ABSTRACT
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most broadly used questionnaires to evaluate children's psychological adjustment, however its internal structure has been a target of ongoing controversy. Recent studies suggested a three-factor structure of the SDQ, however data is still scarce. The present study used the Multitrait-Multimethod analysis to examine SDQ construct related-validity with three and five dimensions, provided by children, their parents and teachers. A total of 415 participants were recruited from a Portuguese community sample. Both SDQ versions presented good convergence-related validity, with higher values for the five version. Findings from this study suggest that the SDQ with three dimensions could be more suitable as a screening measure of children's psychological adjustment in a community low-risk sample. Nevertheless, the SDQ still needs further psychometric improvements in order to properly collect information from multi-source samples about the prevalence of children's psychological adjustment.
Subject(s)
Emotional Adjustment , Parents , Child , Humans , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and Questionnaires , PsychometricsABSTRACT
The present systematic review aims to assess the psychological adjustment of children born through assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and to screen for clinical problems when compared with normative data from the standardized indexes of mental health. Following PRISMA guidelines, the search was conducted from inception through September 2021 using APA PsycInfo, APA PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, Academic Search Complete, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and RCAAP. Search terms related to ART and children's psychological adjustment were combined to Boolean operators to identify relevant published studies in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Peer-reviewed studies focused on the psychological adjustment of ART children aged between the 3 and 11 years were included. From a total of 337 results, 45 papers were eligible to be included in this review. Data extraction was performed independently by two authors and revised and confirmed by other two authors. All children scored below the clinical range for psychiatric symptoms when compared with normative data for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) or the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA), regardless of type of ART and different family configurations. Further, some evidence suggests that surrogacy children with gay fathers present the lowest levels of psychological problems when compared to normative data. These findings enable practitioners to develop an informed view of ART children mental health outcomes to help parents find more adaptive strategies to navigate their chosen pathways in healthier ways.
ABSTRACT
Background: Family sense of coherence (FSOC) can be defined as the cognitive map of a family that enables the family to deal with stress during their lifetime. FSOC is the degree to which a family perceives family life as comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have used this scale, and very few have evaluated FSOC Scale psychometric properties. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the original FSOC Scale in a sample of Portuguese caregivers of children aged between 10 and 15 years. Methods: A total of 329 caregivers completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the FSOC Scale. Analyses were performed to evaluate the factor structure of the FSOC Scale with 26 items as well as composite reliability, internal consistency, convergent-related validity, and discriminant-related validity of the scale scores. Results: The findings supported a three-factor solution for a 13-item version that maintains the original FSOC Scale structure. The three FSOC dimensions presented a good fit to the data. Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and convergent-related validity were considered very good for the FSOC Scale (α = 0.956; CR = 0.974; AVE = 0.689). No evidence of discriminant-related validity was found for the dimensions of FSOC. Conclusion: The findings support the use of the Portuguese FSOC Scale for research and clinical purposes with Portuguese caregivers. Future research is necessary to further develop a European Portuguese version of the FSOC Scale. Implications: This study provides a psychometric evaluation of FSOC Scale characteristics in a Portuguese sample. The results are helpful for clinicians and family therapists who work with families since it could help them to assess the resources of families and their ability to cope with adversity and enhance their strengths.
ABSTRACT
As autoras fazem uma reflexão teórica centrada em duas questões fundamentais equacionadas pela psicanálise: a triangulação edipiana e a identificação. O objetivo é o de problematizar a dinâmica destes dois processos em crianças vivendo com duas mães, o que anula a oposição básica binária e obriga a construção de novos posicionamentos sobre a diferenciação e a organização interna frente a esse novo cenário familiar. Com isso, são discutidas novas possibilidades de arranjo triangular, identificatório e de diferenciação frente à ausência de uma polarização anatômica, quer se trate dos meninos, quer das meninas de uma família constituída por duas mães.
The authors are reflecting about two fundamental questions considered by psychoanalysis: Oedipus triangulation and identification. The main purpose is to problematize the dynamic of these two processes in children from families with two mothers. These modern families invalidate the basic gender binary concept and forces the development of new theoretical positions about internal differentiation and organization. Therefore, new possible arrangements of triangulation, identification and differentiation are discussed due to the absence of an anatomic polarization, both for boys and girls from lesbian-led families.
Les auteurs font une réflexion théorique centrée sur deux questions fondamentales posées par la psychanalyse: la triangulation dipienne et l'identification. Le but est celui de problématiser la dynamique de ces deux processus chez des enfants qui vivent avec deux mères, ce qui annule l'opposition binaire de base et force la construction de nouveaux positionnements sur la différentiation et l'organisation interne face à ce nouveau scénario familial. On discute les nouvelles possibilités de compositions triangulaires, identificatoires et de différentiation face à l'absence de polarisation anatomique, qu'il s'agisse des garçons et des filles dans une famille composée par deux mères.
