The overall aim of this project is to promote the mental health and well-beingof students at Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, based on the Stepped Care model, developed in the program for the promotion of mental health in higher education - ACCES Program. Focusing on a promotion and prevention approach, and adopting a logic of collective participation, the following specific objectives are identified: 1. Development of mental health promotion, prevention and adjustment activities (level 1 and 2), with a view to improving skills related to mental health literacy, mental resilience and stress management; 2. Strengthening psychotherapeutic and psychiatric responses for students with common mental disorders of mild to moderate severity (level 3), with a view to early intervention and avoiding more serious pathologies; 3. Strengthening the mechanisms for identifying situations of risk or serious mental illness and referring them to specialized health services (level 4 and 5); 4. Promoting the active participation of the student association in the development, implementation and evaluation of activities;5. Inclusion of students with specific educational needs and other vulnerable groups (1st year students, displaced students, national and international students, students benefiting from school social action, scholarship students from PALOP countries, women students, and LGBTQIA+ students), across the board in the activities developed.

This project provides theoretically grounded evidence on who and why people would become a foster family. This will inform research and outreach strategies to ensure the children’s right to a family.

AdoPt - Adoptive families’ strengths, difficulties and service needs: A Portuguese follow-up study is a project that aims to analyze the reality of Portuguese families after adopting children.

Several studies have shown evidences of psychological suffering among the younger generations and in particular in university students. The context of the pandemia COVID-19 has generated many more challenges, with increased impacts on this group. The resilient@uni project brings together a group of psychologists from different specialty fields (e.g., social, educational and clinical psychology) to explore the mental and physical health of this population, identifying potential risk and protective factors, at different levels, from intra-individual variables to social contexts. These results are aimed to inform appropriate intervention programs and policies to tackle this issue. This project was conducted in collaboration with students: Catarina Caseiro Guilherme Manica Joana Maciel Ricardo Marques Joana de Moraes

Children have the right to participate in all matters affecting them, freely expressing their opinion and having it respected and considered. Young children’s participation is key to developing a culture of human rights, democracy, and rule of law. Therefore, young people’s active participation and decision-making in society must be protected and encouraged from an early age. Even though children’s right to participate is key to education quality, its implementation in early childhood education (ECE) remains a challenge. To support high-quality ECE through the implementation of children’s right to participate, we propose a multilevel professional development approach.

 The Residential Care (RC) system is under pressure to address increasingly demanding needs of youths in care. Wide variation in the success of child welfare systems has led to the search for system-level explanations of differential outcomes for youth.        The CIRC project aims to investigate the association between social variables (such as organizational climate, the social images held by the staff and the relationships between educators and youths) and youth outcomes (such as self-representations, behavior, and academic achievement) through a correlational study. The project will evaluate the needs, dilemmas, practices and possible solutions through a qualitative study. Based on an experimental study, it will implement and evaluate an intervention program centered on the organizational climate with staff, the social images, and the quality of the relationships between educators and youths.        The project helps understanding the processes underlying the construction of self-representations, behavior, and academic achievement of youth in RC. This also offers significant implications for practice since it allows for empirically testing process models that provide inputs for designing a needs-led and theory-based program.