Validation of a Portuguese version of the multidimensional measure of employability

This study describes the validity and reliability evidence of the multidimensional measure of employability (MME) based on the internal structure and relations to career self-efficacy and career success. Two hundred forty seven Portuguese persons (75.7% women) aged from 21–73 years old (M = 39.9, SD = 10.9) participated. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested adequate fit in the correlational and hierarchical models. Measurement reliability was good for total score and each factor. Correlations with the additional measures provided evidence of validity. MME provides a tool for research and career counseling, enabling comprehensive employability assessment and personalized interventions, while recognising the interplay between employability dimensions.     

A longitudinal twin study of the genetic and environmental etiology of maternal hostile-reactive behavior during infancy and toddlerhood

Children's negative characteristics are thought to be a factor in evoking hostile parenting responses. This can result in genotype/environment correlations (rGE) in which children's heritable traits influence the parenting they experience. We did genetic analyses on 292 mothers' self-reported hostile-reactive behaviors toward each of their twins at 5, 18 and 30 months. Finding heritability for a parenting behavior analyzed as a child phenotype is evidence of rGE correlation. The heritability of maternal behavior was modest (29% at 5 months, 0% at 18 months, and 25% at 30 months) and longitudinal analyses indicated that genetic factors at 5 and 30 months were uncorrelated. Common environment factors, probably reflecting characteristics of the mothers, were the main source of variance at the three ages and were highly correlated through time. We concluded that children's heritable characteristics evoked maternal negative response at specific times, but were not responsible for the stability of maternal hostility from infancy to toddlerhood.     

Emotional lability, negative affect and emotional regulation in children of anxious mothers

This study examined the role of emotional lability and negative affect and emotional regulation in the relation between maternal trait anxiety and attentional and social problems, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms of 275 six- to eleven-year-old children. The results indicated a direct moderating effect of emotional regulation in the relation between maternal anxiety and externalizing behaviour and that lability and negative affect moderated the relation between maternal anxiety and attention and social problems and somatic complaints. The links between maternal anxiety and withdrawal and anxiety/depression symptoms were also mediated by lability and negative affect. This mediation was independent of emotional regulation in the first case, and it depended on emotional regulation with regard to anxiety/depression symptoms.     

The influence of psychological variables on sports performance: assessment with the Questionnaire of Sports Performance-related Psychological Characteristics

The purpose of this research was to observe the relationship among psychological variables and three important issues in sports competition: achieving success, long-term continuance and sustaining injuries. Three studies were carried out with three groups of athletes from the areas of judo, football and swimming, using the Questionnaire of Sports Performance-related Psychological Characteristics as the measuring instrument. The analyses carried out revealed significantly statistical associations between the perception of stress control and of self-confidence, and between achieving success, long-term continuance in competition sports and sustaining injuries. These results indicate the importance of psychological skills training to aid sports performance and prevent injuries, as well as the use of the above-mentioned questionnaire, which, with a limited number of items, measures a wide range of psychological variables in the specific context of sports.     

Exaggerated leftward bias in the mental number line of patients with schizophrenia

Several visuo-motor tasks can be used to demonstrate biases towards left hemispace in schizophrenic patients, suggesting a minor right hemineglect. Recent studies in neglect patients used a new number bisection task to highlight a lateralized defect in their visuo-spatial representation of numbers. To test a possible lateralized representational deficit in schizophrenia, we used the number bisection task in 11 schizophrenic patients compared to 11 healthy controls. Participants were required to orally indicate the central number of an interval orally presented. Whereas healthy subjects showed no significant bias, schizophrenic patients presented a significant leftward bias. Therefore, these results suggest an impairment in higher order representations of the number space in patients with schizophrenia, an impairment that is qualitatively similar to the deficit described in neglect patients.     

Quantitative numerical and lexical knowledge: evidence of double dissociation

The aim of this work was to explain the involvement of a specific brain injury in the numerical processing and calculation system. The method employed was > analysis and the administration of various cognitive neuropsychology tests. The results of this study revealed a double dissociation between quantitative numerical knowledge and qualitative or lexical numerical knowledge. Patient M.C. preserved quantitative numerical knowledge, as indicated by the results obtained in the numerical comprehension and calculation tasks. However, she showed a drastic deficit in qualitative numerical knowledge. On the other hand, patient M.L. preserved qualitative numerical knowledge, but she had serious problems in all the abilities that require internal manipulation of magnitude; that is, quantitative numerical knowledge. These results have two important implications, as conclusions: firstly, quantitative numerical knowledge may be made up of different elements susceptible to damage independently. And secondly, quantitative and qualitative numerical knowledge were functionally independent.     

Temperamental contributions to children's performance in an emotion-word processing task: a behavioral and electrophysiological study

Seven-year-old children (N=65) participating in a study of the influence of infant temperament on socioemotional development performed an auditory selective attention task involving words that varied in both affective (positive vs. negative) and social (social vs. nonsocial) content. Parent report of contemporaneous child temperament was also collected, and individual differences in self-regulation in the affective (soothability) and cognitive (attentional control) domains were noted. Overall, children showed slower responses to stimuli that were either social or negative in content, with the largest effect elicited by words that possessed both traits. Children rated high in soothability and attentional control showed slower responses to social negative words. The other children showed little to no differential response patterns across the word categories. ERPs collected during the task indicated that processing differences were evident in the later more cognitive components of the ERP, especially in children low in attentional control. These findings indicate that performance on an auditory selective attention task can assist in identifying underlying patterns of affective processing.