Previous studies concerning early experiences in childhood show that these play a crucial role in the individuals’ development and may lead to a decrease in the vulnerability to show psychological problems. Mindfulness skills and feelings of hope seem to function as mechanisms that promote adjustment and psychological well-being.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between early positive emotional memories, hope, and mindfulness skills, as well as their role in the psychological well-being.

A sample of 402 adolescents with ages ranging from 12 to 18 years old completed four self-report instruments: the Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale, the Children and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure, the Children Hope Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

Girls exhibited more negative affect when compared to boys. Age and years of education were not correlated with any of the study variables. Students with no school disapprovals showed more positive emotional memories and more hope. Mindfulness skills, hope, warmth and safety memories, and positive and negative affect were significantly correlated in an expected way. The set of variables that better predicted positive affect was: hope, early warmth and safety memories, and mindfulness skills. For negative affect, mindfulness was the best predictor followed by hope and lastly by positive emotional memories.

The current study heightened the role of positive emotional memories, mindfulness, and hope in affective states, suggesting that they may be addressed in intervention programs for the adjustment or the psychological well-being of the adolescents.

Quality of Life (QoL) plays a remarkable role in practice and public health policy. However, research on QoL among children and adolescents is still scarce and it seems crucial to develop and validate assessment tools for measuring health-related QoL.

The current study aims to analyse the psychometric properties and validate the Portuguese version of the Youth Quality of Life Instrument (YQOL-R; Patrick et al., 2002). In addition, the convergent and divergent validities are examined with related constructs.

Participants were 507 adolescents, with ages between 12 and 19 years old, attending middle and high schools. Together with YQOL-R, participants also filled out the Kidscreen-27 (Gaspar & Matos, 2008) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (Pais-Ribeiro, Honrado & Leal, 2004).

The Portuguese version of YQOL-R showed a four-factor structure (dimensions: Self, Relationships, Environment, General Quality of Life), similar to the original version. This instrument also revealed a good internal reliability and adequate temporal stability. YQOL-R showed positive correlations with health-related quality of life and negative associations with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. There were significant gender differences regarding quality of life, with boys reporting higher levels of perceived quality of life than girls.

Future studies should be conducted to ensure these findings among clinical samples or physical conditions. Nevertheless, this study contributes to the set of available instruments for the assessment of QoL among children and adolescents, suggesting that the YQOL-R may be a useful tool for research and health practices in community samples.

The impact of the diagnosis of an oncologic disease is well-known in terms of psychological adjustment and quality of life. On the other hand it is known that depressive symptoms may also overlap the physical symptoms of cancer and cancer treatment, which may interfere in their detection and appropriate treatment approach.

The aim of the current study was to explore the relationship between psychological adjustment to lung cancer, self-compassion, social support and emotional negative states in patients with lung cancer.

Fifty-five patients diagnosed with lung cancer (38 men and 17 women) with ages ranging from 44 to 87 years old participated in the study. A set of self-report instruments was used: the Mini Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (MiniMac), the Self-compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003), the Social Support Satisfaction Scale (SSSS) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21).

Significant correlations were found between psychological adjustment and emotion regulation strategies (self-compassion), social support and psychopathology. The predictive model for depressive symptomatology and psychological adjustment (as assessed by the helpless/hopeless dimension) includes mindfulness as a significant predictor. Regarding the predictive model for stress, the satisfaction level with support from friends revealed to be an important element.

Our findings suggest that these patients may benefit, in their therapeutic approach, from the development of this kind of strategies (new ways of relating themselves with their emotional experiences and quality of their social networks) in order to promote a better psychological adjustment to their clinical condition.

Social relationships (e.g. family, friendships and romantic relationships) are fundamental to human development and well-being.

The current study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the Social Values Questionnaire (SVS; Blackledge & Ciarrochi, 2006) in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. Furthermore we sought to understand motives for and commitment to social values and how these elements are associated with well-being across age and gender.

The sample included 268 adolescents (150 girls and 118 boys) with ages ranging from 14 to 18 years old, attending high school. Participants completed a set of self-report measures: the SVS, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-C; Sadin, 1997), the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS;Huebner 1991) and the Children's Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder, Hoza, Pelham, Rapoff, Ware, Danovsky, Highberger, Rubinstein & Stahl, 1997).

The Portuguese version of the SVS showed high internal consistency: Intrinsic motivation (α=0,91), extrinsic motivation (α=0,90), commitment (α=0,79). It also showed adequate test retest reliability. Gender revealed a relevant role with girls presenting more intrinsic motivation, less extrinsic motivation and a higher degree of commitment when compared with boys. Age was positively correlated with intrinsic motivation and commitment. Significant and expected relationships were also found between SVS subscales and positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and hope.

The SVS seems to be a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of social values in adolescents. This construct is an important one in the context of mindfulness and acceptance based therapies and thus its assessment is pertinent.

Social anxiety refers to the discomfort felt in situations of social interaction or performance and may be an especially intense emotion in adolescence due to characteristics and developmental tasks of this age group. Although it is a common emotion and has an adaptive function, it can also develop as a negative experience raising serious difficulties in school and social life of young people.

This study analyses the contribution of childhood negative memories and fear of compassion in social anxiety in adolescence.

Three hundred and twenty adolescents (186 boys and 134 girls) with ages ranging from 12 to 19 years old took part in the study. Participants completed the following self-report measures: Early Life Experiences Scale for Adolescents, Fear of Compassion Scale (FCS-A) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A).

Significant gender differences were found regarding social anxiety, empathy and early unvalued experiences within the family. Age was only correlated with social anxiety. Social anxiety showed a significant and expected correlation with the study variables. The model including fear of compassionate feelings (from other and from oneself) and early unvalued experiences showed to be the best predictor of social anxiety.

This study integrates the contribution of less explored variables, as the fear of compassion and early negative memories, in the understanding of social anxiety in adolescents. Results suggest that these variables may have an important role and should be incorporated in psychological interventions for social anxiety in adolescence.

Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte's Psychiatric Day Care Hospital (CHLN-PDC) offers a psychotherapeutic oriented program.

To characterize the CHLN-PDC population and to determine if the subjects' HSM-PDC treatment leads to variation in the number of re-admissions to psychiatric wards.

Retrospective analysis of all patients admitted to the CHLN-PDC between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011, assessing for gender, age, diagnoses, time of admittance, and number of re-admissions in psychiatric wards, three years before and three years after the program.

During this period, 71 patients were admitted (17 males, 54 females), with an average age of 33 years old (no difference between genders). Mean duration of the program was 267 days (260 for females, 291 for males). The most frequent diagnoses were Depressive Episode (N=30), Personality Disorder (N=29, in general co-morbid to other diagnoses), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (N=5), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (N=5), Schizophrenia (N=3) and Schizoaffective Disorder (N=3).

The number of admissions to psychiatric wards reduced from 86 before to 36 after the program. The reduction was more evident for patients with Bipolar Disorder and Personality Disorder. Patients who completed the full program remained in average 303 days, but re-admissions were reduced greatly when compared to those who did not complete the full program (increase of re-admissions).

The majority of patients were women, with no difference of age between genders. Most common diagnoses were Depressive Episode and Personality Disorder. The program, when completed to its fullest extent, lead to a decrease in the number of re-admissions.

The increase in aging population is a major advance in society, but also a great challenge, imposing the need for actions that promote successful aging, with higher subjective well-being and better health.

(1) analyse the possible influence of socio-demographic variables in self-compassion, satisfaction with life, affection, physical and mental health (study variables); (2) understand how is that the study variables are associated with each other in old age; and (3) explore which variables best predict satisfaction with life and health in the elderly.

The study sample consists of 155 individuals, aged between 65 and 94 years old, institutionalised and non-institutionalised.

(1) significant correlations were found between some demographic and the study variables. (2) Significant associations were also found between self-compassion, subjective well-being and health. (3) linear regression analysis revealed that physical health is best predicted by greater life satisfaction and lower age; mental health is best predicted by increased satisfaction with life, self-compassion and decreased negative affect; and, finally, life satisfaction is predicted by a higher physical health and self-compassion.

These results suggest the importance of developing psychological skills such as warmth, tolerance and the acceptance of suffering bearing in mind that the elderly may experience difficulties resulting from the developmental characteristics of old age. Our findings suggest the possible beneficial effect of compassion, focused therapies designed for this specific population, particularly contributing to the promotion of life satisfaction and mental health of the Portuguese elderly.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Compassion can be defined as an intentional sensitivity to the suffering, with a motivation and commitment to try to relieve it, which can have a positive impact on individuals’ emotional and psychological well-being. The relevance of compassion focused therapies is well established and this makes the development of reliable instruments for the assessment of the different facets of compassion targeting different age groups crucial for research and clinical practice. The Compassionate Attributes and Actions Scale (CAAS) aims to assess compassion on three directions: self-compassion, compassion for others or compassion received from others. Each of the scales assesses one's compassionate attributes and compassionate actions separately when dealing with difficult or painful situations.

This study aimed to adapt the CAAS for adolescents and to explore its factor structure and psychometric properties in a sample of Portuguese adolescents.

A total of 336 Portuguese adolescents with ages ranging from 12 to 19 years old participated in the study. Several exploratory factor analyses were conducted.

Exploratory factor analysis showed that, except for the attributes section of the self-compassion scale (that showed to be bi-factorial), all the other scales (and their sections) presented a single-factor structure. The three scales, and its sections, demonstrated a good reliability and excellent test-retest reliability and good convergent and discriminant validity.

Results were in line with the factor structure found in the adults’ version. The scales and its sections have shown good psychometric characteristics and constitute a useful instrument to assess and investigate the three directions of the compassion.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Test anxiety represents a considerable personal burden due to its interfering nature and is associated with a range of deleterious life trajectories, encompassing school difficulties and health consequences. Although test anxiety seems to be highly prevalent and the pathological symptoms are similar to those of other childhood anxiety disorders, there are specificities that deserve a more in-depth approach. Given that adolescents seem to experience test anxiety in several school grades there is a need for a valid and reliable scale to measure test anxiety in school age students.

This study aims to adapt and analyse the psychometric properties of the Cognitive Test Anxiety Revised (CTAR25) for Portuguese adolescents. In addition, the convergent and divergent validities were examined with related constructs.

Participants were 279 adolescents, with ages between 12 and 19 years old, attending middle and high schools. Together with CTAR25, participants also filled out self-report questionnaires assessing tests anxiety (TAI), self-esteem (RSES), procrastination (QPE) and worry (PSWQ-C).

The scale showed good internal consistency, good test-retest reliability, and good validity. Factor analysis revealed the existence of two factors with good internal consistency.

Results showed that the Portuguese version of CTAR-25 is a valid and reliable self-report instrument for the assessment of test anxiety in adolescents, replicating the findings of the original version.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

In adolescence experiencing weight and physical appearance concerns is common. These body and weigh-related preoccupations are associated with anxiety and may lead adolescents to avoid social situations where their body image is exposed.

The present study aimed to conduct an exploratory factor analysis and explore the psychometric properties of a new measure of social situations discomfort and avoidance due to weight or physical appearance (DASSWPA) in a sample of adolescents.

The sample comprised 357 adolescents aged between 12 and 18-years-old, 195 males and 162 females, with a mean age of 14.69 (SD = 1.68). Participants completed a set of self-reported questionnaires concerning anxiety, stress and depression symptoms (DASS-21), bullying experiences (BIVES-A) and body image related shame feelings (BISS).

The DASSWPA is comprised of two separate scales: one regarding discomfort/anxiety and another one related to avoidance of social situations. Results suggested that both scales presented a similar two-factor structure. Both scales revealed good psychometric properties, including high internal consistency (α = 0.91) and an excellent temporal stability. Moreover, DASSWPA showed significant and positive associations with body image related shame feelings, victimization experiences, and anxiety, stress and depressions symptoms. Gender differences were also found, with girls presenting significantly higher levels in the anxiety/discomfort scale than boys.

The DASSWPA proved to be a reliable and stable measure to assess anxiety and avoidance of social situations due to one's physical appearance and weight in adolescents.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The dimensional approaches regard delusions as a continuum of the daily beliefs, not being limited to the clinical population and it can also be found in the general population. Due to the multifaceted conceptualization of delusions, the analysis of the dimensions of distress, preoccupation and conviction may be more revealing than the content of the belief itself, whereby an evaluation that incorporates these dimensions is fundamental.

Translation, adaptation and study of the psychometric properties of the Peters et al. delusions inventory (PDI-21) for the Portuguese population.

Assessing the multidimensionality of the delusional ideation in the community.

The sample consists of 249 adults from the general population, aged between 18 to 65. The brief symptom inventory, the social desirability scale of the eysenck personality questionnaire and the World Health Organization quality of life–bref were used in this study beyond the PDI-21.

The Portuguese version of the PDI-21 has shown good psychometric properties regarding its internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It demonstrated significant positive correlations with the psychopathological symptoms and negative associations with social desirability and with the quality of life, confirming its divergent and convergent validity. The analysis of the frequency of delusional ideas for the total of the sample and on the basis of gender has revealed prevalence rates very similar to the ones found in previous studies.

The Portuguese version of the PDI-21 has adequate psychometric properties and it can be used to assess the delusional ideation in the general population.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Infertility is not only a medical condition and its impact in mental health is well established. Although most couples facing fertility problems and the demands of medical treatment are able to adjust, some of them may show psychological difficulties with clinical relevance, such as depression and anxiety. The Mindfulness Based Program for Infertility (MBPI) is a group intervention designed for infertile women and data from its efficacy study revealed impact in depressive symptoms reduction as well as in internal and external shame, entrapment and defeat. Based on the MBPI, a mindfulness app targeting infertile patients was developed – the MindfulSpot.

This study addresses the MindfulSpot development.

The MindfulSpot is a prototype mobile app, which seeks to offer the chance of practicing mindfulness in a comfortable and accessible way. This app covers informative audio and written texts. The audio contents correspond to mindfulness formal practices and suggestions for informal practice, making possible its use throughout different moments of the day. Beyond the practices mentioned above, users are invited to explore the informative menu, including information on the impact that infertility may have in several aspects of the patients’ lives.

The efficacy of the MindfulSpot is still under analysis and results are expected to be available soon.

The MindfulSpot was designed as a medium for training mindfulness skills and it includes useful information regarding specific aspects of the emotional impact of infertility. Additionally to its independent use, it may also be used as a support tool of the MBPI.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.