Paula Mena Matos’s research while affiliated with University of Porto and other places

This study examined the stability/change trajectories of future expectations during high school, analyzing whether adolescents’ sex, attachment to parents and peers, multiple risk, and pandemic-related stress explained these trajectories. The sample included 467 Portuguese adolescents, assessed three times across 18 months. Results revealed that adolescents’ future expectations increased significantly over time. We observed significant inter-participant variance at initial levels and growth rates. Emotional bonds with parents was associated with higher initial levels of optimistic future expectations, whereas alienation to peers was associated with lower initial levels of optimism. Adolescents’ exposure to multiple psychosocial risks was associated with lower growth of optimism. In turn, alienation to peers was associated with a higher growth rate of optimism. Pandemic-related stress was negatively associated with optimism at T2 and T3, and these associations were different over time. Our findings emphasize the associations between individual, relational, broader social contexts, and development of adolescents’ future expectations.

The instability and unpredictability of Western societies challenge how individuals plan their life courses shaping the expectations that emerging adults develop in their future. Although there is a well‐established interest in studying emerging adulthood, there is limited information regarding the role of family and individual contexts on how emerging adults perceive their futures. The current study examined the association between attachment to parents and emerging adults' values of future expectations (optimism, pessimism, and hope) and self‐efficacy's mediating role in that association. The sample was composed of 676 emerging adults, aged between 18 and 30 years ( M = 23.04; SD = 3.37). Results showed that attachment to parents and self‐efficacy is associated with values of future expectations of emerging adults, and self‐efficacy mediates the following links: from the quality of the emotional bond with both parents and the separation anxiety regarding the mother to values of future expectations. These findings are discussed based on attachment theory.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) refers to a family of related procedures commonly applied in research with emerging adults. As the methodology of SEM is constantly evolving, up-to-date guidelines for building and testing SEM models are always needed. This chapter provides a basic introduction to SEM and an overview of the best practices for building and testing models on cross-sectional data. It presents practical guidelines for emerging adulthood researchers, focusing on the general steps that comprise the SEM analysis process. In doing so, it discusses the essential steps of SEM: model specification, identification, estimation, and evaluation. The chapter adopts a non-technical language and hands-on approach, providing examples of studies with real data to illustrate the use of SEM to investigate specific research questions in emerging adulthood. Additionally, this chapter provides a list of resources for further understanding SEM and the extensions of SEM.

Mentalization-based treatments for parents have consistently shown promising effects in reducing parental stress and improving parental self-efficacy, sensitivity and reflective function. Considering the scarce use of online interventions for hard-to-reach populations, this study aims to explore the perceived changes of an online 12-session version of the Lighthouse Parenting Programme (LPP). The intervention was delivered in two groups via video-conference, comprising 14 participants. Session-by-session progress and experiences, as well as an interview at discharge showed that parents perceived positive emotional, behavioral, and relational changes in themselves and in their children. Our findings give promising indication that the online version of the LPP is a reliable alternative to a larger population that may have restricted access to presential intervention.

Sense of personal agency (SPA) is crucial for adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and well-being. The relationships with parents and peers, as well as the adolescent’s sex, have been suggested as important correlates of adolescents’ SPA. Nevertheless, no prior study has adopted a gender perspective to analyze how the intertwining of relationships between parents and peers relates to adolescent’s sense of agency. The current study investigates whether attachment to peers mediates the links between attachment to parents and SPA and whether these links are equal for boys and girls. The sample includes 1119 Portuguese adolescents (56.2% girls; 43.8% boys) aged 14 to 19. Structural equation modeling results suggest that attachment to peers is more strongly associated with boys’ SPA than girls. Results also indicate that regardless of adolescent sex, the quality of the emotional bond with the mother, but not the father, is positively associated with adolescents’ SPA. Furthermore, the results suggest that attachment to peers mediates the links between attachment to parents and adolescents’ SPA. Quality relationships with the adolescent’s different-sex parental figures (mother-son, father-daughter) are associated with higher-quality peer relationships, which are associated with a stronger SPA. On the contrary, inhibition relationships with the adolescent’s same-sex parental figure (mother-daughter, father-son) are associated with lower quality in adolescent’s peer relationships, which is associated with a lower SPA. These findings underline the importance of considering a gender perspective to understand better the role of family and peer contexts in the adolescent SPA.

How adolescents spend their time in different daily activities, such as sleep, physical activity, reading, and screen time, has been identified as an important determinant of their current and future mental health. Also, there is evidence that technological advances have contributed to individuals changing their lifestyles. Informed by this evidence, we intend to characterize and classify Portuguese adolescents' lifestyles and explore factors at the individual and family levels associated with the different lifestyle classes. The sample comprises 4157 adolescent-parent/caregiver dyads from a birth cohort. Adolescents (48.5% were girls) were 12-14 years old, and parents/caregivers were mainly mothers (90.1%). Through a hierarchical agglomerative clustering analysis, we found a four-cluster solution, described as: (1) game and internet users (19.9%), (2) athletes (25.7%), (3) readers (29.1%), and (4) TV users (25.3%). Results from a classification tree analysis indicated that "sex" was the most determinant variable for predicting adolescent lifestyles. Girls were more likely to belong to the "readers" cluster (48%), while boys were more likely to belong to the "athletes" (52%) cluster. Boys without parental control over their internet time were prone to belong to the "game and internet users" cluster (19%). Boys with parental control over their internet time, who are 13 or more years old, and who have scores above the mean in the peer problems dimension were likelier to belong to the "TV users" (18%). Our findings are an important step to understanding adolescent lifestyles, shedding light on individual and family factors associated with how adolescents spend time.

The characteristics of Western societies pose significant challenges to how emerging adults view their futures. In the present study, we analyzed the associations between romantic attachment, self-regulation, and future expectations of emerging adults controlling the sex and age of participants. More specifically, we analyzed the moderating role of goal-setting, decision-making, and learning from mistakes (self-regulation dimensions) in the links between trustful, dependent, avoidant, and ambivalent romantic relationships and future expectations. The sample, collected by convenience in Portugal, includes 571 emerging adults (76.2% were female and 23.8% were male) aged between 18 and 30 years (M = 23.31; SD = 3.35). Our results indicate significant associations between trust, dependent, avoidant, and ambivalent romantic relationships, with different dimensions of future expectations. Findings indicated that goal-setting moderates the association between dependent and avoidant romantic relationships and pessimism. We discuss these findings based on attachment theory, considering the relevance of emotional bonds and self-regulatory processes in future planning.

This study aimed to explore how first-time (heterosexual) fathers’ involvement in caregiving and paid work roles was (co)constructed with their partners during the transition to parenthood. The transition to parenthood entails adaptations and emotional experiences that make this period unique for fathers. Importantly, the emergence of the father role occurs within a relational context. However, few studies use a dyadic lens, and even fewer take a longitudinal approach to capture the unfolding dynamics during the transition to parenthood. An even smaller number combine these perspectives with a qualitative approach to understand how fathers construct and negotiate their new role within the coparenting relationship. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with each member of a couple in two waves: during the third trimester of pregnancy and 18 months after birth. We analyzed data from 10 couples (40 interviews in total) using a combination of dyadic and longitudinal approaches. We identified three categories of couples, describing broad patterns and typical behaviors, values, and beliefs about work and parenting roles: “working fathers, caring mothers,” “in-between care and work” and “equal care, equal work”. Fathers’ involvement in caregiving and paid work roles begins to take shape early in pregnancy through co-constructive processes, influenced by an interplay of individual and shared expectations and available resources. Our findings highlight the importance of psychological interventions during the transition to parenthood to foster a supportive and adaptive family environment, and promote fathers’ involvement.Keywords: Fatherhood, Transition to parenthood, Caregiving, Paid Work, Dyadic and Longitudinal Qualitative analysis

In 1988, Bowlby posited that the emotional availability of psychotherapists in establishing a secure base environment is influenced by their personal relational history. Despite the acknowledged influence of the therapist’s attachment on therapeutic processes and outcomes, the therapist’s role as a secure base figure has received insufficient attention. This study delves into the connection between psychotherapists’ attachment organization and their self-perceived roles as secure base figures within clinical contexts. Additionally, we explore the mediating role of emotion regulation processes in this context. The dataset comprises self-reports from 384 psychotherapists with diverse theoretical orientations. Our analysis reveals both direct and indirect effects of psychotherapists’ attachment on the provision of a secure base. Emotion regulation, specifically through the dimension of clarity, emerges as a significant mediator in this relationship. This study offers a distinctive contribution to deepening our understanding of the relational dynamics inherent to psychotherapeutic practice. It sheds light on the nuanced relation between attachment and emotion regulation, influencing the psychotherapist’s role as a secure base figure in psychotherapy. The discussion of the results additionally emphasizes key implications for clinical practice and therapists’ training.

The attempt to identify and classify distinct experiences falling under the common designation of countertransference has been labelled the specifist tradition. In this paper, a model describing two dimensions differentiating four components of countertransference experience is proposed. For each experiential component (subjective countertransference, objective countertransference, therapeutic attitude and emerging experience), a brief description based on previous literature from diverse theoretical fields is offered, along with clinical implications and illustrations and an account of empirical literature explicitly or implicitly addressing the specific component. In conclusion, the model is presented as a heuristic guide that can serve different purposes across different therapeutic orientations, with valuable implications for practice, training and supervision.