Miriam Raquel Wachholz Strelhow

Children's Religious Coping Scale: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties

Coping religioso se refere ao uso de estrategias relacionadas a fe religiosa para lidar com situacoes estressantes. Esse estudo apresenta a adaptacao da escala de Coping Religioso para Criancas (CRC) para criancas brasileiras e verifica suas propriedades psicometricas. Participaram 1.612 criancas (54,71% meninas) entre 8 e 13 anos (M = 10,19, DP = 1,47). Analises de componentes principais e fatoriais confirmatorias indicaram que a CRC e composta por duas dimensoes: Coping Religioso Positivo, com 17 itens em tres fatores (Crenca no suporte de Deus, Busca a instituicao religiosa, Intercessao), e Coping Religioso Negativo, composto por 11 itens em tres fatores (Descontentamento com Deus ou com outros, Reavaliacao negativa do significado, Reavaliacao de punicao). O instrumento apresentou confiabilidade adequada. Analises fatoriais multigrupo indicaram que as cargas fatoriais dos itens sao semelhantes por sexo. A escala apresentou bons indices de ajuste para essa amostra, demonstrando ser um instrumento promissor para futuras pesquisas.

Spirituality and Religiosity Related to the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach

Interest in spirituality and religiosity and the relationship of these with health and well-being has increased in recent years. Most of the research on this topic, however, is conducted in the United States with adult participants. Even though spirituality and religiosity are strongly rooted in the culture of South American peoples, few studies address these aspects in these countries, especially during childhood and adolescence. This chapter’s objective is to discuss the importance of the spiritual and religious dimensions and how they contribute to the well-being of children and adolescents. Conceptual aspects of spirituality and religiosity are discussed from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, identifying meanings adolescents and children assign to each. Results from recent studies addressing the relationship of spirituality and religiosity with well-being during childhood and adolescence are also presented and discussed. In general, studies have reported a positive association between these constructs, though some inconsistencies are observed. Challenges and future prospects in this field of study are also discussed. Greater dissemination is needed in the scientific community and among professionals caring for children and adolescents of the importance of including spirituality and religiosity within a view that considers human beings in their wholeness.

Psychosocial Well-Being of Children and Adolescents: Intervention Effect and Impact Evaluation

This chapter presents the implementation and evaluation of an intervention program regarding adolescents’ well-being, based on theory and research. The intervention was carried out using a quasi-experimental design, with one pre and two post-tests (immediately after – post-test, and 1 month after – follow up). Participants are 100 adolescents from two public schools in a south Brazilian city, aged from 10 to 14 years old (M = 12.18, SD = 1.39), of which 50.7% are boys. They were divided into two groups according to the pre-test results: adolescents with lower well-being rates were assigned to the experimental group (n = 48) and those with higher well-being rates were assigned to the control group (n = 52). The intervention was performed during school period throughout 1 week. The instrument was a questionnaire composed by the Personal Well-Being Index, and items related to indicators in each module. Analyses of variance for repeated-measures were performed (ANOVA-RM) within the experimental group to assess the intervention effect, and regression discontinuity analysis (RD) to assess the intervention impact by comparing the experimental and control groups. Results indicated that there was an increase in children well-being in the experimental group in the post-test; however, that positive effect disappears in the follow up assessment. The RD analyses showed significant differences between the control and experimental groups in the post-test, demonstrating a positive impact of the intervention. However, there were no differences between pre and follow up assessments, resulting in no lasting impact in the long term.

Estudos psicométricos da Escala Eudemon de Bem-Estar Pessoal em adolescentes

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar las propiedades psicometricas de la escala Eudemon de Bienestar Personal (EBP) entre adolescentes brasilenos. Participaron 1.479 adolescentes (64,7% del sexo femenino) entre 12 y 16 anos (M=14,12 anos; DT=1,26). Los participantes respondieron a la EBP y a otros instrumentos de bienestar. El Analisis Factorial Exploratorio (n=712) indico la presencia de dos factores, y la consistencia interna de la escala fue adecuada (α=0,767). El Analisis Factorial Confirmatorio (n=767) mostro buenos indices de ajuste para la escala con 21 items. Analisis de multiples grupos senalaron que la estructura factorial de la escala y las cargas factoriales de los items son semejantes, tanto para varones como para ninas. Por medio de la validez concurrente (correlacion de Pearson) fueron encontradas correlaciones significativas con otras escalas de bienestar. Se concluyo que el instrumento presento evidencias de validez, y puede ser utilizado con adolescentes en Brasil.