Sara Albuquerque

Background: Childbirth-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (CB-PTSS) have been associated with impaired mother–infant bonding, but the factors underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study examined whether maternal stress and perceived infant regulatory difficulties (PIRD) independently accounted for the association between CB-PTSS and mother–infant bonding difficulties in a statistical mediation model. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 542 Portuguese mothers of infants aged up to 24 months. Participants completed validated measures of CB-PTSS, maternal stress, perceived infant regulatory difficulties, and mother–infant bonding. Hierarchical regression and parallel mediation analyses were conducted. Results: Higher CB-PTSS were associated with greater maternal stress, more perceived infant regulatory difficulties, and greater bonding difficulties. Perceived infant regulatory difficulties explained additional variance beyond CB-PTSS and maternal stress. Both maternal stress and infant regulatory difficulties showed significant independent indirect effects, while the direct association between CB-PTSS and bonding difficulties remained significant, indicating partial mediation. Given the cross-sectional design, these findings should be interpreted as statistical associations rather than evidence of temporal or causal relationships. Longitudinal studies are needed to establish temporal ordering and directionality. Conclusions: Maternal stress and perceived infant regulatory difficulties may represent key statistical correlates linking traumatic childbirth to bonding difficulties and constitute promising targets for early screening and intervention.

Background: Postpartum body concerns have been consistently associated with greater maternal psychological distress, although the psychological processes associated with this relationship remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether self-criticism (inadequate self and hated self) and self-reassurance mediate the association between postpartum body concerns and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 540 Portuguese mothers of infants aged 2 weeks to 24 months. Participants completed measures of postpartum body concerns, the Forms of Self-Criticizing and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales–21 Items (DASS-21). Parallel mediation analyses with bootstrap estimation (5000 samples) were performed. Results: Greater postpartum body concerns were associated with higher depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as greater self-criticism and lower self-reassurance. Significant indirect associations involving self-relating styles were observed for depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. For anxiety and stress, the direct associations between postpartum body concerns and symptoms were no longer statistically significant after accounting for the three mediators. Inadequate self showed the strongest indirect associations, particularly for stress, while hated self and self-reassurance also showed significant indirect associations across all three models. Conclusions: Self-criticism and self-reassurance may represent candidate psychological processes involved in the associations between postpartum body concerns and psychological symptoms. Longitudinal research is needed to further examine their potential role in postpartum psychological adjustment.

Background: Police and security professionals are routinely exposed to potentially traumatic events as part of occupational duties, placing them at increased risk for post-traumatic stress and broader psychological difficulties. This study aimed to identify latent classes of proximal traumatic exposure among Portuguese police/security professionals and examine their associations with PTSD symptoms and general psychological distress. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with Portuguese police/security professionals (N = 644). Latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to 17 indicators of potentially traumatic events coded as directly experienced or witnessed, derived from the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, and general psychological distress was assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory. Exploratory receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses examined whether counts of proximal traumatic events could approximate the LCA-derived classes. Results: A three-class solution was identified, comprising low proximal exposure (37.3%), moderate proximal exposure (40.7%), and high proximal/cumulative exposure (22.0%) classes. The classes reflected a graded cumulative pattern of exposure across traumatic event categories, rather than clearly distinct qualitative configurations defined by specific event types. Higher exposure classes were associated with progressively higher PTSD symptoms and psychological distress, and these associations remained significant after adjustment for sociodemographic and occupational variables. Exploratory receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses showed that a simple count of proximal traumatic event categories closely approximated the empirically derived class structure within the present sample. However, the resulting thresholds are sample-specific, exploratory, and should not be interpreted as validated screening cutoffs. Conclusions: Proximal traumatic exposure among police/security professionals appears to follow a graded cumulative structure associated with increased PTSD symptoms and psychological distress. The person-centered analysis provided an empirical test of whether exposure was organized according to qualitatively distinct event configurations or primarily along a cumulative gradient. In this sample, cumulative exposure burden emerged as the dominant organizing dimension. The count-based approximation requires external validation before any screening or decision-making application can be considered.

Higher education can pose significant challenges for students, including the need to adapt to new academic environments and social dynamics. These challenges may affect their well-being and increase the likelihood of dropping out. This study explores social support as a mediating mechanism through which well-being influences dropout intention among higher education students—that is, higher levels of well-being may lead to more positive perceptions of social support, which may in turn contribute to a lower dropout intention. In addition, this study explores whether these relationships vary depending on moderating variables such as whether the course attended was the student’s first choice, cycle of studies, student-worker status, having dependents, and being a displaced student. A total of 1404 Portuguese university students participated in the study by completing questionnaires related to socio-economic variables, emotional well-being, satisfaction with social support, and the dropout intention. The results suggest the following: (1) social support from family did not mediate the relationship between well-being and dropout intention; (2) social support from social activities and friends partially mediated the relationship between well-being and dropout intention; and (3) social support from intimacy fully mediated the relationship between well-being and dropout intention; and (4) the conditional indirect effect suggests that the mediation of social support in the relationship between well-being and dropout intention is stronger for students without dependents and non-displaced students. It is essential to implement interventions on higher education campuses that are personalised and that foster the most effective sources of support, while respecting the specificities of students at risk of dropping out.

Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) affects a significant proportion of bereaved people and may be especially burdensome in later life, when cumulative losses,

The disruption of attachment bonds through bereavement often leads to unfulfilled relational needs, emphasizing the importance of evaluating these processes systematically. Based on Erskine and Payàs’s conceptualization of relational needs, the present study aims to develop and psychometrically validate the Relational Needs in Grief Scale (RNGS). Data from 354 bereaved participants in an online cross-sectional survey were collected to investigate the instrument’s factorial structure, reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity. Results from Exploratory Factor Analysis identified two factors: “Need for Protection and Validity” and “Need for Mutuality”. Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the scale’s two-dimensional nature. Stepwise elimination of underperforming items led to substantial improvements in model fit. The Need for Protection and Validation was positively associated with attachment-related anxiety and negatively with avoidance, and it significantly predicted prolonged grief symptoms. The final 11-item total scale and subscales yielded high internal consistency reliabilities (Cronbach’s α: 0.81–0.94, McDonald’s ω: 0.81–0.95) and satisfactory convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity. The RNGS constitutes a novel and psychometrically valid tool for both research and clinical practice, enabling the systematic assessment of the relational needs profile and informing the development of tailored interventions.

Background/Objectives: Work–family conflict (WFC) is a common stressor for working parents and has been associated with poorer child adjustment. However, the mechanisms linking WFC to young children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether parental mental health mediates the association between WFC and children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties in early childhood. Methods: This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in Portugal with 313 parents of children aged 18–72 months. Parents completed validated self-report measures of WFC, parental stress, depressive symptoms, parental self-efficacy, and children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were performed, testing children’s age (toddlers vs. preschool-aged) as a moderator. Results: Higher WFC was associated with greater emotional and behavioral difficulties in children (parents reported). This association was fully mediated by parental stress and depressive symptoms, whereas parental self-efficacy did not show a significant mediating effect. The indirect pathways were consistent across children’s age groups. Conclusions: The findings indicate that WFC may affect young children’s adjustment, primarily through its impact on parental psychological distress. Supporting parental mental health and reducing WFC may be key targets for early prevention and intervention.

Objectives Having a child is a shared experience where partners influence each other’s adaptation to parenthood. While much research focuses on mother–infant bonding, the impact of partners’ psychological functioning on this outcome is underexplored. This study investigated how mothers’ perceptions of partners’ pre- and postnatal depressive and anxiety symptoms affect mother–infant bonding difficulties and whether mothers’ own symptoms mediate these relationships. Method A sample of 525 Portuguese women (M age = 32.85, SD = 5.13) with infants < 24 months completed an online survey from February to March 2020. Assessments included history of depression and anxiety, current symptoms, perceptions of partners’ symptoms, and mother–infant bonding difficulties. Multiple hierarchical linear regressions and mediation analyses were conducted. Results Women’s current depressive symptoms and perceptions of partners’ current anxiety symptoms were associated with greater bonding difficulties. In contrast, perceptions of partners’ prenatal anxiety symptoms were associated with fewer bonding difficulties. Perceptions of higher levels of partners’ current depressive symptoms were indirectly related to increased bonding difficulties through mothers’ own depressive symptoms. Conclusions Partners’ psychological functioning impacts mothers’ adaptation to motherhood differently across the perinatal period. Perceived prenatal anxiety in partners may serve as a protective factor, whereas postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms contribute to bonding difficulties. These findings highlight the importance of considering dyadic processes in understanding and supporting parent–infant relationships.

Background: Bereavement often elicits complex emotional and cognitive reactions, including guilt, unresolved relational concerns, and repetitive negative thinking. Although grief-specific rumination is recognized as a key process that can intensify prolonged grief and trauma-related responses, longitudinal evidence clarifying its mediating role remains limited. This study examines whether grief-specific rumination explains how guilt and unfinished business contribute to prolonged grief and PTSD symptoms over time. Methods: A two-wave longitudinal design was used to assess bereaved adults several months after loss and again at follow-up. Measures included guilt, unfinished business, grief-specific rumination, prolonged grief symptoms, and PTSD symptoms. Mediation analyses tested whether rumination accounted for associations between early loss-related responses (guilt and unfinished business) and psychological outcomes at follow-up. Results: Grief-specific rumination consistently emerged as the mechanism linking guilt and unfinished business with both prolonged grief and PTSD symptoms. These findings suggest that the impact of these early loss-related responses operates primarily through persistent and repetitive cognitive engagement with the loss. Conclusions: Rumination emerged as a central mechanism through which guilt and unfinished business shape bereavement-related distress. These findings highlight the importance of interventions that directly target repetitive negative thinking to promote healthier adjustment following loss.

Grief reactions among relatives of palliative care patients are often overlooked, with most interventions targeting Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) rather than its prevention. Few interventions have been developed for individuals at risk. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Empower-Grief, a selective intervention designed to address early problematic grief reactions and to explore predictors of its effectiveness. This exploratory randomized controlled trial (RCT) compared Empower-Grief with Treatment as Usual (TAU) among relatives or caregivers of palliative and oncological patients at risk of developing PGD. A total of 46 participants were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and six months later. The primary outcome was PGD symptoms, with additional measures including anxiety, depression, coping strategies, attachment style, psychological flexibility, post-traumatic growth, social support, and therapeutic alliance. The final analyses indicate equivalence between Empower-Grief and TAU, suggesting that both interventions yielded comparable outcomes in reducing PGD symptoms and associated psychological distress. The initial symptoms and therapeutic alliance were predictors of the results in both post- and follow-up moments. This study contributes to the evidence on grief interventions in palliative care, highlighting the importance of structured support for bereaved caregivers. While Empower-Grief demonstrated comparable effectiveness to TAU, its lower intensity, ease of training, and application make it a promising treatment option.