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Background Research on living with a chronic disease (CD) in adolescence is increasing. However, studies on the relevance of psychosocial factors are still needed. The present review, focuses on the impact of living with a CD in adolescence on on quality of life (QoL), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and psychosocial factors. Methods A literature review of articles identified through PubMed, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES (these last two ones comprise the Ebsco Host platform) and original peer-reviewed research papers, published between 2010 and 2015, with no restrictions regarding the format/source of interventions, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or types of comparisons were included. Results Eighteen papers met the inclusion criteria and contradictory results were found: the majority showed a significantly higher risk of impairment on QoL/HRQoL and psychosocial factors, whereas others reported a significantly lower risk of impairment (highlighting possible protective factors), or no significant differences. Heterogeneity in the assessment procedures and substantial difficulties in considering adolescence as a single and independent age group, were also noted. Conclusion The higher risk of impairment and the heterogeneity observed between cohorts, reinforce the need to work towards consensual procedures, which allow for more accurate comparisons among studies. Additionally, it conveys the challenge to find more effective interventions. Furthermore, it is highly suggested to routinely assess HRQoL/psychosocial factors within an individualized framework, to considerer adolescents as a single/independent group, to emphasize potential protective factors, and, to increase youth's participation in their own adaptation process and in health promotion in general. These are possible future directions that could enable multidisciplinary responses to improve HRQoL and psychosocial care in adolescents with a CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between adolescents' life satisfaction and individual and social health assets. A nationally representative sample of 3,494 Portuguese adolescents (mean age = 14.94 ± 1.30 years; 53.6% girls) completed the Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey measuring a variety of health behaviors and beliefs. A sequential regression analysis was conducted with gender, individual assets (academic achievement, social competence, self-regulation and life objectives) and social assets (family support, peer support, parental monitoring and school connectedness) entered in separate steps. A second regression analysis was conducted with social assets entered before individual assets. The final model explained 18.3% of life satisfaction. School connectedness (β =.198, p <.001) and family support (β =.154, p <.001) were the strongest predictors of adolescents' life satisfaction followed by social competence (β =.152, p <.001), academic achievement (β =.116, p <.001) and self-regulation (β =.064, p <.001). Social assets explained a larger variance of life satisfaction than individual assets when entered first in the regression (r 2 =.134 and r 2 =.119, respectively, p <.001). When entered last step in the regression analysis, social assets added more to life satisfaction's variance than when individual assets were added in the last step (r 2 =.060 and r 2 =.045, respectively, p <.001). These results reinforce the role social interaction and social capital models in the promotion of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to understand how the characteristics of self-determination (i.e., choice, problemsolving, goal setting) and factors associated with resilience (i.e., support and self-efficacy) relate to each other, including the relationship these variables have on quality-of-life (QoL) for individuals with disabilities. METHODS: Data were collected from 195 youth and young adults with disabilities. RESULTS: Results indicated self-efficacy as a critical skill, showing positive associations with behavior of choice and QoL. In addition, social support emerged as an important factor in the development of self-determination skills. The findings also indicated that an individual's financial situation assumed a mediator role between self-determination components and QoL. Through structural equations modeling (SEM), a model representing the relationships between these variables was designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Surf Salva Camp 2016 project was developed in Cascais (Portugal) and aimed at promoting social inclusion, wellbeing and health, as well as developing beach security values and social citizenship in children and youth in foster care institutions, through surfing. Participants were 48 adolescents aged 10 to 16, selected from 4 foster institutions in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo district. The results suggest that intervention through surf had positive effects. Self-knowledge, exploration, effort and perseverance, problem solving, time management, group competencies, interpersonal relationships and emotional regulation had a positive evolution in the participants throughout the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The KIDSCREEN is a European cross-cultural and standardized instrument that assesses ten quality of life dimensions in children, adolescents and their parents. This instrument is used to validate evidences to support general inferences on quality-of-life measures obtained by the Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN- 10 for children and adolescents, in the context of a survey research carried on in Portugal. The present study focuses only on the KIDSCREEN children and adolescents' versions. A sample of 8072 Portuguese children and adolescents attending the 5th grade (19.3%), 6th grade (19.2%), 7th grade (20.3%), 8th (21.6%) and 10th grade (19.7%) in Portuguese schools were inquired, with a mean age of 13.2; SD 2.06, randomly distributed regarding gender. The Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN-10 instrument showed a good Internal Consistency of .78. Chosen fit indexes indicate good fit to the data. Specifically in the final solution the RMSEA was lower than .03 and the upper limit of 90% confidence interval was lower than .05, and CFI was higher than .95. Results indicated that the current 10-item structure is invariant across age groups, nationality and socio-economic level. The KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire is a reliable instrument to estimate the perception of quality of life in children and adolescents. Psychometric guidelines are presented for the Portuguese population aged 10 to 16 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School is a privileged setting for universal and selective prevention interventions that can help pupils increase their competence to cope with life challenges in a moderate, non violent and effective way. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of an intervention, a social and personal competence promotion program entitled "Find your own style" (SPCPP- FYOS) that was designed by the authors and tailored to the institutional context. FYOS took place within the regular school timetable and was delivered by the regular school teacher. Besides the evaluation sessions prior and after the intervention, the program included 12 sessions where 6 themes were debated, role-played, monitored and generalized through homework. Activities focused on interpersonal communication; self-talk; emotion management and regulation, social capital and interpersonal relationships and management of leisure and work time. Active and participative methods were used. A total of 77 adolescents were included in the program, distributed as follows: 47 from 6th and 7th grades and 30 from the 8th grade. The intervention design included an evaluation prior and after the intervention, and a parallel "attention group". This study confirmed that universal prevention programs (like the "attention program" targeting at the whole educational community) are efficient in increasing the perception of happiness and the perception of quality of life in adolescents. However, they are not sufficient in targeting more specific results such as the decrease of disruption, where a more specific and intensive intervention would be necessary [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The KIDSCREEN-52 is an instrument that assesses 10 dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). It was developed as a result of studies by the European KIDSCREEN Group, University of Berlin (www.kidscreen.org; see also Bisegger et al., 2005). During the Portuguese validation process, a model was developed to examine the perceptions of children and their parents on these dimensions. Structural equation modelling was used in order to estimate the fit of this model, in both cases according to gender and age. The specific aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which results differ by gender and age. An additional aim was to explore differences between the child and parent versions of the instrument, globally as well as by gender and age of the children. The results are based on a nationally representative sample of 3195 children from 5th and 7th grades. Data from each child were paired with data from their parents (2256 matched sets of data were generated). Most of the subscales exhibited good internal consistency in both the children's and parent's versions of KIDSCREEN-52, with values of the alpha coefficient approaching or above .80 for most scales. The exception was the subscale concerned with self-perception where the coefficient was approximately .64 for both children and parents. Subscale scores for children's and parents' versions correlated moderately strongly in the sample of matched pairs. This indicates that children and their parents view their health-related quality of life consistently, although parents tend to perceive their children's quality of life as better than their children do. Analysis of variance suggested that there were small differences in scores associated with gender and age. The results confirm that the KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire is a relevant instrument to estimate the perception of quality of life both in children and their parents. The findings that parents are not totally aware of their children's subjective health-related quality of life perceptions and that parents have different perceptions according to the gender and the age of their children, have implications for professional practice and intervention with families of school-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and adolescents with cognitive and developmental difficulties show difficulty in social interaction, feelings of rejection, autonomy, social rules and in behavioural and emotional self-regulation. Importantly, their subjective well-being is associated to social support and personal factors, such as self-esteem and a positive self-image. The data were collected in 16 schools, 8 in the North Region and 8 in the Lisbon Region of Portugal. The sample is composed by 1181 young people of which 51.5% were female, with ages ranging between 8 and 17 years. From the sample, 2.6% had special educational needs (SEN), and 3% did not use the Portuguese language at home. 12.2% had been retained one grade or more. Three regression models were built. Model 1 establishes the association between having SEN, grade and subjective well-being. The final model with all variables showed that social and personal characteristics present a stronger explicative value on children and adolescents' subjective well-being. The model also showed that, when social and personal variables are included the association between being a student with SEN and well-being is not statistically significant. Research and intervention implications include the need to promote subjective well-being, social and personal skills and a positive development in children and adolescents with SEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]