Lénia Carvalhais

Carvalhais, Lénia

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Carvalhais

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Lénia

Name

Lénia Carvalhais

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I'm interested in research on literacy (reading and writing disabilities and intervention programs), on schools field (student/teacher relationship; teacher training) and specific work carried out/training by personnel in organizations such as Residential Care or Occupational Centres for Disability. I have extensive experience in applying and developing tests and intervention programs, including Randomized Controlled Trials. I also explore the role of different cognitive variables on children’s language development considering different background factors. My research has important implications for theoretical questions and interventions. It can lead to new assessment tools and intervention materials that could help to tackle some of the difficulties faced by children and youth in actual days.

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CINTESIS.UPT - Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde

Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde (CINTESIS.UPT), former I2P, is an R&D unit devoted to the study of cognition and behaviour in context. With an interdisciplinary focus, namely on Education, Translational and Applied Psychology

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 21

Open Access
Development and preliminary psychometric study of the student version of the Teacher-Student Relationship Scale
2020-08 - Maia, Rafaela; Carvalhais, Lénia; Vagos, Paula
This study developed a version for students of the Teacher-Student Relationship Scale and evaluated its psychometric characteristics. In line with its teacher version, this student version intends to evaluate conflict and closeness as dimensions characterizing teacher-student interactions. Qualitative evaluation (i.e. via thinking aloud) of the instrument with a group of eight 7th grade students showed that the instrument had good facial validity. The instrument was then applied to 297 students, boys and girls, attending the 7th trough 9th grade. The two-factor internal structure of the instrument was confirmed, and both factors had good internal consistency values; furthermore, this measurement model proved invariant by sex. This instrument will allow (re)addressing the student's perspective on his / her relationship with the teacher and may allow further work into how this perception can impact on several aspects of the intra and interpersonal functioning of both student and teacher.
Open Access
Projetos de literacia ambiental em Portugal [poster]
2024-05-20 - Mota, Daniela; Leitão, Leonor; Araújo, Joana; Carvalhais, Lénia
Sem resumo disponível.
Open Access
Effects of the Portuguese Graphogame on reading, spelling, and phonological awareness in second graders struggling to read
2020 - Limpo, Teresa; Richardson, Ulla; Castro, São Luís; Carvalhais, Lénia
The interest in computer-assisted interventions to promote literacy has increased over the years. In this study, we developed the Portuguese version of the GraphoGame Fluent and tested its effects on reading, spelling, and phonological awareness. Second graders struggling to read were randomly assigned to two groups: GraphoGame Fluent group (n = 15), which received a computer-assisted remedial reading intervention, or GraphoGame Math group (n = 15), which received a computer-assisted numeracy intervention. An additional, non-playing group, composed by second graders without reading difficulties, was formed (business-as-usual group, n = 15). Results showed clear benefits of GraphoGame on spelling and phonological awareness. After the intervention and one month later, the GraphoGame Fluent group displayed spelling and phonological awareness skills similar to the business-as-usual group, and above the GraphoGame Math group. Overall, these findings indicate that Portuguese struggling readers benefit from computer-assisted interventions that combine letter-sound correspondences with more complex orthographic patterns.
Open Access
Development and preliminary psychometric study of the Teaching Styles Questionnaire
2020-08 - Carlos, Carolina; Carvalhais, Lénia; Vagos, Paula
The aim of this study was to develop and preliminary evaluate a teacher’s version of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. The Teaching Styles Questionnaire intends to explore the three parental styles as they may be applied to the teacher-student relationship (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian and permissive); items were reworded accordingly. Participants were 128 teachers (93.8% female), 73 of which answered the instrument twice, with a 3-month gap, to ascertain for test-retest reliability, whereas the remaining 51 in addition filled in the Student-Teacher Relationship Questionnaire for validity evidence. Preliminary psychometric analyses confirm that the instrument addresses three teaching styles, which presented with reasonable reliability and validity indicators. The way teachers relate with their students has a significant impact not only on their students’ academic success, but also on their intraclass behavior. The instrument under analyses may prove to be an important tool to better understand this impact, and how it relates to better holistic school outcomes.
Open Access
The impact of adolescents’ attachment to peers and parents on aggressive and prosocial behavior: A short-term longitudinal study
2020-12 - Carvalhais, Lénia; Vagos, Paula
This short-longitudinal study analyzed the cross-sectional and longitudinal pathways linking adolescent’s quality of attachment to parents and peers and their practice of aggressive and prosocial behavior; it also explored the moderation effect of gender on those pathways. A total of 375 secondary school students (203 girls and 172 boys), aged between 15 and 19 years old, completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and the Peer Experience Questionnaire - Revised twice, within a four-month gap. Using a path analyses approach, results showed that aggression and prosocial behavior were the strongest predictors of themselves overtime. Attachment to mother had a cross-sectional effect on aggression and on prosocial behavior via attachment to peers, and attachment to peers predicted prosocial behavior; overall, the higher the quality of attachment, the lowest the practice of aggression and the highest the practice of prosocial behavior. These effects held stable for boys and girls, though gender-based differences were found in mean levels of attachment to peers and social behaviors. Even if other variables may be in place when understanding adolescents’ social behaviors, attachment to mother and peers also seem to play a relevant role in trying to achieve safer and more positive school climates. Suggestions on how to accomplish this are shortly discussed.
Open Access
Literacia ambiental: Educar sobre o clima [poster]
2024-05-20 - Almeida, Ana; Silva, Denise; Borges, Maitê; Muxagato, Viviana; Carvalhais, Lénia
Sem resumo disponível.
Open Access
Portuguese spelling in primary grades: complexity, length and lexicality effects
2020-01 - Mesquita, Ana; Limpo, Teresa; Castro, São Luís; Carvalhais, Lénia
This study investigates spelling abilities of 189 second, third, and fourth graders using a word and pseudoword dictation task in European Portuguese. We analyzed the effect of orthographic complexity on spelling accuracy and the moderating role of length (two vs. three syllables), lexicality (words vs. pseudowords), and grade (second, third, and fourth). Each item represented one of the following orthographic complexity categories: digraph, contextual consistency, position consistency, consonant cluster, stress mark, inconsistency, and silent letter ‹h›. Digraphs and position consistencies reached high levels of accuracy already in Grade 2, but stress marks, inconsistencies, and the silent letter ‹h› were not yet fully mastered by the end of primary school. Performance across complexities was more discrepant in Grade 2 than in Grades 3 and 4. Moreover, within each complexity, there were larger differences between Grades 2 and 3 than between Grades 3 and 4. Words were better spelled than pseudowords in position consistency and stress mark categories, and a shorter length improved accuracy only in consonant clusters and stress marks. These findings underline the importance of applying learning and teaching strategies in early education adapted to the properties of the writing system to be learned.
Restricted Access
Social Educators’ initial and in-service training: Community projects as promoters of professional development
2024-07-16 - Carvalhais, Lénia; Borges, Germano
Promoting social justice, fighting against social inequalities, and minimizing the risks and dangers faced by society’s most vulnerable groups are the aims of socio-educational intervention actions promoted by Social Educators in community projects. Using a qualitative and interpretative case study research methodology, this study sought to understand, from the perspective of Social Educators (n = 13) who graduated from a university in the north of Portugal between 2018 and 2022, how and if the experience of working in a community project during initial and in-service training enriches and/or alters their work. The results showed that the participation of Social Educators in community projects deconstructs an excessively individualistic view of intervention, with Social Educators highlighting the social and educational conditions that shape the target audiences in an action that is required to be holistic and legitimized by the members of the communities in which they operate.
Open Access
Teaching styles and burnout: A short-term longitudinal study
2020-08 - Carlos, Carolina; Carvalhais, Lénia; Vagos, Paula
The aim of this short-term longitudinal study was to investigate the associations between teaching styles and burnout. The participants, 73 teachers, were asked to answer the Teaching Styles Questionnaire and the Cuestionario de Burnout del Professorado twice, with a three-months gap; both instruments were presented in their Portuguese version. Results point to the stability of teaching styles and lowered personal accomplishment, but not of emotional exhaustion. Also, we found negative associations between authoritative teaching and burnout and positive associations between permissive teaching and burnout. Only the lowered personal accomplishment facet of burnout was significantly predicted by authoritative and permissive teaching. The implications of this study suggest the importance of preventing burnout, namely by aiding teachers in developing more efficacious teaching styles (e.g., authoritative). The authoritative style is considered as ideal, having in mind its correlation with higher levels of work accomplishment and lower levels of emotional exhaustion.
Open Access
The roles of self-compassion and social support on the maternal adjustment to a child’s hip dysplasia
2024-11-21 - Veloso , Bruna; Palmeira, Lara; Carvalhais, Lénia; Marta-Simões, Joana; Trindade, Inês A.
Parenthood can be challenging when facing a child’s chronic illness such as developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Although social support is known as a protective factor for the caregiver’s mental health, the role of self-compassion is less explored. This study, conducted in Portugal, explored whether self-compassion and social support mediate the relationship between mothers’ psychological adjustment and perception of their child’s illness. Ninety-four mothers of children with DDH completed questionnaires on illness perception, self-compassion, perceived social support, and psychological distress. Results suggested that self-compassion and social support mediated the relationship between mothers’ overall negative perception of the children’s illness and psychological distress. The final model accounted for 50% of the variance of depressive symptoms, 40% of anxiety, and 63% of perceived stress. This study highlights the potential value of encouraging mothers to seek social support when facing their child’s DDH diagnosis. Promoting self-compassion may be important in clinical intervention.

Carvalhais, Lénia

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