João Paulo Antunes

Purpose: As information technology becomes more ubiquitous in the workplace, it becomes increasingly important to understand how employees' experiences with these technologies impact their well-being and turnover intention. Technostress, the inability to relate to new technologies in a positive way, has been studied as a cause of turnover, but these studies tend to ignore the possibility of turnover intention also leading to heightened feelings of technostress. Design/methodology/approach: The present study aimed to assess the relationship between technostress, well-being and turnover intent (TI) among a sample of 428 workers, through both a top-down (mediation) and a bottom-up (network analysis) methodology. Findings: Results coincided with previous models of turnover, indicating that turnover intention usually results from reduced workplace well-being, originating from technostress. Yet, network analysis showed that TI had a significant relationship with both technostress and well-being, indicating that a positive feedback loop might be present in this process. The results highlight the importance of constant training in information technology to maintain worker well-being and reduce turnover. Originality/value: This is the first paper to compare mediation with network analysis within TI. Beyond identifying cyclical effects, the paper identifies how different elements of technostress affect TI and the pathways through which this association is established.

This study sought to develop the Loneliness and Solitude Scale (LSS) a scale intended to assess and differentiate loneliness and solitude. The loneliness dimension analyses how often an individual perceives being on their own as negative, unsatisfactory, and distressful; the solitude dimension refers to the frequency with which someone interprets their solitary moment as something positive, valuable, and pleasing. The collected sample for this research was comprised of 724 Portuguese speakers’ adults, demonstrating adequate psychometric indicators. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed the two dimensions, as expected. The results also indicate that the levels of Loneliness and Solitude are not dependent on gender, academic background, and age. In addition, the associations between the two factors of the LSS and emotion regulation, depression, anxiety, and stress corroborate previous literature findings. Cluster analysis allowed for further analysis, showing that stress, when controlling for emotional regulation, seems to have a weak effect on loneliness, a fact that is under some dispute in the current literature. This paper was able to develop and validate a unique measure of loneliness and solitude, centered around the unique characteristics of how individuals make use of their time spent alone. Future studies should attempt to compare this measure with other similar scales.

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are a widely validated approach for the treatment and prevention of various pa-thologies, leading to increased physical and psychological health. Online MBIs have become more common in the past years, namely after the COVID-19 pandemic, but not much is known about their effectiveness. This study’s goal was to compare the efficacy of a face-to-face MBI with its online equivalent.Participants and procedure: A total of 114 university students of multiple nationalities participated in the investigation. This is a quasi-experimental study, with pre-, post-, and 3-month follow-up comparative measurements in two types of group formats: in-person groups and synchronous online groups.Results: The results showed benefits for participants in both the face-to-face and online interventions. Anxiety was significantly re-duced at post-test, while stress, depression, and emotion regulation difficulties were significantly reduced at post-test and at follow-up. Furthermore, well-being and optimism were significantly increased at post-test and at follow-up. Between-group comparisons indicated higher efficacy for these variables in the online group.Conclusions: The fact that differential outcomes were observable for mindfulness and one of the expected mechanisms, in goal-directed thinking, while no significant differences were present for any outcome, shines a light on possible hidden mechanisms that differentiate how online interventions function when compared to their face-to-face counterparts. Despite these differences, the findings support the viability of online mindfulness interventions as an alternative to in-person formats. The present study adds to current knowledge about mindfulness interventions by supporting the feasibility of online mindfulness interventions.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been surging as an alternative to cognitive-behavioural therapy for perfectionism. Despite promising results, there are practical and theoretical concerns regarding high resistance from perfectionists towards developing mindfulness related capabilities. Self-Determination Motivation could provide a pathway to circumvent this problem by mediating the relationship between mindfulness and multidimensional perfectionism. Ninety-three university students filled a questionnaire containing mindfulness, perfectionism and motivation measures. Thirteen participants were then included in an 8-week MBI. Intrinsic motivation mediated the effect between mindfulness and perfectionist concerns (indirect effect = −0.09). Perfectionist concerns and strivings were both reduced post-intervention ( p = .002). There was also a significant intragroup increase in mindfulness ( p ≤ .001), although there were no motivational changes. Current change mechanisms underlying MBI effectiveness do not support this approach as presenting unique advantages over other cognitive-behavioural approaches. Implementing explicit motivational change into MBI interventions could provide a pathway to differentiating MBIs from other alternatives.

Suicide is a serious public health problem worldwide, being the culmination of a process that normally begins with suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is important to assess suicidal ideation and know its risk factors. The association between perfectionism and suicidal ideation has been widely debated in the literature. However, knowledge about the role of emotion regulation in this relationship is scarce. The main objective of this investigation was thus to study the role of emotion regulation in the relationship between perfectionism and suicidal ideation in young adults. A sample of 224 Portuguese young adults was recruited through an online form which assessed suicidal ideation, perfectionism, and emotion regulation. The results showed a positive relationship between suicidal ideation and emotion regulation difficulties. There was also a positive association between emotion regulation difficulties and perfectionism, especially regarding the strategies and dimensions of maladaptive perfectionism. The relationship between perfectionism and suicidal ideation was fully mediated by emotion regulation difficulties. Increases in emotion regulation difficulties from increased perfectionism could contribute decisively to increasing the risk of suicidal ideation. Thus, the assessment of perfectionism and emotion regulation difficulties can promote the prevention and psychological interventions for suicidal behavior.

Suicide worldwide is an issue that needs to be addressed, and adolescents are an at-risk group. Assessing suicidal ideation is central to tackling the issue of suicide. The Positive and Negative Suicidal Ideation inventory is a widely validated measure of suicidal ideation, and yet, very little is known about its invariance across various groups. The present study aimed to adapt and test the PANSI’s structure in a Portuguese sample while testing its gender invariance. A total of 750 middle and high school students were recruited for the study, and data were collected on various suicide risk and protective factors, including the Portuguese-translated PANSI. Data were put through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Kaiser’s criterion and scree plot both extracted two factors (64.10% variance explained). Confirmatory factor analysis also supported the PANSI’s structure (TLI = 0.943). The PANSI showed good reliability (α ≥ 0.83) and good construct and discriminative validity. The PANSI also exhibited scalar, but not strict, invariance. Overall, these results were similar to previous versions of this scale. The PANSI is a reliable measure of suicide risk among Portuguese adolescents. Future studies should further replicate these results in other cultures and expand on them by testing for invariance across other demographic variables.

Preventing suicide has been a worldwide imperative for the last decade. Accurately assessing suicide risk is the first step towards prevention, and access to reliable tools that measure risk factors is essential to achieve this goal. The Positive And Negative Suicidal Ideation (PANSI) scale is a validated brief suicidal ideation scale that could prove useful to this goal due to its ability to measure both suicide risk and protective factors. The PANSI scale has been adapted to various languages and cultures across various clinical and non-clinical populations. Despite this, no Portuguese has been produced yet. The present study aimed to validate a Portuguese version of PANSI by evaluating its psychometric properties in a sample of 259 young adults. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the PANSI showed good psychometric properties (TLI = 0.95), good reliability for positive ideation (α = 0.84), and excellent reliability for negative ideation (α = 0.96). The scale also showed good discriminative ability through prediction of a previous suicide attempt and good construct validity in both subscales. The Portuguese adaptation of the PANSI scale is a reliable measure of positive and negative suicidal ideation that could prove useful in both clinical and research settings.