Papers by Margarida de Matos
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011
The purpose of this study was to assess the importance of sex education in school context and its... more The purpose of this study was to assess the importance of sex education in school context and its effects in sexual behaviour, knowledge and attitudes regarding HIV among adolescents. The sample included 5050 Portuguese adolescent students from the Portuguese HBSC study. This study uses a subset of 8 th and 10 th graders (n=3494). Results showed adolescents who had sex education classes mentioned more often not having had sexual intercourse, better knowledge regarding HIV and more positive attitudes about HIV infected people. This study suggests positive associations between receiving sex education and protective sexual behaviours, knowledge and attitudes.
Revista de Saúde Pública, 2008
Percepções de professores portugueses sobre educação sexual* Perceptions of Portuguese teachers a... more Percepções de professores portugueses sobre educação sexual* Perceptions of Portuguese teachers about sex education RESUMO OBJETIVO: Avaliar percepções e atitudes em relação à educação sexual entre professores portugueses do ensino básico e secundário. MÉTODOS: Participaram do estudo 371 professores de ambos os sexos, do segundo e terceiro ciclos e do ensino secundário do continente Português, entre Fevereiro e Março de 2006. A coleta de dados foi feita por meio de questionário, pela técnica bola de neve, constituído por duas partes; a primeira abordava dados sociodemográfi cos, caracterização profi ssional, crenças religiosas, formação e experiência em educação sexual em meio escolar. A segunda parte foi composta por escalas relativas a atitudes, importância atribuída a temas de educação sexual e nível de ensino para introduzir tópicos de educação sexual. A análise das diferenças entre géneros, entre professores com e sem experiência em educação sexual, e entre professores com e sem formação complementar na área foi efectuada pela análise de variância ANOVA.
Journal of Family Studies, 2010
V simpósio nacional de …, 2003
Dspace, ...
Journal of Poverty, 2008
The aims of this study are to determine the influence of migrant status on sexual behavior and co... more The aims of this study are to determine the influence of migrant status on sexual behavior and communication about “safer sex” and to identify ethnic-specific prevention issues. Data were obtained from a special administration of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey in a special sample of Portuguese schools located in low-income Lisbon neighborhoods with large proportions of African migrants. Survey participants included 919 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders (52.3% female), of whom 19.2% were migrant foreigners from African, Portuguese-speaking countries, including Cape Verde (60.8%), Mozambique (1.6%), Angola (16.8%), Sao Tomé (8%), and Guinea-Bissau (14.8%). Subsequently, four focus groups were held with adolescents who had participated in the survey (n = 45), three focus groups with health and education professionals (n = 25), and one focus group with parents (n = 6).Compared with Portuguese adolescents, African migrant teens reported initial sexual intercours...
Psicologia-reflexao E Critica, 2009
The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Life Orientation Test, reviewed for children ... more The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Life Orientation Test, reviewed for children and adolescents. This study included a sample of 3195 participants from the 5th and 7th grades. Through Principal Component Analyses we found two dimensions, one related to optimism and another linked to pessimism. Results in the confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit model. Additionally, items discriminating validity and concurrent validity were inspected with measures related to optimism, such as, social support satisfaction, self-worth and quality of life. This instrument seems to be adequate for the measurement of life orientation in children and in teenagers, and may be useful in other contexts, such as health psychology.
Accuracy of self-reported measures of height and weight in children and adolescents, pp. 41-51
International journal of …, 2009
Objectives: To assess whether or not communication with parents and with peers is related to expe... more Objectives: To assess whether or not communication with parents and with peers is related to experiencing psychological complaints in an attempt to explore the hypotheses of continuity and compensation or moderation between contexts. Methods: Questions on communication with their parents and peers, as well as on the frequency with which they experience psychological complaints were answered by 200,857 adolescents from 36 countries. Results: A cluster analysis detected four groups of adolescents. Those with better communication in both social contexts were the ones showing less psychological complaints. Moreover, we have found (using a regression analysis) that good communication with peers does not improve their experience of psychological complaints if the communication with parents is not good. Conclusions: We conclude that our findings are consistent with the continuity hypothesis and against the compensating or moderating one.
Children
Background: A healthy and supportive family environment leads to more positive results regarding ... more Background: A healthy and supportive family environment leads to more positive results regarding adolescents’ development. The main objective of this study was to explore and analyze the relationship between adolescents’ quality of life (QoL) and their family environment/relationship. Method: The sample was collected as part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children 2018 study, which included 8215 adolescents, 52.7% female, with a mean age of 14.36 years (SD = 2.28). Results: Girls are more involved in family activities (such as family meals), report being treated with fairness by their parents and feel less parental pressure to get good grades. Boys have a higher perception regarding their family affluence, better family relationships and support and better QoL. Having an above-average QoL is significantly related to high family affluence, better communication with both parents, greater involvement in family activities, greater perception of help from parents regarding decisio...
BMC Public …, 2008
Background: Research on the motivational model proposed by Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provid... more Background: Research on the motivational model proposed by Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provides theoretically sound insights into reasons why people adopt and maintain exercise and other health behaviors, and allows for a meaningful analysis of the motivational processes involved in behavioral self-regulation. Although obesity is notoriously difficult to reverse and its recidivism is high, adopting and maintaining a physically active lifestyle is arguably the most effective strategy to counteract it in the long-term. The purposes of this study are twofold: i) to describe a 3-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at testing a novel obesity treatment program based on SDT, and ii) to present the rationale behind SDT's utility in facilitating and explaining health behavior change, especially physical activity/exercise, during obesity treatment. Methods: Study design, recruitment, inclusion criteria, measurements, and a detailed description of the intervention (general format, goals for the participants, intervention curriculum, and main SDT strategies) are presented. The intervention consists of a 1-year group behavioral program for overweight and moderately obese women, aged 25 to 50 (and pre-menopausal), recruited from the community at large through media advertisement. Participants in the intervention group meet weekly or biweekly with a multidisciplinary intervention team (30 2 h sessions in total), and go through a program covering most topics considered critical for successful weight control. These topics and especially their delivery were adapted to comply with SDT and Motivational Interviewing guidelines. Comparison group receive a general health education curriculum. After the program, all subjects are follow-up for a period of 2 years. Discussion: Results from this RCT will contribute to a better understanding of how motivational characteristics, particularly those related to physical activity/exercise behavioral self-regulation, influence treatment success, while exploring the utility of Self-Determination Theory for promoting health behavior change in the context of obesity.
International Journal of Public Health, 2009
Uma das estratégias para promover a saúde e o bem-estar é a educação e promoção da saúde em meio ... more Uma das estratégias para promover a saúde e o bem-estar é a educação e promoção da saúde em meio escolar, pelo que o objectivo deste artigo é apresentar a situação da mesma em Portugal em 2006 e 2010, bem como fazer uma reflexão sobre as alterações nos últimos 4 anos. No âmbito do estudo HBSC/OMS realizado em Portugal em 2006 e em 2010 (Currie et al, 2004; Matos et al. 2006 a; Matos et al. no prelo) foi enviado para escolas seleccionadas aleatoriamente e incluídas no estudo nacional, um question...
Psicologia, Saúde & Doenças, 2013
Pediatric Exercise …, 2005
This study aimed to describe seasonal variations in Portuguese adolescents' organized and no... more This study aimed to describe seasonal variations in Portuguese adolescents' organized and nonorganized physical activities by gender and age group. Data from the Portuguese second wave of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study was used. The ...
Revista Lusófona de Ciências …, 2010
Projecto Aventura Social - Faculdade de Motricidade Humana / Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Estr... more Projecto Aventura Social - Faculdade de Motricidade Humana / Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa, 1495-688 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal. CMDT-LA/UNL - Centro de Malária e Doenças Tropicais, Laboratório Associado. Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, ...
Journal …, 2009
Objectives. We examined the socioeconomic distribution of adolescent exposure to bullying interna... more Objectives. We examined the socioeconomic distribution of adolescent exposure to bullying internationally and documented the contribution of the macroeconomic environment.Methods. We used an international survey of 162 305 students aged 11, 13, and 15 years from nationally representative samples of 5998 schools in 35 countries in Europe and North America for the 2001–2002 school year. The survey used standardized measures of exposure to bullying and socioeconomic affluence.Results. Adolescents from families of low affluence reported higher prevalence of being victims of bullying (odds ratio [OR] = 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.10, 1.16). International differences in prevalence of exposure to bullying were not associated with the economic level of the country (as measured by gross national income) or the school, but wide disparities in affluence at a school and large economic inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) at the national level were associated with an incre...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Low grip strength has been associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, independent of age... more Low grip strength has been associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, independent of age group or gender, although the literature has not investigated this association among different chronic diseases. The present study aims to investigate the association of grip strength and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults with different chronic diseases. A cross-section of data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe wave 6 (collected in 2015) was analysed. Grip strength was measured by a handgrip dynamometer, and the European Depression Symptoms 12-item scale (EURO-D) was used to assess depressive symptoms. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted. Those in the high strength tertile had 42% (95% confidence interval: 0.50, 0.71; p < 0.005) and 41% (95% confidence interval: 0.50, 0.70; p < 0.001) lower odds of depressive symptoms in the ‘no disease’ and in the ‘metabolic diseases’ groups of participants, respectively, compare...
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Papers by Margarida de Matos