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- Portuguese adaptation of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ)Publication . Cova Fernandes, Catarina; Martins, A.T.; Faisca, LuisBehavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperamental trait characterized by a consistent pattern of behavioral and emotional responses to unfamiliar people and novel situations. BI exhibits moderate stability across development and is considered a risk factor for the emergence of emotional disorders in adolescence and adulthood, making early assessment crucial for understanding this behavioral pattern. In the Portuguese context, there is a paucity of measures specifically designed to assess BI in childhood. To address this gap, we aimed to adapt and examine the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ) in Portuguese children. We obtained BIQ ratings from both parents and teachers of 435 children (average age = 57.1 months; SD = 13.8). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a six-factor measurement model, each factor loading onto a higher-order BI factor. Additionally, we included a method factor to account for reversed items. Full scalar measurement invariance across gender and age groups was supported. Parents and teachers showed good agreement in their ratings of BIQ scores. Comparisons with other instruments revealed good convergent validity. The BIQ scores showed acceptable reliability, although the subscales exhibited limited sensitivity in discriminating between different contexts where BI may manifest. This study suggests that the BIQ is a reliable and valid tool for assessing BI in Portuguese children.
- Behavioral inhibition in childhood: European Portuguese adaptation of an observational measure (Lab-TAB)Publication . Faisca, Luis; Ferreira, Laura Inês; Fernandes, Catarina; Gagne, Jeffrey R.; Martins, Ana T.The assessment of behaviorally inhibited children is typically based on parent or teacher reports, but this approach has received criticisms, mainly for being prone to bias. Several researchers proposed the additional use of observational methods because they provide a direct and more objective description of the child's functioning in different contexts. The lack of a laboratory assessment of temperament for Portuguese children justifies the adaptation of some episodes of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB) as an observational measure for behavioral inhibition. Method: In our study, we included 124 children aged between 3 and 9 years and their parents. The evaluation of child behavioral inhibition was made by parent report (Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire) and through Lab-TAB episodes. Parental variables with potential influence on parents’ reports were also collected using the Social Interaction and Performance Anxiety and Avoidance Scale (SIPAAS) and the Parental Overprotection Measure (POM). Results and Discussion: The psychometric analyses provided evidence that Lab-TAB is a reliable instrument and can be incorporated in a multi-method approach to assess behavioral inhibition in studies involving Portuguese-speaking children. Moderate convergence between observational and parent report measures of behavioral inhibition was obtained. Mothers’ characteristics, as well as child age, seem to significantly affect differences between measures, being potential sources of bias in the assessment of child temperament.
- Basic Emotion Recognition According to Clinical Personality TraitsPublication . Martins, A.; Ros, Antónia; Valerio, Leticia; Faísca, LuísDisturbances in the ability to recognize emotional faces have been attributed to individuals with specific personality disorders. Considering the importance of the dimensional models of psychopathology, studies involving healthy participants are becoming increasingly relevant in the domain of personality disorders. In this context, our main goal was to assess how clinical personality traits affect the ability to recognize basic emotions in a sample of subclinical participants. Photographs of faces expressing six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise) were presented to 72 undergraduate students (42 women
- Mapping gene expression in social anxiety reveals the main brain structures involved in this disorderPublication . Carvalho, Filipe Ricardo Pires de; Nóbrega, Clévio; Martins, A.Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is characterized by emotional and attentional biases as well as distorted negative self-beliefs. According this, we proposed to identify the brain structures and hub genes involved in SAD. An analysis in Pubmed and TRANSFAC was conducted and 72 genes were identified. Using Microarray data, from Allen Human Brain Atlas, it was possible to identify three modules of co-expressed genes from our gene set (R package WGCNA). Higher mean gene expression was found in cortico-medial group, basomedial nucleus, ATZ in amygdala and in head and tail of the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens and putamen in striatum. Our enrichment analysis identified the followed hub genes: DRD2, HTR1A, JUN, SP1 and HDAC4. We suggest that SAD is explained by delayed extinction of circuitry for conditioned fear. Caused by reduced activation of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems,due diminished expectation of reward during social interactions.
- The influence of parental variables and child behavioral inhibition on social anxiety in preschool children: The moderator effects of genderPublication . Fernandes, Catarina; Martins, A.; Santa-Rita, Andreia; Faisca, LuisThe main objective of this study was to examine how parental characteristics, such as social anxiety (SA) and parental overprotection, and child's behavioral inhibition (BI) interact and contribute to the manifestation of SA symptoms in preschoolers. Parents (Mothers: n= 319; Fathers: n= 263) of children aged between 3 and 6 years answered to self-report measures of overprotection and SA and measures of SA and BI about their children. A positive moderate direct association was observed between children's BI and children's SA, independently of gender. Overprotection arises as a mediator of the effects of the parents' social anxiety on children's SA; however, this mediation depends both on the child's and parents' gender. Only mother's SA was directly related to children's SA, independently of the gender of the child. Overall, these findings extend to preschool children the previous studies that consider parents' overprotective styles and social anxiety, as well as child's BI, the main variables underlying the SA in childhood. In addition, our results highlight the importance of considering the moderator role of gender in the origin and maintenance of SA symptoms in preschoolers.
- Gender differences in HIV-related sexual behavior among college students from Spain and PortugalPublication . Muñoz-Silva, Alicia; Sánchez-García, Manuel; Martins, A.T.; Nunes, CristinaUnder the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior, the objective of this study was to know the gender differences in the variables involved in the use of effective preventive measures in sexual relations against HIV in a sample of university students from Spain and Portugal. Furthermore, it is examined whether these factors produce different predictions concerning the adoption of safe sexual behaviour for young man and women in each country. The sample consisted of 683 university students, 319 Portuguese (64% female and 36% male) from the University of Algarve and 364 Spanish students (51% female and 49% male) from the University of Huelva. Data were obtained by means of a questionnaire. The data revealed that there are gender differences which apply in both countries, highlighting that the young women have more positive attitudes, greater perceived behavioural control and intention of condom use than young men. However, they protect themselves less that their male counterparts: the percentage of females who say using condoms as a contraceptive method is less than the percentage of males, and especially with their steady partners. The results are discussed in relation to gender role norms, to have a steady partner or not, gender relations, the associated meaning to sexual relations for men and women and their implications for the design of sexual educational programmes for them.
- Viés de manutenção da atenção na ansiedade socialPublication . Fernandes, Catarina; Silva, Susana; Pires, Joana; Reis, Alexandra; Jiménez-Ros, Antonia María; Janeiro, Luís; Faisca, Luis; Martins, A.The role of attentional bias in social anxiety is not yet fully understood. Social anxiety individuals can show deliberate avoidance of socially threatening stimuli or, on the contrary, be hypervigilant, persistently allocating attention to those stimuli. Our main purpose was to test whether social anxiety is preferably associated with mechanisms of hypervigilance, avoidance, vigilance-avoidance or maintenance of attention towards socially relevant stimuli. Our secondary goal was to explore the modulating role of personality traits in these attention bias mechanisms. Participants with high vs low social anxiety and different personality structures were exposed to pairs of faces representing different emotions (anger, happiness and neutrality) while their eye movements were continuously recorded. Comparisons between participants with high and low levels of social anxiety showed that participants with high social anxiety were slower in disengaging their attention from happy faces, suggesting that positive emotions can be perceived as a threatening stimuli for social anxious individuals. Preliminary results indicated that depressive personality structure may favour manifestations of hypervigilance bias toward threat faces.
- Experimental manipulation of beliefs about the importance of thoughts and the effect on an aggressive impulsePublication . Ros, Antónia; Faisca, Luis; Martins, T.; Janeiro, Luís; Martins, A.T.Background: Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder attribute a causal role to maladaptive beliefs. Aims: To test this hypothesis, we manipulated Overimportance of Thoughts (OT) beliefs and experimentally evaluated their effect on the response to an induced aggressive impulse. Method: Eighty-five participants completed a battery of self-report instruments assessing obsession symptoms, thought control, affectivity and obsessive beliefs, and were then randomly assigned to two conditions. In the experimental condition participants read a scientific abstract on the importance of thought control whilst those in the control condition read a neutral abstract. All participants identified a loved person and imagined feeling the impulse to stab this person, then completed again OT beliefs measures (Overimportance of Thought, Moral-Thought Action Fusion and Thought Action Fusion Likelihood). Results: The Moral component of the Thought Action Fusion was reduced by reading a brief text about the possibility and desirability of thought control. However, experimentally induced changes in beliefs did not yield differences in the intrusiveness of the aggressive impulse. Conclusions: Some beliefs can be modified through a single session in which information similar to what could be obtained in quotidian life is provided.
- Emotional recognition and empathy both in deaf and blind adultsPublication . Martins, A.; Faísca, Luís; Vieira, Helena; Maria Ramos Gonçalves, GabrielaStudies addressing the recognition of emotions in blind or deaf participants have been carried out only with children and adolescents. Due to these age limits, such studies do not clarify the long-term effects of vision and hearing disabilities on emotion recognition in adults. We assessed the ability to recognize basic emotions in 15 deaf adults (aged 32.4 +/- 8.1 yrs) and in 15 blind adults (48.3 +/- 10.5 yrs). Auditory and visual stimuli expressing six basic emotional states were presented to participants (Florida Affect Battery). Participants also performed an empathy test. Deaf participants showed difficulties in emotion recognition tasks compared to the typical hearing participants