conflict and emotional distress it carries. Law allows the use of psychological reports as an auxiliary mean in the decision act. In order to know the impact of the psychological report in their practice, we requested the collabor...

Interest in studying the particular case of the victimization of immigrant women has increased. This systematic review intends to document the violence that is experienced by immigrant women within their host country and its prevalence. Research was conducted using five databases: PsycArticles, Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect. We s...

A experiência de vitimação no contexto da intimidade acarreta consequências nefastas e multidimensionais. Tem fortes repercussões nos diferentes papéis que a mulher vítima representa na sociedade, incluindo na parentalidade. A fim de oferecer uma resposta que promovesse o bem-estar integral de mulheres vítimas de violência doméstica e que fortalece...

Violência doméstica: Intervenção em grupo com mulheres vítimas: Manual para profissionais.