Abstract: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in early childhood presents unique challenges, especially for parents who are mainly responsible for T1D treatment. Fear of Hypoglycemia (FH) is a major concern, asyoung children often cannot identify or communicate symptoms, increasing the risk of severe consequences. Reducing Emotional Distress for Childhood Hypoglycemia in Parents (REDCHiP) is the only validated psychological intervention specifically developed to target parental FH in early childhood. This protocol outlines plans to translate, adapt and implement REDCHiP in Portugal. A Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial (FRCT) will be conducted using a two-arm, open-label design and a mixed-method approach among parents of children up to 8 years old. Participants will be randomly allocated (1:1) to the intervention or treatment as usual (TAU) and assessed at baseline, postintervention, and three-month follow-up. Primary outcomes will focus on parental psychological adjustment, including FH and diabetes distress. Secondary outcomes will evaluate children’s Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c), via Glucose Management Indicator (GMI) and Blood Glucose Sample Test, and Time Below Range (TBR), Time In Range (TIR), and Time Above Range (TAR). Semi-structured interviews will explore participants’ experiences with this intervention. This study represents the first international adaptation and implementation of REDCHiP and the first evaluation of its feasibility and acceptability in a European context. Findings may inform the integration of culturally adapted psychological support and digital interventions into pediatric diabetes care.
This paper examines whether and how intergroup bias, typically studied in explicitly social contexts, extends to conditions of social isolation. Prior research has yielded mixed findings, varying both in how social contexts are operationalized and in how bias is assessed. Across two experiments, we compared intergroup bias under conditions of complete social isolation and co-action (social presence). Bias was measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Experiment 1) and the Weapon Identification Task (WIT; Experiment 2). Results from both experiments demonstrated that intergroup bias reliably emerges even when individuals are socially isolated. However, partially replicating earlier findings, the IAT revealed lower levels of bias when participants were alone, whereas in the WIT, social isolation improved response control without reducing the magnitude of bias. These findings suggest that the expression of intergroup bias depends jointly on social context and task characteristics, pointing to distinct underlying cognitive mechanisms. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding how social presence and task demands shape intergroup cognition.
Career development in adolescence requires sustained interventions that go beyond transitional or decision-making moments. Psychological consultation is a core practice in school psychology, but its application to career development remains underexplored, with few published protocols. This study presents Community Clubs, a school-based career consultation intervention designed for 10th-grade students. The protocol outlines the theoretical rationale, methodological design, implementation procedures, and planned efficacy evaluation through a quasi-experimental design with intervention and comparison groups. Expected outcomes include improvements in career adaptability, socioemotional skills, school engagement, study processes, and academic achievement. By providing a detailed and transparent description, this protocol advances research on career consultation, offers a replicable framework for efficacy studies, and supports practice by equipping school psychologists with structured guidelines.
Leadership is one of the most researched topics in social and behavioral sciences. However, the understanding of the factors involved in both the rise and efficacy of leadership remains controversial, as different researchers present fairly divergent conclusions. On the other hand, authors dedicated more interest to describing the attributes of the leaders that might help them gain recognition and approval from others than on analyzing how such attributes help organizations prosper. Thus, it is important to determine the factors that explain the efficacy of leadership. The current work proposes a research framework for the study of leadership efficacy that establishes a set of variables involved in explaining such efficacy, reinforcing the need to conceive efficacy as a result of the combination of two axes (target and area of leadership impact). The implications of leadership efficacy are alsodiscussed.
Affective touch plays a pivotal role in nonverbal communication between caregivers and young children, supporting the development of emotion regulation and socioemotional functioning. This exploratory study examines the initial development and validation of the Caregiver-Child Affective Touch Assessment (CCATA), an observational measure designed to classify the quality of caregiver touch during interactions with children aged 2 to 5 years. Thirty mother-child dyads were observed during two structured tasks, generating 1,066 coded instances of touch. Inter-rater reliability was very good, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.86 to 0.94. An exploratory principal component analysis suggested a three-component structure of maternal touch, reflecting regulatory/controlling, interactive/pragmatic, and affective/spontaneous dimensions. These dimensions reflect distinct caregiving strategies and communicative functions of touch. The CCATA also revealed significant associations with both maternal emotional availability and the use of disciplinary strategies. These findings support the CCATA as a reliable and theoretically grounded instrument for capturing the complexity of affective touch in early caregiving. Its application holds promise for both research and clinical interventions focused on caregiver-child relationships. Future studies should further examine the measure’s factorial structure, cross-cultural validity, and predictive value in developmental outcomes.
