Psicologia-Reflexao E Critica最新文献

Background: The measurements of metacognition through performance-based tasks are better predictors of academic performance than those based on self-report tests, but evidence on the prediction of academic performance by standardized performance-based metacognition tests is scarce. The reason is that there are few tests of this nature with psychometric evidence of validity and reliability. Only a single study with Honduran university students compared the prediction of academic performance by a standardized performance-based test, and a self-report test in which both measure cognition regulation, a metacognitive construct. The results indicated that only the standardized performance-based test predicts academic performance, and the measures of these tests are not correlated.

Objective: Two hypotheses are investigated in this article: (1) performance-based metacognitive tests predict academic performance better than self-report metacognitive tests; (2) there is a null correlation between measures of cognition regulation from performance-based standardized tests and self-report tests.

Method: A sample of 264 university students and graduates from Brazil, with an average age of 21.1 years, is used in the study. The majority are female, from private institutions, and enrolled in humanities and social sciences courses. The Meta-Text was used as the standardized performance-based test, and the self-report test was the Metacognitive Self-Regulation Scale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The predictors were cognition regulation, measured by both tests, and judgment, measured by the Meta-Text. The outcome was the overall score on the National High School Exam, a large-scale educational assessment for university admission.

Results: Only the regulation of cognition measured by Meta-Text predicts academic performance (β = 0.47, CI 95% [0.36, 0.58]). The correlations between the test measures were null (r = .002, p = .974).

Conclusion: The evidence corroborated both hypotheses and raises doubts about the quality of self-report tests for measuring cognition regulation. It also indicates that standardized performance-based tests have a similar predictive capacity to tasks that require performance. This result is promising because standardized tests are easy to apply and correct, allowing studies to be carried out on large samples, while performance-based tasks require a complex process, only feasible in studies on small samples.

Background: The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) system is widely used to assess psychological well-being and clinical symptoms across various settings, but most studies on its psychometric properties have focused on clinical populations and the 34-item version, leaving a gap in understanding the performance of shorter versions and its applicability in non-help-seeking samples.

Objective: This study investigates the acceptability, reliability, and score distributions of various forms within the CORE system among a non-help-seeking Spanish population.

Methods: Data from 1667 participants were analyzed, with a mean age of 37.16 years and a predominance of women (59.1%). The majority had higher education (53.1%), and over half were employed at the time of the study.

Results: Acceptability was high, with low item omission rates (<0.1%) across all forms during both initial and retest assessments. Internal consistency was strong, with Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega exceeding 0.80 for all forms. Test-retest reliability showed correlations above 0.59 for all scores, with no significant differences between assessment intervals. Score distributions were compared by gender, age, and education, revealing significant differences between gender and education but not for age.

Conclusion: The study provides key reference data for the CORE system in Spain, supporting outcome comparisons in non-help-seeking samples. Despite an overrepresentation of highly educated individuals, it offers crucial insights into its psychometric properties and score distributions. The findings highlight potential applications of these distributions and underscore the need for further research into the psychometric performance of individual CORE forms.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Dating Violence Questionnaire for Victimization and Perpetration (DVQ-VP) in a sample of the Ecuadorian population.

Methods: The study included 819 participants (47% men and 53% women), consisting of Ecuadorian adolescents and university students. An instrumental design was employed for the linguistic adaptation, reliability, and convergent (AVE), discriminant (HTMT), and structural (CFI, TLI, and RMSEA) validation of the DVQ-VP. The construct validity and internal consistency of the instrument were assessed. Construct validity was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), while internal consistency was evaluated using ordinal Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients. Additionally, a network analysis was conducted with the DVQ-VP items.

Results: The CFA results indicated that the DVQ-VP has a factorial structure consistent with the original theoretical model, with adequate fit indices (CFI > 990, TLI > 990, and RMSEA < 0.08 in both models of the DVQ-VP). The Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega values for the victimization and perpetration subscales were above .70, indicating good internal consistency. Additionally, the instrument proved to be sensitive in identifying different forms of dating violence.

Conclusion: The findings support that the DVQ-VP demonstrated adequate levels of validity and reliability for assessing dating violence in a sample of Ecuadorian adolescents and university students. These results suggest that, within this specific context and population, the instrument can be a useful tool for identifying patterns of victimization and perpetration in dating relationships. Its application may contribute to early detection and the development of targeted interventions to reduce intimate partner violence among young people.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for mental health providers all over the world, since they had to abruptly change from in person assistance to remote meetings. The adverse effects from social isolation were critical in Latinx populations such as Brazil and Mexico, since these countries faced a great amount of social, health, and economic burden during the pandemic, which affected families' access to care and increased inappropriate parenting practices.

Objective: This study aimed to understand the impacts of adapting parenting interventions to online sessions for Brazilian and Mexican providers, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Sixty-two Brazilian and 49 Mexican mental health care providers that worked with parenting interventions (including psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, counselors, and others) took part in this study. The measures included two standardized questionnaires (the Questionnaire about Acceptability, Feasibility and Appropriateness of Telehealth, and the Epidemic-Pandemic Impact Inventory), demographic data, and complementary items developed specially for this study. All measures were translated from English to Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, resulting in five sets of themes related to (a) service delivery, (b) barriers to mental health assistance, (c) acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness of telehealth, and (d) impacts of pandemic on providers´ professional and personal lives.

Results: For all participants, adapting to online sessions presented challenges related to technology issues, time management, less healthy habits, and overload of chores between work and home tasks, besides concerns related to confidentiality and privacy. Kruskal-Wallis Rank Sum Tests revealed that Mexican providers reported less barriers regarding technology, while Brazilian providers mentioned less economic impact.

Conclusion: This study describes a comparison between providers of two Latinx countries facing demands from COVID19 pandemic, showing common challenges and specific barriers. Suggestions are presented in order to improve the experience of telehealth (i.e., tailored sessions, guidelines for families that ensure privacy, and policies that can increase telehealth access for vulnerable populations).

Introduction: Pseudoisochromatic stimuli are widely used in psychophysical color vision testing and the features of the luminance noise present on these stimuli have been reported modifying the psychophysical chromatic discrimination.

Objective: The present study investigated how modifications in the luminance noise features (luminance contrast and number of luminance values) affect chromatic visual evoked cortical potentials (VECP) elicited by pseudoisochromatic gratings, aiming to evaluate the influence of luminance contrast and the number of luminance values in the pseudoisochromatic stimulus on the chromatic VECP.

Methods: The sample consisted of seven young trichromatic participants. The waveforms of the visual evoked cortical potentials (VECP) were analyzed, focusing on the P1, N1, and P2 components across all stimulus conditions. The luminance noise contrast in the pseudoisochromatic stimulus had distinct effects on the amplitudes of the VECP components. Significant effects were observed for the amplitudes of the P1 (p = 0.01) and P2 (p = 0.04) components, while no significant effect was found on the amplitude of the N1 component (p = 0.3).

Results: There was no significant effect of the luminance noise range on the latency of the VECP components (P1 VECP component, p = 0.54; N1 VECP component, p = 0.79; P2 VECP component, p = 0.49). The number of luminance values in the noise had no significant effect on VECP components amplitude and latency. Different manipulations of luminance noise influenced P1 and P2 VECP components and no modification of the luminance noise had influence on the main chromatic VECP component, N1 component.

Conclusion: Manipulations in features of the luminance noise in pseudoisocrhomatic stimulus impacted in putative luminance components, but not chromatic components, of visual evoked potentials. The present findings may have potential applications in clinical neuro-ophthalmology, particularly for assessing congenital and acquired color blindness.

Background: Suicide among university students is a growing public health concern, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The university setting presents unique challenges and opportunities for implementing effective suicide prevention strategies. Despite the availability of various interventions, these efforts often fail to address the contextual and systemic factors that influence their success.

Objective: Investigate the elements that can support implementing actions to prevent suicide among university students. Using interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires, the study was conducted at a university in the North of Brazil.

Participants: These are 20 undergraduate students, 12 undergraduate course coordinators, 6 technical-administrative staff, and 12 health professionals.

Method: Thematic analysis and the context and implementation of complex interventions (CICI) model were used to analyze the data.

Results: Thematic analysis revealed that political and socioeconomic contexts-such as underfunded mental health services, lack of institutional coordination, and limited financial aid-were critical barriers. Key facilitators included social participation, teacher-student relationships, and actions that promote a welcoming university environment. Implementation concerns included the risk of stigmatization and the need for role clarity among university staff. Stakeholders proposed a range of interventions distributed across ecological, proactive, early, and crisis zones, emphasizing the need for mental health promotion, intersectoral collaboration, and collective program design.

Conclusions: Effective suicide prevention in universities requires a systemic approach that addresses prevention and treatment actions of suicidality. By leveraging the insights of multiple stakeholders and applying context-sensitive frameworks, universities can implement sustainable interventions. This study provides a road map for advancing suicide prevention efforts and illustrates ongoing and comprehensive actions to promote the mental health of university students.

Background: Phonological working memory has been known as an essential predictor of reading comprehension in children. However, less attention has been paid to processing speed and its interaction with working memory.

Main body: Research has indicated that higher processing speed of linguistic information contributes to greater availability of memory resources used to comprehend a read text.

Objective: We tested, using simple mediation models, whether phonological working memory can predict inferential reading comprehension when mediated by linguistic processing speed.

Methods: To do this, we analyzed information from a database on the assessment of phonological memory (digit span Backward and Forward task), language processing speed (Verbal Fluency and Rapid Automated Naming) and inferential reading comprehension of 66 typical 5th grade students.

Results: Both phonological working memory and cognitive-linguistic information processing speed were able to predict the inferential reading comprehension of students in the 5th year of elementary school. The mediation analysis showed that rapid automatized naming and working memory (digit span Backward and Forward Task) together, but independently, were able to predict inferential reading comprehension.

Conclusion: When measured by semantic verbal fluency, linguistic processing speed mediated the prediction of phonological working memory (digits in Forward and Backward order) in inferential reading comprehension.

Background: Violence against women is one of the most dramatic expressions of subjugation to which women are subjected in all patriarchal societies. The present research comprised four studies to develop and validate the Acceptance of Violence Against Women Scale (AVAWS).

Methods: Participants in these studies included 15 experts (Study 1), 305 general respondents (Study 2), 293 respondents (Study 3), and 300 respondents (Study 4).

Results: In Study 1, we provided evidence of content validity for a theoretically appropriate, accurate, clear, and relevant set of items and scenarios to be included in the AVAWS. In Study 2, we analyzed the factor structure of the scale and identified a multidimensional measure representing five types of violence (physical, sexual, psychological, moral, and economic). Study 3 confirmed this factor structure and showed that the AVAWS is best represented by a bifactor model that assesses both general (G-factor) and specific (S-factors) support for violence against women. Finally, in Study 4, we experimentally demonstrated the criterion validity of the AVAWS and showed that it is sensitive to manipulations of cultural sexism.

Conclusion: It is concluded that the AVAWS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing social support for violence against women, being a pioneer in documenting cultural sexism as an organizing principle of this support, with potential applications in clinical, educational, and legal contexts.

Background: The number of non-religious people in the world has increased, which justifies the development and validation of good instruments to assess secularism, i.e., the absence of religiosity and spirituality.

Objective: The present study aimed to develop a cross-cultural adaptation and search for evidence of the validity of the nonreligious-nonspiritual scale (NRNSS).

Methods: For a congruent scale translation, a cross-cultural adaptation was performed. The search for evidence of validity was carried out through the following steps: (1) evidence of validity based on the internal structure, where an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed, and the internal consistency was verified of the factors obtained; (2) evidence of validity based on converging relationships with external measurements, where correlations were made between the NRNSS factors and the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Duke Religiosity Index (P-DUREL) and the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Instrument-Spirituality, Religion and Personal Beliefs module (WHOQOL-SRPB); and (3) comparison of self-identification categories with NRNSS outcomes using two one-way ANOVA tests, comparing scale scores between different groups (e.g., atheists, agnostics, spiritualists, and religious people). The data collection process took place through a link shared on social networks allowing access to the structured questionnaire.

Results: The present study obtained the following results: (1) the EFA supported a one-factor model for the scale, but (2) the CFA presented satisfactory indices for the the model composed of two factors, non-religiosity (NR) and non-spirituality (NS); (3) internal consistency indices greater than 0.95 were obtained in all factors indicated in both tested models; (4) all analyzed correlations obtained results as expected, indicating that the scale actually measures the proposed constructs; and (5) decreasing levels of NR and NS were obtained according to the respective beliefs: atheists, agnostics, spiritualists, and religious people.

Conclusion: The NRNSS presented favorable psychometric properties, enabling it to be used with two different factors (NR and NS).

Background: Fighting racial discrimination requires the ability to notice it when it occurs.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the perception of racial discrimination in a sample of Brazilian school-aged children.

Method: Fifty-three 6- to 12-year-old children were recruited from two public schools in a small town in the state of São Paulo, but there was no registration of the ethnic background of one child and, as a result, he had to be excluded. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 52 participants (10 black, 32 mixed-race, 10 white). A task designed to assess children's perception of racial discrimination and used in previous studies was translated into Brazilian Portuguese and administered to participants. Children watched four videos of stories about an adult character who made a choice between a black child and a white child in different scenarios) (e.g., choosing a class leader, a student to represent the school in a science fair, a winner for the music contest and someone to complete the soccer team), with the choice always benefiting one over the other. Children were distributed into three conditions that varied in terms of whether racial discrimination was present or not. Two situational cues were manipulated: the skin color of the potential target of discrimination and information about the adult character's past choices. At the end of each story, participants had to answer a question about the reasons for the choice made.

Results: A significant effect of age was found on the PD task, but only for one condition (C1) when there was a pattern of apparent racial discrimination and when situational cues were provided, U = 21.0, p = .006. A D-prime analysis revealed that children were good at rejecting the existence of discrimination when it was not present; but they performed poorly when it was present, d' = - 0.44.

Conclusion: These findings point to an important question regarding the when and how Brazilian parents and educators talk to children about ethnic-racial relations. This is an important future direction, and it can better inform intervention programs and public policy directed at preventing and fighting racism in our country.