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This study examined the concurrent relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and externalizing and internalizing problems and social school behavior in a Spanish community sample, separately for boys (n=439) and girls (n=428), enrolled in 2nd, 4th, or 6th grades. Weekly participation in extracurricular activities was related to better emotional and behavioral adjustment and social competence. Overall, the relations were low and different according to gender, type of activity, and informant. Better adjustment was more related to participation in sports activities in boys and to participation in nonsports activities in girls. Size effect was higher for girls and decreased for both boys and girls when parental education and parenting practices were considered. Findings supported previous results obtained in American adolescents. (Contains 4 tables.)

The influence of religious education in the family upon current spiritual and religious tendencies was assessed in a sample of 599 Spanish nurse and medicine students using a religiosity scale and answers to a series of belief/disbelief statements. Results showed that nursing and medicine students were equally low-religious, with no differences in religiosity total scores between participants coming from religious families; however, medical students coming from nonreligious families showed higher religiousness than the corresponding nursing trainees. This distinction appeared both across religiosity items and in a variety of responses to belief/disbelief of Christian/secular assertions. Regression analysis showed that religious family background was a consistent predictor of religious beliefs at young adulthood, and its influence was higher for medical students. In addition to establish religious upbringing as an important factor modulating enduring religiosity, these findings provide distinctions between nurse and medical trainees, and reproduce, in a Spanish mainly catholic sample, the structure of religiosity factors previously found on North American mainline protestants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to adapt to Catalan the parents' and children's global report forms of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ), using a community sample of 364 children between 10 and 15 years old and their families. Sociodemographic information (from parents) and the presence of externalizing problems (from parents and teachers) were collected. The results suggest a 3-factor structure corresponding to the scales of Positive Parenting Practices (PPP), Inconsistent and Negative Discipline (IND) and Poor Monitoring/Supervision (PMS). The internal consistency is acceptable in all the scales, except for the IND in the children's format. The scales also present good convergent and discriminant validity, and the relations with the external variable studied pointed in the expected direction: inefficient parenting practices are related to the presence of more behavior problems in children. To sum up, the Catalan version of the parents' and children's global report forms of the APQ are considered suitable for use in the area of children's and adolescents' behavior problems.

Background: Communication skills (CS) and the psychosocial dimensions of patient care are currently considered core competencies in medical schools. CS programs have focused on verbal communication rather than the nonverbal communication., Aim: To present a training program aimed to decode patients' nonverbal clues for second year medical students implemented at the School of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona., Method: A description of a theoretical framework, principles, general and specific goals, learning settings, strategies, skills, and assessment tools., Results: A model of training for preclinical medical students in decoding patients' nonverbal clues is shown. The students have shown satisfaction with the program., Conclusions: The detection of patients' nonverbal clues can be regarded as a humanistic skill that can be defined, trained, and evaluated. The program can be transferable to other institutions on health sciences and adapted to other academic levels or, even, clinical specialties.