Validation of a Portuguese Version of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale

The paper describes the development of the Portuguese version of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and the examination of its psychometric properties. A sample of 367 Portuguese students completed the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner in Sch Psychol Int 12:231–240, 1991a), Children’s Hope Scale (CHS; Synder in J Pediatr Psychol 22:399–421, 1997), Global Self-Worth Sub-scale (Harter, S. (1985). Manual for the self-perception profile for children. Denver: University of Denver) and Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; Berwick et al. in Medical Care 29:169–176, 1991). The first step includes translation, back-translation, inspection for lexical equivalence and content validity, and cognitive debriefing. Then we considered reliability, factor structure, and criterion-related validity. The validation process of the Portuguese SLSS version shows psychometric properties similar to the English language SLSS, suggesting that it measures the same construct in the same way. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Temporal and causal order effects in thinking about what might have been

When people think counterfactually about what might have been different for a sequence of events, they are influenced by the order in which the events occurred. They tend to mentally undo the most recent event in a temporal sequence of two events. But they tend to mentally undo the first event in a causal sequence of four events. We report the results of two experiments that show that the temporal and causal order effects are not dependent on the number of events in the sequence. Our first experiment, with 300 participants, shows that the temporal order effect occurs for sequences with four events as well as for sequences with two events. Our second experiment, with 372 participants, shows that the causal order effect occurs for sequences with two events as well as for sequences with four events. We discuss the results in terms of the mental representations that people construct of temporal and causal sequences.     

Burnout and work engagement: Independent factors or opposite poles?

Burnout researchers have proposed that the conceptual opposites of emotional exhaustion and cynicism (the core dimensions of burnout) are vigor and dedication (the core dimensions of engagement), respectively ( [Maslach and Leiter, 1997] and [Schaufeli et al., 2002]). We tested this proposition by ascertaining whether two sets of items, exhaustion-vigor and cynicism-dedication, were scalable on two distinct underlying bipolar dimensions (i.e., energy and identification, respectively). The results obtained by means of the non-parametric Mokken scaling method in three different samples (Ns = 477, 507, and 381) supported our proposal: the core burnout and engagement dimensions can be seen as opposites of each other along two distinct bipolar dimensions dubbed energy and identification.     

Flow at Work: Evidence for an Upward Spiral of Personal and Organizational Resources*

The present 2-wave study among 258 secondary school teachers investigates the relationship between personal and organizational resources on the one hand, and work-related flow on the other hand. On the basis of Hobfoll’s (1988) conservation of resources theory, Bandura’ social cognitive theory (1997; 2001), and Fredrickson’s (1998) “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotions, we formulated two hypotheses: (1) personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy beliefs) and organizational resources (including social support climate and clear goals) facilitate work-related flow (work absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation); and (2) work-related flow has a positive influence on personal and organizational resources. The results of a series of structural equation modeling analyses offer clear support for both hypotheses. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. *This research was supported by a grant from the Bancaixa Foundation (#11232.01/1) and the Spanish Ministry of Science & Technology (CICYT #SEC2000-1031).     

Visual rapid naming and phonological abilities: different subtypes in dyslexic children

One implication of the double-deficit hypothesis for dyslexia is that there should be subtypes of dyslexic readers that exhibit rapid naming deficits with or without concomitant phonological processing problems. In the current study, we investigated the validity of this hypothesis for Portuguese orthography, which is more consistent than English orthography, by exploring different cognitive profiles in a sample of dyslexic children. In particular, we were interested in identifying readers characterized by a pure rapid automatized naming deficit. We also examined whether rapid naming and phonological awareness independently account for individual differences in reading performance. We characterized the performance of dyslexic readers and a control group of normal readers matched for age on reading, visual rapid naming and phonological processing tasks. Our results suggest that there is a subgroup of dyslexic readers with intact phonological processing capacity (in terms of both accuracy and speed measures) but poor rapid naming skills. We also provide evidence for an independent association between rapid naming and reading competence in the dyslexic sample, when the effect of phonological skills was controlled. Altogether, the results are more consistent with the view that rapid naming problems in dyslexia represent a second core deficit rather than an exclusive phonological explanation for the rapid naming deficits. Furthermore, additional non-phonological processes, which subserve rapid naming performance, contribute independently to reading development.     

Quality of life in breast cancer patients: Associations with optimism and social supportCalidad de vida en pacientes con cáncer de mama: asociación con optimismo y apoyo social

Background/Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer patients from Colombia and to explore the relationship between QoL, habitual optimism, and social support. Method: A sample of 95 breast cancer patients treated in a hospital in Bogotá were administered the QoL instrument EORTC QLQ-C30 and the Life Orientation Test LOT-R. Additionally, they were asked to indicate from whom (physicians, friends, nurses, etc.) they wished and received social support. Reference data for the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the LOT-R were taken from a representative sample of the general Colombian population. Results: The breast cancer patients showed detriments to their QoL on most functioning scales and symptom scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30, while their general assessments of health and QoL were not worse than those of the controls. Optimism was positively correlated with QoL. Most patients wanted and received social support from their physicians and friends/family. Conclusions: The results suggest that optimism helps patients better cope with disease. A general assessment of global QoL cannot replace the more specific assessments of the functioning domains and symptoms.     

Development of the Connectedness to Treatment Setting Scale for Children with Cancer and Their Parents

Treatment for pediatric cancer requires periodic and long hospital admissions. The intensity and frequency of the interactions taking place in the treatment setting indicate that this is a context to which children and their families can feel connected. This study’s main goal was to develop the Connectedness to Treatment Setting Scale (CTSS-Pediatric Cancer), a 10-item scale assessing children’s and parents’ connectedness to the health setting where children receive cancer treatment. Participants were 128 dyads of children receiving treatment at two Portuguese public hospitals and their parents. Two exploratory factor analyses with children’s and parents’ data separately and a dyadic confirmatory factor analysis with the whole sample supported a second-order factorial structure of the CTSS-Pediatric Cancer, where three dimensions (Sense of Belonging, Comfort and Emotional Care) loaded onto a total score of connectedness. Findings suggest that the CTSS-Pediatric Cancer is a valid and useful assessment measure.