Search

Introduction: Adolescents in residential care are more likely to report insecure and especially disorganized attachments, which lead to difficulties in emotion regulation and compromise the quality of their interpersonal relationships. In residential care, it is expected that sensitive and responsive caregivers are able to help adolescents regulate their feelings of distress, enabling them to experience a sense of emotional security. The present study sought to analyze the effects of the quality of attachment on emotion regulation and to test the moderating effect of quality of relationship (from adolescents' and caregivers' perspectives) on this association., Methods: The sample involved 306 adolescents, 12-18 years of age, living in residential care and 70 caregivers., Results: The findings underscored the importance of the quality of the relationship with residential caregivers on adolescents' emotion regulation competencies over time. The results also showed that the quality of relationship (emotional closeness) as perceived by the caregivers moderated the association between adolescents' attachment avoidance levels and their emotion regulation strategies., Conclusions: The results are discussed according to attachment theory, and underscore the role the relationship with caregivers plays in the affective reorganization of adolescents living in residential care., (© 2022 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.)

According to the attachment theory, early experiences with primary caregivers are the foundation of the expectations and beliefs about the self, others, and the world. It becomes particularly relevant in youth living in Residential Care (RC) settings, due to their past adversities. In this context, care workers can provide emotional healing experiences by acting as secure base figures and fostering conditions for youth's revision of their internal working models. The main aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between youth attachment dimensions and satisfaction with the residential caregiving environment, as well as, to analyze the potential mediator effect of the relationship quality with care workers in RC settings in the prior association. The sample was composed of youth, aged 12 to 18 (M = 15.54; SD = 1.66) living in RC settings in Porto district, Portugal (N = 248), that responded to three self-report measures. Results showed that attachment dimensions were associated with youth satisfaction with their caregiving environment, being this association mediated by the relationship quality with care workers. This study highlights the importance of investing in good relational experiences for youth satisfaction with the RC caregiving environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims tests the predictive effect of the quality of relationship to significant figures (teachers, school and institutional staff) in the development of self-concept of young people. Also tests the mediational effect of the quality of relationship to peers and the moderating effect of the time of residential care in this association. The sample was composed by 400 institutionalized young people, between 12 and 18 years from both genders, in Portugal. The results underline the importance of the quality of the relationship to the significant figures of affection (in school and institution) for the development of a positive self-concept. The relationship with peers shows to be relevant corroborating the mediational role in the development of self-concept. The time of residential care didn't show significant relationship between the quality of relationship established with significant adults and selfconcept. Attachment theory emphasizes the importance of secure relationships between adults and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare treatments might benefit from advances in artificial intelligence and technological equipment such as smartphones and smartwatches. The presence of cameras in these devices with increasingly robust and precise pattern recognition techniques can facilitate the estimation of the wound area and other telemedicine measurements. Currently, telemedicine is vital to the maintenance of the quality of the treatments remotely. This study proposes a method for measuring the wound area with mobile devices. The proposed approach relies on a multi-step process consisting of image capture, conversion to grayscale, blurring, application of a threshold with segmentation, identification of the wound part, dilation and erosion of the detected wound section, identification of accurate data related to the image, and measurement of the wound area. The proposed method was implemented with the OpenCV framework. Thus, it is a solution for healthcare systems by which to investigate and treat people with skin-related diseases. The proof-of-concept was performed with a static dataset of camera images on a desktop computer. After we validated the approach's feasibility, we implemented the method in a mobile application that allows for communication between patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Girls perceive higher emotional closeness in the relationships with their caregivers and boys develop relationships marked by relational tension. • Adolescents who reported more difficulties of emotional awareness present lower levels of emotional closeness in the relationships with their caregivers. • Caregivers may be especially relevant and sensitive to adolescents who lack strategies of emotion regulation and create the conditions for adolescents to feel secure and ask for help. • Attachment avoidance is associated with relational tension in the relationship with caregivers. The quality of the relationship between adolescents and significant figures constitutes a relevant factor to emotional and adaptive functioning. Caregivers at the institution have a significant responsibility in caring for adolescents and represent a key determinant in adolescents' adaptation. However, less attention has been devoted to how adolescents perceive these relationships and to predictors of their quality. This study aims to analyze different level predictors (sociodemographic and institutional hystory-related, emotional/relational and contextual level) of the quality of the relationship between adolescents and their caregivers, in a sample of 326 adolescent participants (228 female and 98 male) from 20 residential care institutions. Participants responded to self-report questionnaires concerning the quality of relationship with caregivers, attachment, emotion regulation and institutional climate. Data regarding structural and functional information about the residential care context were collected with the directors. The results suggested that the adolescents' perception of quality of relationship was associated with individual (gender) and emotional/relational factors (emotion regulation and attachment), but not with contextual factors (cohesion, ratio and number total children/youth) and other individual variables (time living in institution, age at entering the institution, live another institution and age at entering in the first institution). The results are discussed in light of attachment theory, pointing out the role of the relevance of quality of relationship with caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]