Portuguese High School Students Research Articles

Mind the gap! Cognitive-motivational determinants of career decision-making in postsecondary school transitions

ABSTRACT Using self-determination and schema therapy theories, we examine the cognitive-motivational processes underlying the regulation of career decisions and the experience of well/ill-being during the key school-to-work transition among Portuguese high school students. We obtained two pathways of transition: A “Bright” pathway, where need satisfaction associates with positive and flexible schematic processing to predict autonomous regulation of career decisions and experienced well-being, and a “Dark” pathway, where need frustration relates to schematic processing of social information to predict unique variance on controlled career decisions, low well-being and ill-being. Schematic processing of social information explained unique variance in ill-being over and above need satisfaction and need frustration. Overall, the findings support the cognitive-motivational determination of career decision making.

Questionário de Educação para a Carreira: propriedades psicométricas da versão Portuguesa

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Career Education Questionnaire, through the analysis of reliability, dimensionality and possible correlations with the SENNA 1.0 socioemotional measure. The participants were 282 Portuguese high school students of both genders, with a mean age of 15.93 years, from public schools in northern Portugal. The analysis of the internal consistency of the dimensions showed satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The intercorrelations showed a positive and significant pattern for the subscales of the Career Education Questionnaire. The discriminant validity between the Career Education Questionnaire and the SENNA showed a positive and significant relationship of weak magnitude. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a model with three factors showed satisfactory goodness of fit to the data and better than the alternative models. The Portuguese version of this instrument presents metric qualities, making it a useful measure for research in this field.

P102 - Testicular disorders’ awareness and knowledge among Portuguese high-school students

P102 - Testicular disorders’ awareness and knowledge among Portuguese high-school students

P20 - Testicular disorders’ awareness and knowledge among Portuguese high-school students

P20 - Testicular disorders’ awareness and knowledge among Portuguese high-school students

Examining Portuguese High School Students' Attitudes Toward Physical Education.

Portugal ranks fourth among countries with the highest rate of overweight population, considering that 67.6% of the Portuguese population over the age of 15 is overweight or obese. To our knowledge, limited studies have investigated students’ attitudes toward physical education in Portugal. Such research is necessary because it can provide valuable insights for policy and application in the curriculum development for physical education, which may eventually increase participation in physical and sports activities. This study analyzed students’ attitudes toward physical education (PE) according to sociodemographic variables, including grade level, socioeconomic status, and gender, and their participation in extracurricular sports activities and respective PE grades. The sample comprised 476 high school students (from the 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade levels) from five public schools located in Portugal. The Students’ Attitudes toward Physical Education Questionnaire was adapted and validated for use with Portuguese students as a two-factor model. Findings show that students generally have a moderately positive attitude toward PE. However, students’ positive attitudes tend to decrease throughout high school, which is particularly significant in the 9th grade. Furthermore, students’ attitudes are influenced by gender, extracurricular sports practice, and grades. These findings may help stakeholders reflect on how to frame PE in a more meaningful way to create a solid foundation for maintaining an active lifestyle throughout life. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Relação entre variáveis sociodemográficas e do percurso escolar e a adaptabilidade de carreira de estudantes do ensino secundário

Neste estudo, analisámos a relação entre a adaptabilidade de carreira, expressa nas dimensões Preocupação, Controlo, Confiança e Curiosidade, e um conjunto de variáveis sociodemográficas (sexo, zona de residência, educação parental) e do percurso escolar (média de classificações, retenções, participação em atividades extracurriculares). Testámos ainda a relação entre a participação prévia reportada em atividades de carreira e a realização de atividades ocupacionais, e a adaptabilidade de carreira. Participaram no estudo 201 estudantes do ensino secundário, com idades compreendidas os 16 e os 23 anos (M = 17.56, DP = 0.89). Os instrumentos foram um questionário sociodemográfico e escolar e a versão Portuguesa da Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Os resultados não mostraram um efeito global das variáveis sociodemográficas na adaptabilidade de carreira, com a exceção de um efeito de pequena magnitude da área de residência (rural) no Controlo; e um efeito de pequena magnitude do sexo (feminino) na Preocupação. Verificou-se uma associação entre o desempenho escolar (moderado na média das classificações; fraco no caso das retenções) e a adaptabilidade de carreira. A participação prévia em atividades de educação e desenvolvimento de carreira, ou a realização de atividades ocupacionais, não se associaram à adaptabilidade de carreira com a presente amostra.

Attitude towards the discipline of physics-chemistry and school achievement: revisiting factor structure to assess gender differences in Portuguese high-school students

ABSTRACTThe importance of attitudes and other variables of the affective domain in education is acknowledged for a long time. In this study, we used an attitude questionnaire to survey 498 Portuguese 9th-grade students to determine the predictive ability of the attitudes towards the discipline of Physics-chemistry on school achievement. Possible gender differences were also investigated after establishing the measurement invariance of the factor structure. The survey instrument presented some issues regarding factor structure. After a new factor analysis using more robust statistical methods, a four-factor structure of attitudes towards Physics-chemistry – Competence to discipline, Pleasure in learning, Anxiety, and Utility – was established and used in this study. The means of the Competence and the Pleasure in learning factors were significantly higher in the boy’s group while the factors Anxiety and Utility were not significantly different between genders. Competence was the most important achievement predictor, with significant positive effects, while the factors Anxiety and, surprisingly, Pleasure in learning presented significant negative impacts on the grades. The possible reasons and consequences for these results are discussed, and some suggestions are made about the importance of considering the relevance of affective variables on teaching and learning high-school Physical sciences.

The Efficacy of a Gambling Prevention Program Among High-School Students

Youth problem gambling has become an emergent public health issue, and adolescents constitute a vulnerable age group for the development of gambling-related problems. Although there is research concerning the risk factors of youth problem gambling, rigorous evaluations of the effectiveness of preventive initiatives is still rare. The present study evaluated the efficacy of an integrative intervention to prevent youth problem gambling based on a multidimensional set of factors including gambling-related knowledge, misconceptions, attitudes, gambling frequency, amount of money spent, total hours spent gambling per week, and sensation seeking. A pre- and post-test design was performed with 111 Portuguese high-school students randomly assigned to two groups (experimental and control). The findings demonstrated that the intervention was effective in improving correct knowledge about gambling, reducing misconceptions and attitudes, and in decreasing the total hours spent gambling per week. The intervention was also effective in reducing the number of at-risk/problem gamblers during the study period. Furthermore, these findings were stable after a 6-week follow-up. Overall, the intervention program appeared to be effective in correcting some gambling-related behaviours, and provides suggestions for future interventions.

Self-Concept and Physical Activity: Differences Between High School and University Students in Spain and Portugal.

The period of adolescence stands out as a critical and decisive phase, first because it leaves its mark on personality development, which is affected by psychosocial factors, and second because the healthy lifestyle habits acquired during this stage form a foundation for adulthood. The objective of the present study was first to evaluate the levels of participation in physical activities (PA) and of self-concept in high school and university students, and second to find relationships between these psycho-physical variables. Four hundred and forty adolescents ranging in age from 16 to 20 years, from Spain and Portugal, participated in this study (cross-sectional design). The IPAQ and Self-Concept Form-5 questionnaires were used. The results demonstrated some differences; the Portuguese university students had lower scores in the academic, emotional and physical dimensions and vigorous PA but higher sitting time, walking and moderate PA compared to Portuguese high school students. In addition, Spanish university students had lower self-concept scores although higher practice of PA and lower sitting time than Spanish high school students (p < 0.05). On the other hand, a positive relationship was found between different dimensions of self-concept and levels of PA, while the relationship between these dimensions and the time the adolescent spent sitting was negative. In conclusion, the university students have lower scores of self-concept dimensions (in general), and the practice of PA is higher in Spanish university students, confirming the clear presence of differences between both educational stages. The relationship between the dimensions of self-concept in general and the level of PA was positive (following the contributions of Marsh).

A Rasch Analysis of the Personal Well-Being Index in School Children.

The personal well-being index-school children (PWI-SC) is designed as a cross-cultural instrument to measure subjective well-being among high school-aged children. Several published cross-cultural studies have confirmed adequate psychometric performance in terms of reliability, validity, and measurement invariance. This study adds to this literature by applying the Rasch approach to estimate invariant comparison in a cross-cultural context, applied to both Australian and Portuguese high school students. Participants were an age- and gender-matched convenience sample of 1,040 adolescents (520 cases in each group, 51.54% male) who ranged in age from 12 to 18 years (M = 14.25 years, SD = 1.71 years). It is found that both Portuguese and Australian data fit the Rasch measurement model, with excellent levels of reliability at a country level. However, when all of the data were combined, a slight misfit was found. This was resolved by removing some issues with item thresholds in standard of living among the Australian data and splitting the data by country on health. This allowed both Australian and Portuguese cases to differ on the health item. We conclude that the PWI-SC is unidimensional, with some evidence of mild, but acceptable local dependency. This study further supports the cross-cultural validity of the PWI-SC and the use of this measure in the Australian and Portuguese context but also indicates a potential direction that development of the PWI-SC might proceed.

Reprint of ‘First exposure to Arduino through peer-coaching: Impact on students' attitudes towards programming’

In this paper we report the work that jeKnowledge (Júnior Empresa da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias da Universidade de Coimbra), a student-led initiative, has done in the ‘jeKnowledge academy’ courses to actively engage Portuguese high-school students in STEM education through hands-on projects based on the low-cost Arduino platform. F2F activities, based on a peer-assisted learning strategy, were complemented with tutorials and more advanced project suggestions in a blog. Pre and post surveys on students' attitudes towards programming and peer-coaching were administered to pre-university and first year college participants, finding an overall increase in the Likert scale for all the programming-related constructs under study (confidence, interest, gender, usefulness and professional) after the introductory course. As regards the peer-based learning approach, younger students seemed to be more eager to be taught in a less formal way than their older counterparts. The course resulted in high degrees of satisfaction for both the student tutors and their tutees.

Mecanismos de proteção perante a vitimização por pares e a discriminação

A vitimização por pares e a discriminação, nomeadamente de minorias étnicas e sexuais, têm um efeito negativo no funcionamento psicossocial, mas diversos estudos começam a abordar a resiliência perante estas adversidades. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste estudo foi identificar mecanismos protetores da saúde mental e do desajustamento externo na presença destas formas de violência social. O estudo foi conduzido numa amostra de 2975 de estudantes do ensino secundário português, dos quais 245 identificaram-se como negros e 84 como gay, lésbicas ou bissexuais. Os mecanismos de proteção avaliados incluem baixos níveis de personalidade ansiosa, competências de empatia, as estratégias de coping usadas, o otimismo familiar e as relações com as figuras parentais. O resultado das regressões revela que a identificação racial e a orientação sexual moderam a influência das diferentes formas de violência e dos diferentes mecanismos de proteção, sugerindo suporte à abordagem socioecológica da resiliência.

Environment perception and leisure-time physical activity in Portuguese high school students.

This study aims to analyze the association between perceived environmental factors and leisure-time physical activity (PA) among adolescents of both genders. Data were collected in autumn of 2011 from 866 adolescents (412 girls and 454 boys) 12- to 18-years-old, from four Portuguese cities. Perception of environmental factors was assessed by Assessing Levels of Physical Activity and Fitness (ALPHA) questionnaire (Spittaels et al., 2010, IJBNPA). PA was assessed by a questionnaire that evaluated PA during leisure-time and participants were assigned into the following categories: sedentary; low active; moderate active; and very active. Boys presented higher levels of structured PA, frequency and intensity of PA, and level of sport competition than girls (p < 0.001). Distance to local facilities (p = 0.001 for girls; p < 0.001 for boys) and home environment (p = 0.004 for girls; p = 0.015 for boys) were negatively associated with PA. Total, cycling and walking infrastructures (p < 0.001), as well as cycling and walking network (p = 0.049) and connectivity (p = 0.034) showed a positive association with PA in boys. Analysis of variance showed significant differences between girls' PA regarding aesthetics (p = 0.013), study environment (p = 0.023), home environment (p = 0.014) and whether it is pleasant or not (p = 0.023). Differences between boys' PA were observed for distance to local facilities (p = 0.003), total, cycling and walking infrastructures (p < 0.001) and home environment (p = 0.002). This study results support that some environmental factors are associated with adolescents' PA levels, with relevant differences between genders. Therefore, these gender differences must be taken into account, in order to increase levels of PA in Portuguese youth, especially in girls.

The long-term development of volleyball game play performance using Sport Education and the Step-Game-Approach model

The purpose of this study was to analyse 18 Portuguese high school students’ game play performance improvements across three hybrid Sport Education-Step-Game-Approach volleyball seasons. Students’ play performance at the entry and exit points of each season was evaluated using the Game Performance Assessment Instrument during 2 vs2 games. A series of hierarchical linear models was then constructed in order to quantify the impact of gender, skill and time on the students’ Game Performance Index scores over the three seasons. The best predictive model showed a nonlinear effect of time on student performance such that all participants’ levels improved from their first experience at the seventh-grade through to the end of the ninth-grade season. This study has shown the value of implementing multiple seasons of the same sport within Sport Education, as the implementation of three seasons seemed to produce a fading in the gaps between skill levels.

First exposure to Arduino through peer-coaching: Impact on students' attitudes towards programming

In this paper we report the work that jeKnowledge (Júnior Empresa da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias da Universidade de Coimbra), a student-led initiative, has done in the ‘jeKnowledge academy’ courses to actively engage Portuguese high-school students in STEM education through hands-on projects based on the low-cost Arduino platform. F2F activities, based on a peer-assisted learning strategy, were complemented with tutorials and more advanced project suggestions in a blog. Pre and post surveys on students' attitudes towards programming and peer-coaching were administered to pre-university and first year college participants, finding an overall increase in the Likert scale for all the programming-related constructs under study (confidence, interest, gender, usefulness and professional) after the introductory course. As regards the peer-based learning approach, younger students seemed to be more eager to be taught in a less formal way than their older counterparts. The course resulted in high degrees of satisfaction for both the student tutors and their tutees.

Validation of the Portuguese DSM-IV-MR-J.

Youth problem gambling is viewed as an emergent public health issue in many countries, and is also an emerging area of public concern in Portugal. However, there is currently no Portuguese instrument that focuses specifically on the measurement of problem gambling among young people. Consequently, the present study aimed to validate the DSM-IV-MR-J for use among Portuguese adolescents and to examine its’ psychometric properties. A cross-cultural adaption of this instrument to the Portuguese language was performed using the translation and back translation method. The final version of the instrument was administered to 753 Portuguese high school and first year college students. The findings revealed an acceptable internal reliability and replicated the one-factor structure of this scale. Based on these findings, the Portuguese DSM-IV-MR-J appears to be a valid and reliable instrument, and provides a much needed psychometric tool for the development of more research on youth gambling in Portugal.

Questions and Answers in Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays – a guide to explore the data set of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest extensive air shower detector, covering 3000 km2 in Argentina. The Observatory makes available, for educational and outreach purposes, 1% of its cosmic ray data set, corresponding after 10 years of running to more than 35 000 cosmic ray events. Several different proposals of educational activities have been developed within the collaboration and are available. We will focus on the activity guide we developed with the aim of exploring the rich education and outreach potential of cosmic rays with Portuguese high school students. In this guide we use the Auger public data set as a starting point to introduce open questions on the origin, nature and spectrum of high energy cosmic rays. To address them, the students learn about the air-shower cascade development, data reconstruction and its statistical analysis. The guide has been used both in the context of student summer internships at research labs and directly in schools, under the supervision of trained teachers and in close collaboration with Auger researchers. It is now available in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Factor structure and dimensionality of the balanced measure of psychological needs among Portuguese high school students. Relations to well-being and ill-being

Previous research on the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs Scale (BMPN) fitted a 5-factor structure distinguishing the three need factors of autonomy, competence and relatedness and the two method factors of need satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The current study explores the dimensionality and construct validity of the Portuguese version of the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs (Sheldon & Hilpert, 2012) in two samples of high school students. We compared the original 5-factor model to three alternative models to assess the ability of each model to represent the factorial organization of the data. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a good fit for solutions that separately modeled the satisfaction and frustration components of needs. The best-fitting solution of six factors, one per subscale, was supported in both high school samples, and was also shown by multigroup analysis to be invariant across gender. Regression analyses found that basic need satisfaction was related to subjective vitality and satisfaction with life (SWL) and need dissatisfaction predicted anxiety, depression and somatization. The substantive distinction between the satisfaction and frustration components of needs, and implications for educational settings, are discussed. Overall, the Portuguese BMPN appears to be reliable and valid to measure basic need satisfaction and need frustration for Portuguese high school students.

English

This study investigates Portuguese science teachers’ and Portuguese high school students’ views regarding nature of science, scientific models and Geoscience models and explores the relations between their views. It also examines how Portuguese science teachers value and use models in science classroom. A survey was applied to 145 science teachers and 415 students of the last year of secondary school, who answered to 14 multiple choice questions. Descriptive analyses showed that teachers and students hold intermediate views regarding nature of science and scientific models. Some errors were also detected concerning Geoscience models. T-test analyses showed significant differences between teachers and students’ views, as teachers gave globally more informed answers. Authors considered that more attention should be given to teachers training regarding those issues and that more research is needed in order to understand how teachers deal with nature of science teaching and how they value and use models in classes.

Cognitive–motivational antecedents of career decision-making processes in Portuguese high school students: A longitudinal study

In this study we propose an integrated framework of the antecedents of identity development and well/ill-being for high school students (N=462) in the transition to higher education/job market. One study was conducted to investigate the effects of basic psychological need-satisfaction/frustration (as proposed within self-determination theory) and career decision-making self-efficacy (posited by social cognitive career theory) on the identity dimensions and experienced well/ill-being. Three longitudinal nested models were tested: a need-satisfaction/self-efficacy main effects model, an identity main effects model and a reciprocal main-effects model. The reciprocal effects between the variables were favored by the data. Basic need-satisfaction and career decision making self-efficacy positively predicted proactive exploration and commitment-making, while basic need-frustration predicted both diminished well-being and ill-being. Reciprocally, proactive exploration investments positively predicted whereas ruminative exploration negatively predicted, need-satisfaction and career decision-making self-efficacy. Implications for the design of career interventions are discussed and suggestions for future research proposed.