A cumulative risk model of child physical maltreatment potential: findings from a community-based study

"Published online before print November 20, 2015"

Parents' physical victimization in childhood and current risk of child maltreatment: the mediator role of psychosomatic symptoms

Objective: To test the potential mediation effect of psychosomatic symptoms on the relationship between parents' history of childhood physical victimization and current risk for child physical maltreatment. Methods: Data from the Portuguese National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect were used. Nine-hundred and twenty-four parents completed the Childhood History Questionnaire, the Psychosomatic Scale of the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. Results: Mediation analysis revealed that the total effect of the childhood physical victimization on child maltreatment risk was significant. The results showed that the direct effect from the parents' history of childhood physical victimization to their current maltreatment risk was still significant once parents' psychosomatic symptoms were added to the model, indicating that the increase in psychosomatic symptomatology mediated in part the increase of parents' current child maltreatment risk. Discussion: The mediation analysis showed parents' psychosomatic symptomatology as a causal pathway through which parents' childhood history of physical victimization exerts its effect on increased of child maltreatment risk. Somatization-related alterations in stress and emotional regulation are discussed as potential theoretical explanation of our findings. A cumulative risk perspective is also discussed in order to elucidate about the mechanisms that contribute for the intergenerational continuity of child physical maltreatment.

Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: the role of parent’s gender and timing of childhood abuse

It has been suggested that being physically abused leads to someone becoming a perpetrator of abuse which could be associated to parents' gender, timing of the physical abuse and specific socio-demographic variables. This study aims to investigate the role the parents' gender, timing of childhood abuse and socio-demographic variables on the relationship between parents' history of childhood physical abuse and current risk for children. The sample consisted of 920 parents (414 fathers, 506 mothers) from the Portuguese National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect who completed the Childhood History Questionnaire and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. The results showed that fathers had lower current potential risk of becoming physical abuse perpetrators with their children than mothers although they did not differed in their physical victimization history. Moreover, the risk was higher in parents (both genders) with continuous history of victimization than in parents without victimization. Prediction models showed that for fathers and mothers separately similar socio-demographic variables (family income, number of children at home, employment status and marital status) predicted the potential risk of becoming physical abuses perpetrators. Nevertheless, the timing of victimization was different for fathers (before 13 years old) and mothers (after 13 years old). Then our study targets specific variables (timing of physical abuse, parents' gender and specific socio-demographic variables), which may enable professionals to select groups of parents at greater need of participating in abuse prevention programs.

O tráfico de seres humanos na formação da polícia em Angola: o direito europeu como referência comparativa

Relatório de atividade profissional de mestrado em Direito da União Europeia

Mothers' beliefs concerning severity and need for intervention in child maltreatment

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde

Trabalho infantil: as crianças no mundo do espetáculo, moda e publicidade

Dissertação de mestrado em Direitos Humanos

As crianças-soldado na Serra Leoa e na Libéria: estudo comparado sobre o papel da ONU como provedor de segurança humana

Dissertação de mestrado em Relações Internacionais

Careers, identities and professionalization. A study on doctors about their social representations related to the labor market today and its foreseeable future

This study is in line with the analyses of university and working career in their interaction in relation with conditioning factors. It comprises two central issues: the issue of identity bound to the issue of professionalization within the domain of training and employment. Nowadays, professionalization of the individuals, inside a troubled occupational world, demands the implementation of mechanisms favoring the development of both the individuals and the institution in which they work. All this has an impact at the local, regional and even national levels. Three levels of analysis interplay from a sui generis perspective: macro-meso-micro-macro (Aparicio, 2005; 2007a; 2007b, 2013a, 2014, 2015 b, d – See the Three- Dimensional Spiral of Sense Theory). The aim was to be aware of the doctors’ representations regarding the value of such degree under the present “degree devaluation”, and its impact on the professional future as well as on the core issues of the labor market which need urgent measures with a view to a belter interaction between the two systems. The methodology used was quanti-qualitative (semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, and hierarchical evocations). The population consisted of doctors (2005-2012) from the National University of Cuyo, in Argentina. The results helped us understand the nucleus of such representations and the peripheral aspects by career and institution, thus revealing professional and disciplinary identities. The professional identities show the situated needs in terms of professionalization within the different contexts and, particularly, within the labor market.