Alberto Filgueiras

Adapting a Developmental Screening Measure: Exploring the Effects of Language and Culture on a Parent-Completed Social–Emotional Screening Test

Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social–Emotional (ASQ:SE) is a widely used screening instrument for detecting social–emotional difficulties in infants and young children. To use a screening instrument across cultures and countries, it is necessary to identify potential item-level biases and ensure item equivalence. This study investigated the cultural equity of the 60-month interval of the ASQ:SE by examining whether the items functioned differently in the original English version compared with 5 adapted translated versions (i.e., Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese), as well as exploring cultural considerations resulting from identified differences. The research team analyzed differential item functioning (DIF) in a total of 25,042 sixty-month ASQ:SE questionnaires drawn from extant data sets of 6 different language versions. Results indicated that a large portion of items were identified with DIF, suggesting that when participating parents/caregivers rated the social–emotional competence of their children, diverse cultural values, beliefs, and expectations affected their responses. This study provides implications for professionals and developers when using translated/adapted instruments in diverse cultures.

Changes in energy and motor activity: core symptoms of bipolar mania and depression?

Objective: To evaluate how well symptom rating scales differentiate bipolar disorder (BD) episode types. Methods: One hundred and six patients with BD were followed for 13 years. At each visit, the following clinical scales were administered: Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Clinical Global Impressions scale for use in bipolar illness (CGI-BP). To perform a comparison between the affective states of BP, three time points in each patient’s follow-up period were chosen for evaluation: the most severe manic episode, the most severe depressive episode, and the euthymic period with least symptoms. Canonical discriminant analyses (CDA) were performed to identify which symptoms best discriminated episodes. Results: CDA revealed HAM-D was worse than YMRS and CGI-BP to discriminate mood states. The items evaluating increased motor activity in YMRS (2, increased motor activity/energy) and HAM-D (9, agitation) were the best to distinguish mania, depression, and euthymia. In contrast, HAM-D item 8 (retardation) and the HAM-D and YMRS items related to mood symptoms were less important and precise. Conclusion: Higher levels of energy or activity should be considered a core symptom of mania. However, our results do not confirm the association between a decrease in energy or activity and depression. HAM-D probably does not assess motor activity adequately.

Cross Cultural Gender Differences in Social-emotional Competence of Young Children: Comparisons with Brazil, China, South Korea, and the United States

Background: The current study investigated differences in gender-based expectations across cultures by examining whether items in Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE), a social-emotional screening instrument, functioned differently for boys and girls 3 to 66 months old. A total of 74,776 ASQ:SE questionnaires were collected in Brazil, South Korea, China and the United States (U.S.). Methods: The analyses were conducted using differential item functioning (DIF) by country for each ASQ:SE age interval (i.e., 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 48, 60 months). Results: Results showed that eight items with gender DIF were present in two or three countries simultaneously, and 19 items with gender DIF were detected in a single country. Conclusions: With an equal level of social-emotional competence, girls had higher scores than boys, indicating more problem behaviors on items reflecting internalizing behaviors; and boys had higher scores on items measuring externalizing problem behaviors. Additionally, in all four countries, differences in item functioning associated with gender increased as children grew older. Interpretations of ASQ:SE results should consider that families’ cultural beliefs may have differing effects according to the child’s gender.

The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Attentional Control During Off-Season Among Football Players

Mindfulness can be defined as the process of maintaining attention in the present, without judgment or expectations. Recent advances in sports sciences suggest that mindfulness meditation may have a positive effect on performance. The present article hypothesized that those improvements are associated with increasing levels of attentional control. Altogether, participants of the study are 40 elite football players who were followed longitudinally for 4 months during off-season control, and experimental groups were paired based on field position. Mindfulness skills and attentional control were measured. Results showed that participants from the experimental group kept the same levels of mindfulness skills and attentional control throughout the whole period of intervention, whereas the control group presented decrease after the third month in both psychological variables. The results lead to the conclusion that mindfulness meditation does not improve attentional control or mindfulness skills; however, it prevents those variables to show decrease among elite football players.

Hemispheric specialization for processing soccer related pictures: The role of supporter fanaticism.

The response-hemispheric congruence predicts that manual reaction times (MRTs) are faster when responses to the positive stimulus are done with the right hand and to the negative stimulus with the left hand than the opposite arrangement. This effect has been attributed to the hemispheric specialization for emotional processing, in which the left and the right hemispheres are related, respectively, to positive and negative emotions, eliciting a congruence effect when the affective stimulus valence and the responding hand coincide within the same hemisphere. Here, we investigated if this congruence effect can be detected when stimuli represent the favorite and rival soccer teams and whether the results depend on supporter emotional attachment. Volunteers were divided into high and low fanaticism groups according to the Football Supporter Fanaticism Scale. A significant interaction between fanaticism and stimuli field revealed that only the lower fanaticism group exhibited the usual left visual field advantage. There was also a congruence effect for the lower fanaticism group, in which congruent responses were faster than incongruent ones. However, for the higher fanaticism group there were no significant differences for the 2 congruency conditions. Results were discussed as evidence for distinct brain asymmetry patterns among football supporters depending on the level of fanaticism.

Psychometric properties of the Brazilian-adapted version of Sport Imagery Questionnaire

Imagery can be defined as the ability to represent and rehearse in the mind behaviors related to a given situation. The Sport Imagery Questionnaire was developed to measure the frequency of imagery use among athletes. The present study aimed to adapt and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of this instrument. Study 1 appraised content validity using five sport scientists as judges to quantify the quality of the adaptation for each item; then the Content Validity Coefficient was calculated. Study 2 had 260 athletes from six types of sport answer the Brazilian questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test factorial validity, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to assess reliability, and comparisons between groups were used as criterion validity. Study 1 results showed good quality of the adaptation according to the judges. Study 2 showed a 5-factor latent structure which corroborates with the literature. Reliability of the scale was high (α = .91), whereas separately subscales ranged between Motivational General: Arousal (α = .87) and Motivational Specific (α = .94). Regarding group differences, sex showed no significant difference between men and women (p = .55; d = .09) and neither did levels of practice between amateur, semi-professionals and professional athletes (p = .71; f = .07). Types of sports revealed moderate effect size and significantly less imagery practice among synchronized swimming, football and beach volleyball athletes, whereas mixed martial artists showed higher frequency of imagery (p < .05; f = .23). Factor structure, reliability and validity of mixed groups are evidence of a successful cross-cultural adaptation of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire to Brazil.

The neural basis of kinesthetic and visual imagery in sports: an ALE meta − analysis

Imagery is a widely spread technique in the sport sciences that entails the mental rehearsal of a given situation to improve an athlete’s learning, performance and motivation. Two modalities of imagery are reported to tap into distinct brain structures, but sharing common components: kinesthetic and visual imagery. This study aimed to investigate the neural basis of those types of imagery with Activation Likelihood Estimation algorithm to perform a meta − analysis. A systematic search was used to retrieve only experimental studies with athletes or sportspersons. Altogether, nine studies were selected and an ALE meta − analysis was performed. Results indicated significant activation of the premotor, somatosensory cortex, supplementary motor areas, inferior and superior parietal lobule, caudate, cingulate and cerebellum in both imagery tasks. It was concluded that visual and kinesthetic imagery share similar neural networks which suggests that combined interventions are beneficial to athletes whereas separate use of those two modalities of imagery may seem less efficient from a neuropsychological approach.

The Effects of EEG Neurofeedback Training on the Behavioral Complaints of Soccer Athletes - A Case Study

Several studies supports that neurofeedback training enhances human skills to control the predominance of cerebral activity by specific frequencies. This training modality was related to efficient applications in clinical use, education, businesses and sports. Behavioral changes were found after the neurofeedback training in various circumstances, eliciting more functionality and accuracy, but no studies were found considering the effects of the neurofeedback at the behavioral and psychological complaints of young soccer athletes. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of a sensorimotor rhythm training program and its applicability for the sport psychology practice. Five soccer athletes referred to the Sport Psychology department were systematically trained to increase the sensorimotor rhythm amplitude and then, were interdisciplinary monitored by coaches, physical trainers, medical and psychological services. As results, 4 from 5 athletes were considered remitted from the initial dysfunctional complaints. These changes were found such in technical, tactical, physical and psychological aspects, and they varied between athletes and personal demands. As conclusions, the present work pointed evidences that the neurofeedback training program can be an important technology to support the practices of the sport psychology, as to enhance functional behaviors and to promote mental health for developing soccer athletes.

Ages & Stages Questionnaire–Brazil–2011 Adjustments on an Early Childhood Development Screening Measure

Introduction. Professionals who assess early childhood development highly benefit from reliable development screening measures. The Ages & Stages Questionnaire was adapted Brazil in 2010 and named ASQ-BR. Modifications in some items were required to improve the instrument’s psychometric properties. The present study modified the ASQ-BR to verify if those changes increase its characteristics. Method. This study researched 67 522 children from 972 public day care centers and preschools. Changes in items were made considering Cronbach’s α and item-to-total correlations. Reliability, dimensionality, and item-to-total correlations were calculated. Results. Regarding dimensionality, 86.2% of the scales in ASQ-BR-2011 were unidimensional. Internal consistency showed improvement from 2010 to 2011: 53.8% of the scales increased the α statistics against 41.2% that decreased, and 5.0% remained the same. Finally, 65.2% of the modified items showed improvement. Conclusions. Overall, the instrument’s psychometrics improved from 2010 to 2011, especially in the personal/social domain. However, it still leaves room for improvement in future studies.