Adverse childhood experiences and delinquent behaviour: Predictors and mediating variables

ABSTRACT Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been identified as a risk factor for the development of mental health and behavioural outcomes throughout life, including delinquent behaviours. This article focuses on the relationship between ACEs and delinquent behaviour (DB), seeking to identify predictors and mediating variables. Methods: The quantitative study comprised 175 Portuguese adolescents, aged 12 and 17 years of age (M = 14.99, SD = 2.26). Results: ACEs and exposure to traumatic events (ETE) are predictive of DB. Antisocial traits (AT) was found to be mediating the relationship between ACEs and DB, as well as the relation between ETE and DB. Conclusion: The results indicate that it is necessary that professionals in health behaviour field prevent and intervene in ACEs and in ETE, both predictors of DB. The results of this study allow to understand the role of ACEs in DB and its mediating variables, which must be considered to mitigate the harmful impact of ACEs in DB.

Psychological well-being and health perception: predictors for past, present and future

Abstract Background Increasing evidence supports an association between psychological well-being and overall health, however, much remains to be understood about this association. The current study addresses this issue by presenting a new perspective focusing on health perceptions. Additionally, it examines the impact of each of six dimensions of psychological well-being on health perception. Methods Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1,155 Portuguese adults in various settings. Findings reveal that psychological well-being dimensions' impact differently on prior, current, and health outlookperceptions. Furthermore, the dimension depressed mood influences current health perception; in turn, current health perception is the strongest predictor for psychological well-being. Our results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between health perception and psychological well-being.

Efficacy indicators of four methods in outpatient addiction treatment

Abstract Background In Portugal, as far as we know, there are no recent studies that evaluated the comparative efficacy of therapeutic modalities in addiction problems by reference to a holistic and psychosocial model of effectiveness. Objectives Using a sample of Portuguese patients in outpatient treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, this study aimed to examine if a combined treatment modality (group therapy with individual intervention) had greater overall efficacy when compared to other three types of treatment without group therapy. Methods This is a correlational and cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of patients (N = 254) from an outpatient treatment in the Intervention Service on Addictive Behaviors and Substance Dependence. At the time of data collection, the patients were attending four types of treatment, such as receiving intervention based on individual psychological counseling (n = 66); receiving individual psychiatric counseling (n = 68); receiving both individual psychological and psychiatric counseling (n = 102); and receiving not only individual counseling (i.e., psychology or psychiatry), but also attending group therapy (n = 18). Results Using MANOVA and Wilks's multivariate test criterion, there was a significant effect of treatment modality on the global efficacy, Λ = 0.88, F(9, 603) = 3.75, p < 0.0001. Examination of mean estimates indicated that patients in a combined therapeutic modality revealed more treatment involvement compared to patients in other therapeutic modalities without group therapy. Discussion The results obtained in this study highlight the importance of integrating interventions in a collaborative way. A combined therapeutic modality, adding group therapy, was associated with positive effects, such as more levels of peer support and involvement in treatment, and increasing the individual's probability to remain abstinent.

The effectiveness of substance abuse treatment: development of a brief questionnaire

Practitioners need brief instruments to monitor outcomes in both treatment of drugs and alcohol addiction because they are useful to guide decision making in a short time. Objectives: This study aims to develop a brief questionnaire, based on Client Evaluation of Self and Treatment, to evaluate the treatment effectiveness in drug and alcohol addiction treatment settings. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a convenience sample (N = 608) recruited from Division for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (DICAD – ARS North). Results: The results show a new four-factor solution that accounted for 54.4% of the total variance and that provides the best fit to the data (c2/df = 1.72, CFI = .94, GFI = .91, RMSEA = .048 [.040-.057]; prmsea = .623). It also revealed a high internal consistency (a = .82). It was found a significant negative correlation (r = - .52, p < .01) between the final version of the instrument and a self report measure of psychopathology symptoms. Discussion: This brief questionnaire, with good psychometric properties, can be useful to provide a viable and rapid feedback of treatment outcomes. Further studies should be performed to continue the evaluation of the reliability of this measure...