Is it the Child’s Fault? Maternal Attributions in Child Abuse and Neglect / ¿Es Culpa del Niño? Atribuciones Maternas en el Abuso y la Negligencia Infantil

Background: Among the parental cognitions explaining maladaptive parenting, attributions about a child’s misbehavior seem important. However, there is little research on neglectful parents, and the different patterns of parental attributions associated with child abuse and child neglect are still underexplained. The current study examines parental attributions associated with child abuse and child neglect. Method: Mothers (N = 218) were asked to evaluate vignettes describing child transgressions, half of which were followed by situational information. Child abuse and child neglect were evaluated through mothers’ and professionals’ reports. Results: Preliminary results indicated that the child’s age and maternal socioeconomic status were significantly correlated with attributions and child abuse and neglect scores and thus were controlled in the models. The results from hierarchical regressions indicated that dispositional attributions were associated with higher abuse scores (reported by mothers), even in the presence of situational information. Likewise, dispositional attributions were associated with higher neglect scores (reported by professionals), but the effect was no longer significant in the presence of situational information. Conclusions: These findings contribute to the current socio-cognitive approaches to child maltreatment and provide relevant input for understanding the different attributional mechanisms underlying child abuse and neglect.(AU)

Antecedentes: Entre las cogniciones parentales que explican la parentalidad desadaptativa, las atribuciones sobre el comportamiento del niño parecen importantes. Sin embargo, hay pocas investigaciones sobre los padres negligentes, y los patrones de atribuciones parentales que se asocian con el abuso y la negligencia siguen sin explicarse. Éste estudio examina las atribuciones parentales asociadas con el abuso y la negligencia infantil. Método: La muestra estaba compuesta por 218 madres que evaluaron viñetas que describían transgresiones infantiles, la mitad con información situacional. Abuso y negligencia se evaluaron a través de informes de madres y profesionales. Resultados: Los resultados indicaron que la edad del niño y el estatus socioeconómico estaban correlacionados con las atribuciones y con el abuso y negligencia, por lo que fueron controlados en los modelos. Los resultados de las regresiones jerárquicas indicaron que las atribuciones disposicionales se asociaron con el abuso (informes de madres), incluso en presencia de información situacional. Las atribuciones disposicionales se asociaron con la negligencia (informes de profesionales), pero no hay efecto en presencia de información situacional. Conclusiones: Estos hallazgos corroboran a los actuales enfoques sociocognitivos del maltrato infantil y proporcionan aportaciones relevantes para entender los diferentes mecanismos atribucionales que subyacen al abuso y la negligencia infantil.(AU)

Parental Attitudes in Child Maltreatment.

An information-processing approach to maladaptive parenting suggests that high-risk and maltreating parents are likely to hold inaccurate and biased preexisting cognitive schemata about child development and child rearing. Importantly, these schemas, which may include values, beliefs, expectations, and attitudes, are known to influence the way parents perceive and subsequently act toward their children. However, the few studies specifically addressing parental attitudes only considered global maltreatment, not distinguishing abuse from neglect. Moreover, few have considered dual-process models of cognition, relying mostly on the explicit level of parental attitudes that can be prone to various biases. Based on the Social Information Processing (SIP) model of child abuse and neglect, this study examines the association of parents preexisting cognitive schemata, namely explicit and implicit parental attitudes, and child abuse and neglect. A convenience sample of 201 mothers (half with at least one child referred to child protection services) completed a measure of explicit parental attitudes and a speed-accuracy task related to parenting. Abuse and neglect were measured with self-report and professionals-report instruments. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that maladaptive parenting is related with more biased preexisting cognitive schemas, namely attitudes related to parenting, but only for neglect and particularly when reported by professionals. Moreover, the results observed with both the explicit and implicit measures of attitudes were convergent, with mothers presenting more inadequate explicit attitudes also exhibiting an overall lower performance in the implicit attitudes task. This study is likely to contribute to the SIP framework of child abuse and neglect, particularly for the elucidation of the sociocognitive factors underlying maladaptive parenting, while also providing relevant cues for prevention and intervention programs.

"(I Think) My Mother Thinks I Am, Therefore I Am." The Looking-glass Self in Maltreated Children and Adolescents.

Children and adolescents with maltreatment experiences show worse representations of themselves, as compared to their nonmaltreated counterparts. According to the looking-glass self hypothesis (LGSH), individuals' self-representations (SR) stem from interactions with significant others, reflecting associations between what significant others think of them (i.e., actual appraisals), individuals' perceptions of significant others' appraisals of them (i.e., reflected appraisals), and SR. However, little is known about the looking-glass self process in maltreated children and adolescents. This multi-informant study aimed to test the LGSH within the mother-child relationship with children and adolescents with maltreatment experiences. Specifically, including maltreatment experiences as co-predictors, this study analyzed the mediating role of mothers' reflected appraisals (MRA) in associations between mothers' actual appraisals (MAA) and children/adolescents' SR. Participants were 203 children/adolescents (52.5% boys), 8-16 years old (M = 12.6; SD = 2.49), assisted by children and youth protection committees (CYPC), their mother, and their CYPC case workers. Case workers reported on child/adolescent maltreatment, children/adolescents reported on SR and MRA, and mothers reported on MAA. A multiple mediation path analysis revealed significant mediation effects of MRA between MAA and child/adolescent SR in instrumental, social, emotional, intelligence, and opposition SR, thus supporting the LGSH in the context of child/adolescent maltreatment. Also, psychological neglect was associated to worse intelligence SR, mediated by intelligence reflected appraisals. Findings emphasize the importance of the role of MRA on maltreated children and adolescents' SR construction process, and provide useful clues to incorporate in prevention and intervention strategies targeting maltreated children and adolescents.

Child Maltreatment Severity Questionnaire (MSQ) for Professionals: Development, Validity, and Reliability Evidence.

This article presents the development and validation of the child Maltreatment Severity Questionnaire (MSQ), aiming to contribute to increase the quality and efficiency of evaluation processes in the Child Protection System (CPS). To obtain a valid and reliable instrument, a set of studies was developed: Study 1-Based on two previous studies, the questionnaire was developed and the severity level of the items within maltreatment subtypes was assigned by 93 professionals from the welfare and CPS system. Consensus about the severity levels was assessed and described in terms of within-item reliability rankings; Study 2-The MSQ was filled out for 253 children and adolescents referred to the CPS. To ensure that the items within different subtypes of maltreatment were homogenous and had internal consistency, a reliability analysis was performed; Study 3-The MSQ was filled out for 1,000 children and adolescents referred to the CPS. This study involved testing validity evidence through an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis. We also analyzed the internal consistency, sensibility (i.e., sex and age differences) and concurrent validity of the MSQ. Findings support the adequacy and reliability of the MSQ to be used by CPS professionals in evaluating child maltreatment.

Youth in Residential Care: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis of Youth's Perceptions of Their Social Images, Self-Representations, and Adjustment Outcomes.

Individuals' perceptions of their social images [i.e., meta-representations (MR)] and perceived stereotyping threat create involuntary stress responses that may affect important outcomes, such as self-esteem, academic achievement, and mental health. This study aimed to (1) analyze the indirect associations between residential care youth's MR and their psychological adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) through their self-representations (SR) and (2) test the moderating role of youth's age and residential unit size in those associations. A sample of 926 youth aged between 12 and 25years old filled out self-report questionnaires regarding their representations about how people in general perceive them (i.e., MR) and their SR. Residential care professionals filled in the socio-demographic questionnaires and the Child Behavior Checklist. Data were analyzed through multiple mediation models and moderated mediation models. Results showed that (1) youth's behavioral MR were indirectly associated with higher internalizing and externalizing behavior through higher levels of behavioral SR and (2) youth's emotional MR were associated with higher internalizing problems through higher emotional SR, but also with lower internalizing problems through lower levels of behavioral SR. These results emphasize the importance of stimulating positive SR, by showing that they can be a protective factor for youth in residential care.

Recognizing children's emotions in child abuse and neglect.

Past research has suggested that parents' ability to recognize their children's emotions is associated with an enhanced quality of parent-child interactions and appropriateness of parental caregiving behavior. Although this association has also been examined in abusive and neglectful parents, the results are mixed and do not adequately address child neglect. Based on the Social Information Processing model of child abuse and neglect, we examined the association between mothers' ability to recognize children's emotions and self- and professionals-reported child abuse and neglect. The ability to recognize children's emotions was assessed with an implicit valence classification task and an emotion labeling task. A convenience sample of 166 mothers (78 with at least one child referred to Child Protection Services) completed the tasks. Child abuse and neglect were measured with self-report and professionals-report instruments. The moderating role of mothers' intellectual functioning and socioeconomic status were also examined. Results revealed that abusive mothers performed more poorly on the negative emotions recognition task, while neglectful mothers demonstrated a lower overall ability in recognizing children's emotions. When classifying the valence of emotions, mothers who obtained higher scores on child neglect presented a higher positivity bias particularly when their scores in measures of intellectual functioning were low. There was no moderation effect for socioeconomic status. Moreover, the results for child abuse were mainly observed with self-report measures, while for child neglect, they predominantly emerged with professionals-report. Our findings highlight the important contribution of the social information processing model in the context of child maltreatment, with implications for prevention and intervention addressed.

The social information processing model in child physical abuse and neglect: A meta-analytic review.

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment has been recently examined from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. The Social Information Processing (SIP) model specifies how parental cognitions can be associated with child physical abuse and neglect and suggests that maltreating parents do not adequately respond to the child's needs due to errors/bias in the cognitive processing of child-related information. OBJECTIVE: This study provides two separate meta-analytic reviews of research exploring the role of parents' socio-cognitive variables in shaping child physical abuse and child neglect, identifying the association of each SIP stage to these types of maltreatment. METHOD: After a four-phase systematic literature search based in PRISMA with inter-judges' agreement, 130 effect sizes were extracted from the 51 studies selected. RESULTS: Overall, the effect sizes of the four cognitive stages of the model were significant for physical abuse and ranged from small (r = .190 for parents' interpretations of children's signals) to moderate (r = .315 for parents' perceptions of children's signals). Regarding neglect, only the overall effect of parent's preexisting schemata was significant but small in magnitude (r = .231). CONCLUSIONS: The results of these multilevel meta-analyses support the general hypothesis that physically abusive parents may incur in biases in processing child-related information, but further research is still required regarding neglect. Theoretically this work is likely to provide a more solid framework to understand parental cognitions underlying child maltreatment with potential implications for evaluation and intervention with maltreating or at-risk parents.

Maltreatment experiences and psychopathology in children and adolescents: The intervening role of domain-specific self-representations moderated by age.

BACKGROUND: Associations between maltreatment experiences and psychopathology symptoms in children and adolescents are well established. However, the role of domain-specific self-representations (SR) in those associations remains unexplored. OBJECTIVE: This multi-informant study aimed to explore the indirect associations between maltreatment experiences and children's and adolescents' psychopathology symptoms (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems), through domain-specific self-representations, and the moderating role of age in those indirect associations. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 203 children/adolescents (52.7 % boys), aged 8-16 years old (M = 12.64; SD = 2.47), referred to child/youth protection commissions, their parents, and case workers. METHOD: Case workers reported on child/adolescent maltreatment, children/adolescents reported on SR, and parents reported on psychopathology symptoms. RESULTS: Controlling for chronicity of maltreatment and child/adolescent sex effects, multiple mediation path analysis revealed that: 1) higher levels of physical and psychological abuse were associated with less externalizing problems through more negative social SR; 2) higher levels of physical neglect were associated with more externalizing problems through more positive opposition SR; 3) higher levels of psychological neglect were associated with less externalizing problems through more negative physical appearance SR, and 4) associated with more externalizing problems through more negative opposition SR. Moreover, the indirect effects of physical and psychological abuse on internalizing and externalizing problems through instrumental SR were conditional on child/adolescent age. CONCLUSION: Findings signal the relevance of preventing child/adolescent maltreatment and promoting the construction of positive and, foremost, realistic and adaptive self-representations as protection against maladjustment.

Adaptation of Nussbaum's Capabilities Framework to Community Mental Health: A Consumer-Based Capabilities Measure.

The capabilities approach provides a rich evaluative framework to guide transformative change in the community mental health system. This study reports the content and construct validity and psychometric properties of a contextualized measure of the extent to which mental health programs foster achieved capabilities. The Achieved Capabilities Questionnaire for Community Mental Health (ACQ-CMH), adapted from Nussbaum's capabilities framework, was developed previously with consumer collaboration. Content validity was assessed through a collaborative process, involving a panel of eight consumers, staff members, and senior researchers. The resulting shorter version (ACQ-CMH-98) was completed by 332 community mental health consumers sampled throughout Portugal. Factor (PCA) analysis, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest reliability over 2 weeks (N = 33) showed good psychometric properties. The resulting six-factor structure with 48 items explains 48.88% of the total variance (KMO = 0.89; Bartlett p = .00). Internal consistency of the obtained dimensions ranges from .91 to .76. Associations of the measure with recovery, quality of life, and psychological distress scales add further evidence of construct validity. The adaptation of Nussbaum's framework stressed specific components that may enhance understanding and change within the community mental health system.

Emergency residential care settings: A model for service assessment and design.

There have been calls for uncovering the "black box" of residential care services, with a particular need for research focusing on emergency care settings for children and youth in danger. In fact, the strikingly scant empirical attention that these settings have received so far contrasts with the role that they often play as gateway into the child welfare system. To answer these calls, this work presents and tests a framework for assessing a service model in residential emergency care. It comprises seven studies which address a set of different focal areas (e.g., service logic model; care experiences), informants (e.g., case records; staff; children/youth), and service components (e.g., case assessment/evaluation; intervention; placement/referral). Drawing on this process-consultation approach, the work proposes a set of key challenges for emergency residential care in terms of service improvement and development, and calls for further research targeting more care units and different types of residential care services. These findings offer a contribution to inform evidence-based practice and policy in service models of residential care.

Development and validation of a Social Images Evaluation Questionnaire for youth in residential care.

Social images are defined as prevailing shared ideas about specific groups or societies without concrete or objective evidence of their accuracy or truthfulness. These images frequently have a negative impact on individuals and groups. Although of outmost importance, the study of the social images of youth in residential care is still scarce. In this article we present two studies for the development and validation of the Social Images Evaluation Questionnaire (SIEQ). In study 1, participants were asked to freely generate words that could be associated to youth in residential care in order to obtain a list of attributes to be used in the SIEQ. In study 2, the main psychometric characteristics of the SIEQ were tested with samples of laypeople and professionals. The main results support the proposal of a new and psychometrically sound measurement-the SIEQ-to analyze the social images of youth in residential care.

Imagens sociais de famílias com filhos em acolhimento e em contexto familiar: um estudo entre Brasil e Portugal / Social images of families with children in sheltered care and in family context: a study between Brazil and Portugal / Imágenes sociales de familias con hijos en acogimiento residencial y en contexto familiar: un estudio entre Brasil y Portugal

A literatura indica que as famílias de crianças e jovens em acolhimento institucional podem ser estigmatizadas socialmente, gerando um impacto negativo no seu bem-estar, na construção da sua identidade e no sucesso da intervenção familiar. No entanto, poucos estudos investigam empiricamente esta imagem social. Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a imagem social das famílias de crianças e jovens em diferentes contextos em Portugal e no Brasil. Uma amostra de 378 participantes (176 portugueses e 202 brasileiros) foi solicitada a indicar cinco atributos de famílias de crianças e jovens em acolhimento institucional e outros cinco atributos de famílias de crianças e jovens em contexto familiar, de estatutos socioeconômicos baixo e médio. Os dados indicam que em ambos os países existe um predomínio de atributos negativos associados às famílias de crianças e jovens em acolhimento institucional e de estatuto socioeconômico baixo, e um predomínio de atributos positivos associados às famílias em contexto familiar de estatuto socioeconômico médio. Destaca-se a necessidade de intervenções, especialmente com profissionais que atuam junto a essa população, para conscientização sobre essas imagens sociais. (AU)

The literature indicates that families of children and adolescents in sheltered care may be socially stigmatized and this has a negative impact on their well-being, the construction of their identity, and the success of family interventions. However, only a few studies have empirically investigated this social image. This study aimed to analyse the social image of the families of children and adolescents in different contexts in Portugal and Brazil. A sample of 378 participants (176 Portuguese and 202 Brazilian) was asked to indicate five attributes of families of children and adolescents in shelter care, and other five attributes of families of children and adolescents in the family context, varying from low to middle socioeconomic status. The data indicate that in both countries there is a predominance of negative attributes associated with families of children and adolescents in shelter care and low socioeconomic status, whereas a predominance of positive attributes was associated with families of children and adolescents in family context and middle socioeconomic status. It is highlighted the need of interventions, especially with professionals who work with this population, to bring out awareness of these social images. (AU)

La literatura indica que las familias de los niños y jóvenes en acogimiento residencial son estigmatizadas socialmente y esto tiene un impacto negativo en su bienestar, en la construcción de su identidad y en el éxito de la intervención familiar. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han investigado empíricamente esta imagen social. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar la imagen social de las familias de los niños y jóvenes en diferentes contextos en Portugal y Brasil. Se le pidió a una muestra de 378 participantes (176 portugueses y 202 brasileños) para indicar cinco atributos de las familias de niños y jóvenes en acogimiento residencial y otros cinco atributos de las familias de niños y jóvenes en el contexto familiar, nivel socioeconómico bajo y medio. Los datos indican que en ambos países hay un predominio de los atributos negativos asociados a las familias de niños y jóvenes en acogimiento residencial y el estatus socioeconómico bajo, y un predominio de los atributos positivos asociados al nivel socioeconómico promedio de las familias. Se destaca la necesidad de la intervención, sobre todo con los profesionales que trabajan con esta población, a la concientización con respecto a estas imágenes sociales. (AU)

The Relations between Prosocial Behaviors and Self-Regulation: Evidences from the Validation of the PTM-R for Portuguese Early Adolescents.

The main goal of this study is to understand the relationship between different types of prosocial behaviors and different forms of self-regulation, as part of the adaptation and validation of the Portuguese version of the Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R). A total of 403 early adolescents (M = 11.81; SD = .92; 52.91% girls) completed self-reported measures. The evaluation of psychometric properties of the PTM-R involved a confirmatory factorial analysis, followed by the examination of factorial internal consistency and factorial invariance analyses across gender groups and school retention groups (retention vs. no-retention). The results support the premise that a 6-factor model similar to the original measure is the most appropriate factorial solution for the PTM-R Portuguese version (χ2(174) = 1.725, p < .001, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .030, SRMR = .08). The levels of internal consistency for the different subscales ranged from .67 to .78. Further convergent and divergent validity tests reveal that different forms of prosocial behavior are more often related to girls' cognitive, affective and behavioral regulation and that students who failed at least one school year and thus had to repeat it denote poorer relations between prosocial behaviors and self-regulation dimensions, as opposed to more successful students. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the PTM-R has adequate psychometric properties and its use for research purposes in the field of social development may be appropriate. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for future research on prosociality.

Interparental conflict and adolescents' self-representations: The role of emotional insecurity.

Adolescents' signs of emotional insecurity in the context of interparental conflict (IC) - emotional reactivity, internal representations (i.e., constructive/destructive; spillover) and behavioral responses (i.e., withdrawal; inhibition; involvement) - were examined as mediators in the relation between IC and adolescents' self-representations. Self-reported measures were filled out by 221 Portuguese adolescents (59.3% girls; Mage = 12.91), attending public elementary and secondary schools. IC predicted less favorable self-representations. Adolescents' emotional reactivity and withdrawal mediated the relation between IC and emotional and physical appearance self-representations, while conflict spillover representations and constructive family representations mediated associations between IC and instrumental self-representations. This study emphasizes the importance of interparental conflict and adolescent emotional insecurity in the construction of their self-representations, having important theoretical and practical implications. It highlights the value of analyzing the specific role of several emotional insecurity dimensions, and informs practitioners' work aimed at promoting constructive conflict and adaptive emotional regulation skills.

USING THE PARENT-INFANT RELATIONSHIP GLOBAL ASSESSMENT SCALE TO IDENTIFY CAREGIVER-INFANT/TODDLER DYADS WITH ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS IN SIX EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

The study examined whether the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised Edition (DC: 0-3R; ZERO TO THREE, 2005) Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS) is applicable to six European countries and contributes to the identification of caregiver-infant/toddler dyads with abusive relationship patterns. The sample consisted of 115 dyads with children's ages ranging from 1 to 47 months. Sixty-four dyads were recruited from community settings without known violence problems, and 51 dyads were recruited from clinical settings and already had been identified with violence problems or as being at risk for violence problems. To classify the dyads on the PIR-GAS categories, caregiver-child interactions were video-recorded and coded with observational scales appropriate for child age. To test whether the PIR-GAS allows for reliable identification of dyads with abusive relationship patterns, PIR-GAS ratings were compared with scores on the the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect's (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool-Parental Version (ICAST-P; D.K. Runyan et al., ), a questionnaire measuring abusive parental disciplinary practices. It was found that PIR-GAS ratings differentiated between the general and the clinical sample, and the dyads with abusive patterns of relationship were identified by both the PIR-GAS and the ICAST-P. Interrater reliability for the PIR-GAS ranged from moderate to excellent. The value of a broader use of tools such as the DC: 0-3R to promote early identification of families at risk for infant and toddler abuse and neglect is discussed.

The relations between prosocial behaviors and self-regulation: evidences from the validation of the PTM-R for Portuguese Early Adolescents

The main goal of this study is to understand the relationship between different types of prosocial behaviors and different forms of self-regulation, as part of the adaptation and validation of the Portuguese version of the Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R). A total of 403 early adolescents (M = 11.81; SD = .92; 52.91% girls) completed self-reported measures. The evaluation of psychometric properties of the PTM-R involved a confirmatory factorial analysis, followed by the examination of factorial internal consistency and factorial invariance analyses across gender groups and school retention groups (retention vs. no-retention). The results support the premise that a 6-factor model similar to the original measure is the most appropriate factorial solution for the PTM-R Portuguese version (χ2(174) = 1.725, p < .001, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .030, SRMR = .08). The levels of internal consistency for the different subscales ranged from .67 to .78. Further convergent and divergent validity tests reveal that different forms of prosocial behavior are more often related to girls’ cognitive, affective and behavioral regulation and that students who failed at least one school year and thus had to repeat it denote poorer relations between prosocial behaviors and self-regulation dimensions, as opposed to more successful students. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the PTM-R has adequate psychometric properties and its use for research purposes in the field of social development may be appropriate. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for future research on prosociality (AU)

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Attached to meat? (Un)Willingness and intentions to adopt a more plant-based diet.

In response to calls to expand knowledge on consumer willingness to reduce meat consumption and to adopt a more plant-based diet, this work advances the construct of meat attachment and the Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ). The MAQ is a new measure referring to a positive bond towards meat consumption. It was developed and validated through three sequential studies following from an in-depth approach to consumer representations of meat. The construct and initial pool of items were firstly developed drawing on qualitative data from 410 participants in a previous work on consumers' valuation of meat. Afterwards, 1023 participants completed these items and other measures, providing data to assess item selection, factor structure, reliability, convergent and concurrent validity, and predictive ability. Finally, a sample of 318 participants from a different cultural background completed the final version of the MAQ along with other measures to assess measurement invariance, reliability and predictive ability. Across samples, a four-factor solution (i.e., hedonism, affinity, entitlement, and dependence) with 16 items and a second-order global dimension of meat attachment fully met criteria for good model fit. The MAQ subscales and global scale were associated with attitudes towards meat, subjective norm, human supremacy beliefs, eating habits, and dietary identity. They also provided additional explanatory variance above and beyond the core TPB variables (i.e. attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) in willingness and intentions concerning meat substitution. Overall, the findings point towards the relevance of the MAQ for the study of meat consumption and meat substitution, and lend support to the idea that holding a pattern of attachment towards meat may hinder a shift towards a more plant-based diet.

Youths in Residential Care Perceptions about their Group: Psychometric Properties of a Measurement Tool.

This study aims to present the development of a scale focused on youth's perceptions about their group in residential care and to offer evidences of validity and reliability. This work is part of a national study involving 59 institutions and 360 adolescents (55% males) from 11 to 18 years old (M = 14.72; SD = 1.81). Evidences of validity were tested, as well as the reliability data and the relationship between group perceptions, individual characteristics and placement length. A structure with three components was found explaining 62% of variance: Deviant behavior, Positive Attributes and Oppositional Behavior. The CFA revealed good values of fit: CFI = .95, GFI = .90 and RMSEA = .050. Furthermore, a positive and significant correlation was found between positive attributes and life satisfaction (p < .001), and negative ones with deviant behavior (p < .01) and oppositional behavior (p < .01). Finally, a positive and significant correlation was found between Deviant behavior and youth's age (p < .05), and significant gender differences were found in this dimension (i.e., p < .001; d = .38, 95% CI [-9.97, 2.94]; males reported higher scores than females). No significant correlations were found regarding the length of placement. These results suggest that this tool reveals satisfactory psychometric properties to be used in further studies with youth in residential care.

Meat, beyond the plate. Data-driven hypotheses for understanding consumer willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet.

A shift towards reduced meat consumption and a more plant-based diet is endorsed to promote sustainability, improve public health, and minimize animal suffering. However, large segments of consumers do not seem willing to make such transition. While it may take a profound societal change to achieve significant progresses on this regard, there have been limited attempts to understand the psychosocial processes that may hinder or facilitate this shift. This study provides an in-depth exploration of how consumer representations of meat, the impact of meat, and rationales for changing or not habits relate with willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet. Multiple Correspondence Analysis was employed to examine participant responses (N = 410) to a set of open-ended questions, free word association tasks and closed questions. Three clusters with two hallmarks each were identified: (1) a pattern of disgust towards meat coupled with moral internalization; (2) a pattern of low affective connection towards meat and willingness to change habits; and (3) a pattern of attachment to meat and unwillingness to change habits. The findings raise two main propositions. The first is that an affective connection towards meat relates to the perception of the impacts of meat and to willingness to change consumption habits. The second proposition is that a set of rationales resembling moral disengagement mechanisms (e.g., pro-meat justifications; self-exonerations) arise when some consumers contemplate the consequences of meat production and consumption, and the possibility of changing habits.

Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of place attachment scale for youth in residential care / Propiedades psicométricas de la versión portuguesa de la escala de apego lugar para los jóvenes en acogimiento residencial

BACKGROUND: Although the significant scientific advances on place attachment literature, no instruments exist specifically developed or adapted to residential care. METHOD: 410 adolescents (11 - 18 years old) participated in this study. The place attachment scale evaluates five dimensions: Place identity, Place dependence, Institutional bonding, Caregivers bonding and Friend bonding. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, content validity, construct validity (Confirmatory Factor Analysis), concurrent validity with correlations with satisfaction with life and with institution, and reliability evidences. The relationship with individual characteristics and placement length was also verified. RESULTS: Content validity analysis revealed that more than half of the panellists perceive all the items as relevant to assess the construct in residential care. The structure with five dimensions revealed good fit statistics and concurrent validity evidences were found, with significant correlations with satisfaction with life and with the institution. Acceptable values of internal consistence and specific gender differences were found.CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary psychometric properties of this scale suggest it potential to be used with youth in care

ANTECEDENTES: a pesar de los significativos avances científicos en la literatura del apego al lugar, no existen instrumentos específicamente desarrollados o adaptados para el acogimiento residencial. MÉTODO: 410 adolescentes (11-18 años) participaron en este estudio. La escala de apego al lugar evalúa cinco dimensiones: Identidad al lugar, Dependencia al lugar, Vinculación institucional, Vinculación a cuidadores y Vinculación a amigos. El análisis de datos incluyó estadística descriptiva, validez de contenido, validez de constructo (análisis factorial confirmatorio), validez concurrente con la correlación con la satisfacción con la vida y con la institución, y evidencias de fiabilidad. La relación con las características individuales y duración del acogimiento también fue verificada. RESULTADOS: el análisis de validez de contenido reveló que más de la mitad de los miembros del panel perciben todos los ítems como relevantes para evaluar el constructo en acogimiento residencial. La estructura con cinco dimensiones reveló buen ajuste estadístico y se encontraron evidencias de validez concurrente con correlaciones significativas con la satisfacción con la vida y con la institución. Se encontraron valores aceptables de consistencia interna, y fueran encontradas diferencias específicas de género. CONCLUSIONES: las propiedades psicométricas preliminares de esta escala sugieren su potencial para ser utilizado con jóvenes en acogimiento residencial