The Dimensionality of the Moral Foundations: Contributions from the Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale in Four Societies.

Moral Foundations Theory proposes that five innate modules offer an intuitive response that drives our moral judgments. Various instruments were developed to measure the five moral foundations, including the MFV and the MFQ-30 which focus on deliberative moral reasoning. This approach is limited because intuitions are more basic and affect-laden. The Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale (MFSS) was designed to elicit responses that more closely resemble these phenomena. However, studies have not converged on a factorial structure for the MFSS, and measurement invariance has never been assessed. Our study sought to evaluate these properties across four adult samples, via Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling, and the associations between the MFSS's scales and relevant constructs. We found that a two-factor solution, reflecting the individualizing and binding foundations, had a reasonable fit, and had invariance (configural, metric, and scalar) across gender, age groups, and (configural) four international samples. The scales were reliable, had construct validity with the MFQ-30, and criterion-related validity with the binding moderately predicting belief in God/spirit and religious behaviors. The convergence we found regarding the MFSS's factorial structure across groups has important implications for the dimensionality of these constructs, and - ultimately - for the development of Moral Foundations Theory.

Three joint temperament-character configurations account for learning, personality and well-being: normative demographic findings in a representative national population.

Introduction: A common practice in research and clinical practice is to use data considered representative of a target population to compare and understand the personality characteristics of specific groups or specific individuals. To this end, numerous studies have presented normative data for the temperament and character traits outlined in Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality. However, recent genomic evidence demonstrates that human personality is organized as a complex hierarchy that ascends beyond the individual traits to multi-trait profiles that regulate emotional reactivity (temperament profiles) or goals and values (character profiles), and then to three phenotypic networks, which integrate temperament profiles and character profiles, that regulate learning. Given this recent understanding, our aim was to provide a novel and more comprehensive description of personality features at a societal level (using a stratified sample representative of the Portuguese population) by considering personality at its higher levels of complexity. Methods: Toward this goal, a stratified sample of 2,443 Portuguese adults responded to the Revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R). Results: We summarize the prevalence of (a) temperament profiles, (b) character profiles, and (c) integrated temperament-character networks within the whole sample, as well as for men vs. women and different age groups separately. Independent of age and education, women were more likely to be capable of resourceful productivity and helpful cooperation combined with being more intuitive, meditative and creative than men. Independent of age and gender, individuals with a degree were also more likely to present these biopsychosocial features. We also found that the organized character profile was most typical of adults in their 40s. Finally, the distribution of personality profiles across age differed as a function of gender: for men the oldest individuals had the most coherent personalities while high personality integration was most prevalent for women in their 30s. Discussion: These results have strong implications for research and intervention. In particular, these results are relevant for understanding the epidemiology of interactions between personality, mental health and well-being, including their expressions in a national population as a function of demographic characteristics.

Subjective well-being and school engagement before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic: What good are positive emotions?

The present study overcomes the limited empirical evidence on the association between well-being and school engagement in times of adversity by exploiting available data from two large and comparable samples of eighth graders; one obtained prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the second obtained during the pandemic. Results suggest that adolescents were less engaged with their learning context during the pandemic, as well as lower in positive and negative affect, but slightly more satisfied with life. Through SEM we found a stronger positive association between positive affect and school engagement in the COVID-19 group compared with the pre-COVID-19 group. This finding highlights the important role of positive affect in supporting better academic functioning in the aftermath of a global crisis.

Disentangling the personality pathways to well-being.

Recent genomic, psychological, and developmental research shows that human personality is organized as a complex hierarchy that ascends from individual traits in many specific situations to multi-trait profiles in two domains that regulate emotional reactivity (temperament) or goals and values (character), and finally to three integrated temperament-character networks that regulate learning to maintain well-being in changing conditions. We carried out person-centered analyses of the components of subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) to personality in both adolescents (N = 1739) and adults (N = 897). Personality was considered at each level of its organization (trait, temperament or character profiles, and joint temperament-character networks). We show for the first time that negative affect and life satisfaction are dependent on the personality network for intentional self-control, whereas positive affect is dependent on the personality network for self-awareness that underlies the human capacities for healthy longevity, creativity, and prosocial values.

The Twenty Item Values Inventory (TwIVI) in Portuguese Adults: Factorial Structure, Internal Consistency, and Criterion-Related Validity.

The Schwartz Model of Basic Values is an influential framework that describes what people find important and worth pursuing in life. The model proposes that ten human values are found cross-culturally, and so significant efforts have gone into empirically testing these claims. While instruments such as the Portrait Values Questionnaire-40 (PVQ-40) reliably discriminated the full set of theorized values, briefer versions have either suffered from a lack of construct validity (PVQ-21) or from not having been put through a rigorous statistical test of its underlying structure (Twenty Item Values Inventory [TwIVI]) via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The present study, using a Portuguese sample of adults (n = 524), is the first to examine the factorial structure of the TwIVI via CFA. We apply a magnifying glass approach by testing two separate models, each covering five values, which reflect the Growth and Self-protective dimensions. Moreover, we provide evidences that the TwIVI is reliable and capable of capturing the theorized quasi-circumplex structure, and the cross-cultural gender differences and relative hierarchical importance of values. Finally, we establish criterion-related validity, with values correlating with political identity and social and economic issues.

Effects of individual differences, society, and culture on youth-rated problems and strengths in 38 societies.

BACKGROUND: Clinicians increasingly serve youths from societal/cultural backgrounds different from their own. This raises questions about how to interpret what such youths report. Rescorla et al. (2019, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 1107) found that much more variance in 72,493 parents' ratings of their offspring's mental health problems was accounted for by individual differences than by societal or cultural differences. Although parents' reports are essential for clinical assessment of their offspring, they reflect parents' perceptions of the offspring. Consequently, clinical assessment also requires self-reports from the offspring themselves. To test effects of individual differences, society, and culture on youths' self-ratings of their problems and strengths, we analyzed Youth Self-Report (YSR) scores for 39,849 11-17 year olds in 38 societies. METHODS: Indigenous researchers obtained YSR self-ratings from population samples of youths in 38 societies representing 10 culture cluster identified in the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavioral Effectiveness study. Hierarchical linear modeling of scores on 17 problem scales and one strengths scale estimated the percent of variance accounted for by individual differences (including measurement error), society, and culture cluster. ANOVAs tested age and gender effects. RESULTS: Averaged across the 17 problem scales, individual differences accounted for 92.5% of variance, societal differences 6.0%, and cultural differences 1.5%. For strengths, individual differences accounted for 83.4% of variance, societal differences 10.1%, and cultural differences 6.5%. Age and gender had very small effects. CONCLUSIONS: Like parents' ratings, youths' self-ratings of problems were affected much more by individual differences than societal/cultural differences. Most variance in self-rated strengths also reflected individual differences, but societal/cultural effects were larger than for problems, suggesting greater influence of social desirability. The clinical significance of individual differences in youths' self-reports should thus not be minimized by societal/cultural differences, which-while important-can be taken into account with appropriate norms, as can gender and age differences.

Student engagement with school and personality: a biopsychosocial and person-centred approach.

BACKGROUND: Engagement with school is a key predictor of students' academic outcomes, yet little is known about its association with personality. No research has considered this association using Cloninger's biopsychosocial model of personality. This model may be particularly informative because it posits the structure of human personality corresponds to three systems of human learning and memory that regulate associative conditioning, intentionality, and self-awareness, all of which are relevant for understanding engagement. AIMS: To test for defined personality phenotypes and describe how they relate to student engagement. SAMPLE: 469 adolescents (54.2% female) attending the eighth (Mage  = 13.2, SD = .57) or 11th (Mage  = 16.5, SD = .84) grades. METHODS: Students completed self-report measures of personality and engagement. We used mixture models to identify latent classes defined by common (1) temperament profiles, (2) character profiles, and (3) joint temperament-character networks, and then tested how these classes differed in engagement. RESULTS: Latent class analysis revealed three distinct joint temperament-character networks: Emotional-Unreliable (emotionally reactive, low self-control, and low creativity), Organized-Reliable (self-control but not creative), and Creative-Reliable (highly creative and prosocial). These networks differed significantly in engagement, with the emotional-unreliable network linked to lower engagement. However, the magnitudes of these differences across engagement dimensions did not appear to be uniform. CONCLUSIONS: Different integrated configurations of the biopsychosocial systems for associative conditioning, intentionality, and self-awareness (differences in personality) underlie student engagement. Our results offer a fine-grained understanding of engagement dimensions in terms of their underlying personality networks, with implications for educational policies and practices.

Personality Networks and Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Integrating Temperament and Character Using Latent Profile and Latent Class Analyses.

Recent research indicates that adaptive functioning and well-being depends on the integration of three dissociable systems of learning and memory that regulate associative conditioning, intentionality and self-awareness. Our study objective was to describe how different integrated configurations of these systems (i.e. different expressions of personality) relate to the presence of internalizing, externalizing and total problems. In total, 699 adolescents completed the JTCI and Achenbach's YSR. Latent profile analyses revealed two temperament profiles and six character profiles. Adolescents with a steady temperament, and those with healthy characters, were significantly less likely to present clinical levels of problems. The integration of a steady temperament and healthy character profiles in a Mature-Steady joint temperament-character network was also associated with significantly less clinical problems. In sum, our person-centered study indicates that adaptive expressions of associative conditioning, intentionality, and self-awareness (i.e. integrated personalities) are critical for mental health.

Understanding the experience of psychopathology after intimate partner violence: the role of personality.

OBJECTIVES: To fully understand the dynamics of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) it is necessary to understand the role of personality. The current understanding of which personality characteristics are associated with IPV victimization is, however, far from comprehensive. Given this gap in the literature, our objective was to examine the associations between the dimensions of the psychobiological model of personality and psychopathological symptoms in women who had experienced IPV. METHODS: Using a case-control design, a group of women who had experienced IPV and who were living in shelters (n = 50) were compared to a group of control women who had not experienced IPV (n = 50). All women completed the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised and the Brief Symptom Inventory. RESULTS: Victims of IPV showed significantly higher levels of Harm Avoidance and Self-Transcendence, and lower levels of Reward Dependence and Self-Directedness, than the non-IPV control group. Victims of IPV also reported elevated levels of psychopathological symptoms. Personality dimensions showed a broadly consistent pattern of associations across different psychopathological symptoms. A regression analysis indicated that Novelty Seeking was negatively associated with psychopathological symptoms in victims of IPV, but not significantly associated in non-victims. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the important role of Harm Avoidance and Self-Directedness for understanding psychopathological symptoms. Novelty Seeking appears to play an important role in the expression of individuals' experiences of IPV. These results have important implications for research and practice, particularly the development and implementation of interventions.

Testing Syndromes of Psychopathology in Parent and Youth Ratings Across Societies.

As societies become increasingly diverse, mental health professionals need instruments for assessing emotional, behavioral, and social problems in terms of constructs that are supported within and across societies. Building on decades of research findings, multisample alignment confirmatory factor analyses tested an empirically based 8-syndrome model on parent ratings across 30 societies and youth self-ratings across 19 societies. The Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 and Youth Self-Report for Ages 11-18 were used to measure syndromes descriptively designated as Anxious/Depressed, Withdrawn/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Social Problems, Thought Problems, Attention Problems, Rule-Breaking Behavior, and Aggressive Behavior. For both parent ratings (N = 61,703) and self-ratings (N = 29,486), results supported aggregation of problem items into 8 first-order syndromes for all societies (configural invariance), plus the invariance of item loadings (metric invariance) across the majority of societies. Supported across many societies in both parent and self-ratings, the 8 syndromes offer a parsimonious phenotypic taxonomy with clearly operationalized assessment criteria. Mental health professionals in many societies can use the 8 syndromes to assess children and youths for clinical, training, and scientific purposes.

The Psychometrics of the European Portuguese Version of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised.

Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality integrates contributions from behavioral genetics, neurobiology, and psychology in the description of the human personality. The temperament and character inventory (TCI) is its assessment instrument. The Brazilian Portuguese version of the TCI has shown good psychometric properties. However, Portuguese spoken in Brazil presents marked and substantial differences to that spoken in Portugal, and no study has yet described the psychometrics of the European Portuguese version. The objective of this study was thus to describe the psychometric properties of the European Portuguese adult version of the TCI (the temperament and character inventory-revised (TCI-R)). This study involved 1400 Portuguese adult participants. The factorial structure of the European Portuguese version was tested using four methods: exploratory factor analysis, orthogonal procrustes rotation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and exploratory structural equation modeling. The integration of data coming from these methods suggested that the Portuguese version of the TCI-R presented good structural validity (as revealed by the emergence of the temperament and character structures predicted by theory) and high levels of congruence between the American and the Portuguese versions. An improvement in the goodness of fit of the models for the Portuguese population was achieved by using exploratory structural equation modeling over confirmatory factor analysis. Although some facets registered questionable consistency, all dimensions had acceptable to good consistency (all ≥ .79). These results confirm the validity of the Portuguese TCI-R and its adequacy for use in European Portuguese samples.

Long-term impact of the promotion of social and emotional skills / Impacto a longo prazo da promoção de competências sociais e emocionais

Social and emotional skills are protective factors against several negative functioning indicators. A current challenge on social and emotional skills research is to descrive of the long-term impact of social and emotional development programs. The objective of this follow-up study was to evaluate the long-term impact of a program for the development of social and emotional skills - "Crescer a Brincar" (Growing up Playing) - on disruptive behaviors and on students' engagement with school eight years after the beginning and four years after the end of the intervention. Results revealed that the experimental group registered lower disruptive behaviors and higher intrinsic motivation. These results have important implications for the promotion of positive youth development, especially for the promotion of health in school-based interventions. (AU)

As competências sociais e emocionais são fatores de proteção contra vários indicadores de funcionamento negativo. Um dos desafios atuais na investigação ao nível da promoção de competências sociais e emocionais é o seu impacto a longo-prazo. O objetivo deste estudo de follow-up foi avaliar o impacto do programa de promoção de competências sociais e emocionais "Crescer a Brincar" nos comportamentos disruptivos e no envolvimento dos alunos com a escola, oito anos depois do início do programa e quatro anos depois do final da intervenção. Os resultados demonstraram que o grupo experimental registrou menos comportamentos disruptivos e maior motivação intrínseca. Estes resultados têm implicações importantes para a promoção de desenvolvimento positivo entre crianças e jovens em contexto escolar. (AU)

Personality and well-being in adolescents.

Different profiles of the character dimensions of self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence result in different levels of wellbeing among adults. However, the influence of the multidimensional character profiles on adolescents' composite wellbeing remains unexplored. This study builds on previous studies with adults, and examines the linear and non-linear associations between the dimensions of the psychobiological model of personality and well-being in adolescents. Participated in this study 1540 adolescents (M = 15.44, SD = 1.731). Personality was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Well-being was evaluated in a composite perspective: satisfaction with social support, health-related quality of life, satisfaction with life and affect. Variable-centered and individual-centered analyses were performed. Self-directedness was strongly associated with all dimensions of affective and cognitive well-being regardless of the other two character traits. Cooperativeness was associated with non-affective well-being and with positive affect, but only when associated to elevation of Self-directedness and Self-transcendence. Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness explained 15.5% of the non-affective well-being variance. Self-Directedness and Self-Transcendence explained 10.4% of the variance in affective well-being. This study confirms the tendencies found in previous studies with adults from other societies, where each character dimension gives an independent contribution to well-being depending on the interactions with other Character dimensions. Also, this study highlights the importance of considering the non-linear influences of the character dimensions in understanding of adolescents' wellbeing. These results have strong implications for youth positive mental health promotion, including for school-based policies and practices.

The Students' Perceptions of School Success Promoting Strategies Inventory (SPSI): development and validity evidence based studies.

Students' perceptions about school success promotion strategies are of great importance for schools, as they are an indicator of how students perceive the school success promotion strategies. The objective of this study was to develop and analyze the validity evidence based of The Students' Perceptions of School Success Promoting Strategies Inventory (SPSI), which assesses both individual students' perceptions of their school success promoting strategies, and dimensions of school quality. A structure of 7 related factors was found, which showed good adjustment indices in two additional different samples, suggesting that this is a well-fitting multi-group model (p < .001). All scales presented good reliability values. Schools with good academic results registered higher values in Career development, Active learning, Proximity, Educational Technologies and Extra-curricular activities (p < .05). SPSI showed to be adequate to measure within-schools (students within schools) dimensions of school success. In addition, there is preliminary evidence for its adequacy for measuring school success promotion dimensions between schools for 4 dimensions. This study supports the validity evidence based of the SPSI (validity evidence based on test content, on internal structure, on relations to other variables and on consequences of testing). Future studies should test for within- and between-level variance in a bigger sample of schools.

Development and evaluation of psychometric properties of an inventory of teachers' perceptions on socio-emotional needs / Desenvolvimento e avaliação das características psicométricas do inventário de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das necessidades ao nível da promoção de competências sociais e emocionais

The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an assessment instrument on teachers' perceptions regarding the development of socio-emotional skills. Results revealed a consistent four-factor structure (School/teachers' needs for socio-emotional skills promotion; Needs regarding teaching-learning process; Difficulties in dealing with students' socio-emotional deficits, Socio-emotional needs related to teacher's initial training) with internal consistency values above .79. Confirmatory analyses revealed a good fit of the model to the data. Teachers reported having more needs at the school/ teachers conditions for the promotion of social and emotional needs, and less needs at the level of their Teachers' initial training. The instrument also showed to be sensitive in capturing teachers' perception of schooling social and emotional needs in terms of teachers' gender, pedagogic group and school level.(AU)

O objectivo deste estudo foi avaliar as características psicométricas de um instrumento de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das suas necessidades na promoção das competências sociais e emocionais. Os resultados revelaram uma estrutura de quatro factores (Necessidades ao nível da escola/professor, necessidades ao nível do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, Dificuldades em lidar com défices sócio-emocionais dos alunos e Necessidades ao nível da formação inicial), com valores de consistência interna acima de 0,79. As análises confirmatórias revelaram bom ajustamento do modelo aos dados. Os professores revelaram sentir maiores dificuldades ao nível das condições da escola/ professores e menores ao nível da formação inicial. O instrumento revelou-se também sensível às diferenças de percepções em termos do género, grupo pedagógico, e nível de ensino.(AU)

Development and evaluation of psychometric properties of an inventory of teachers' perceptions on socio-emotional needs / Desenvolvimento e avaliação das características psicométricas do inventário de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das necessidades ao nível da promoção de competências sociais e emocionais

The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an assessment instrument on teachers' perceptions regarding the development of socio-emotional skills. Results revealed a consistent four-factor structure (School/teachers' needs for socio-emotional skills promotion; Needs regarding teaching-learning process; Difficulties in dealing with students' socio-emotional deficits, Socio-emotional needs related to teacher's initial training) with internal consistency values above .79. Confirmatory analyses revealed a good fit of the model to the data. Teachers reported having more needs at the school/ teachers conditions for the promotion of social and emotional needs, and less needs at the level of their Teachers' initial training. The instrument also showed to be sensitive in capturing teachers' perception of schooling social and emotional needs in terms of teachers' gender, pedagogic group and school level.

O objectivo deste estudo foi avaliar as características psicométricas de um instrumento de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das suas necessidades na promoção das competências sociais e emocionais. Os resultados revelaram uma estrutura de quatro factores (Necessidades ao nível da escola/professor, necessidades ao nível do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, Dificuldades em lidar com défices sócio-emocionais dos alunos e Necessidades ao nível da formação inicial), com valores de consistência interna acima de 0,79. As análises confirmatórias revelaram bom ajustamento do modelo aos dados. Os professores revelaram sentir maiores dificuldades ao nível das condições da escola/ professores e menores ao nível da formação inicial. O instrumento revelou-se também sensível às diferenças de percepções em termos do género, grupo pedagógico, e nível de ensino.

Auto-regulação da aprendizagem em crianças e adolescentes filhos de vítimas de violência doméstica contra mulheres / Self-regulation of learning in children and adolescents whose mothers were victims of domestic violence

A violência doméstica contra mulheres afecta negativamente o desenvolvimento de alguns domínios de auto-regulação. Contudo, pouco se conhece sobre o seu impacto na auto-regulação da aprendizagem. Este estudo avaliou a auto-regulação da aprendizagem em 50 filhos de vítimas de violência doméstica contra mulheres. O grupo de filhos de vítimas apresentou níveis inferiores de rendimento académico. O grupo de filhos de vítimas simultaneamente de violência psicológica e física registou níveis inferiores nas dimensões de Avaliação e Execução de auto-regulação da aprendizagem. Estes resultados suportam as evidências de que a exposição à violência doméstica afecta negativamente o desenvolvimento da auto-regulação. Para além disso, sugerem que a exposição a violência familiar afecta negativamente também algumas dimensões da auto-regulação da aprendizagem.(AU)

Domestic violence against women has a negative impact on several domains of self-regulation. However, very little is known about its impact on self-regulated learning. This study evaluated self-regulation of learning in children and adolescents exposed to domestic violence. Fifty children and adolescents, whose mothers were victims of domestic violence and 50 whose mothers were not, participated in the study. The group of children and adolescents whose mothers were victims of intimate partner violence registered lower academic performance and the group exposed simultaneously to psychological and physical violence registered lower scores on the self-regulation dimensions of evaluation and execution. The results support the evidence that exposure to domestic violence has a negative impact on self-regulation. Also, they suggest that exposure to domestic violence has a negative impact in some dimensions of self-regulated learning.(AU)

Auto-regulação da aprendizagem em crianças e adolescentes filhos de vítimas de violência doméstica contra mulheres / Self-regulation of learning in children and adolescents whose mothers were victims of domestic violence

A violência doméstica contra mulheres afecta negativamente o desenvolvimento de alguns domínios de auto-regulação. Contudo, pouco se conhece sobre o seu impacto na auto-regulação da aprendizagem. Este estudo avaliou a auto-regulação da aprendizagem em 50 filhos de vítimas de violência doméstica contra mulheres. O grupo de filhos de vítimas apresentou níveis inferiores de rendimento académico. O grupo de filhos de vítimas simultaneamente de violência psicológica e física registou níveis inferiores nas dimensões de Avaliação e Execução de auto-regulação da aprendizagem. Estes resultados suportam as evidências de que a exposição à violência doméstica afecta negativamente o desenvolvimento da auto-regulação. Para além disso, sugerem que a exposição a violência familiar afecta negativamente também algumas dimensões da auto-regulação da aprendizagem...

Domestic violence against women has a negative impact on several domains of self-regulation. However, very little is known about its impact on self-regulated learning. This study evaluated self-regulation of learning in children and adolescents exposed to domestic violence. Fifty children and adolescents, whose mothers were victims of domestic violence and 50 whose mothers were not, participated in the study. The group of children and adolescents whose mothers were victims of intimate partner violence registered lower academic performance and the group exposed simultaneously to psychological and physical violence registered lower scores on the self-regulation dimensions of evaluation and execution. The results support the evidence that exposure to domestic violence has a negative impact on self-regulation. Also, they suggest that exposure to domestic violence has a negative impact in some dimensions of self-regulated learning...