Objectives: This study aimed to confirm the tendency for parents to underestimate the severity of symptoms and the poor consistency between parents’ reports of symptoms and the physicians’ evaluation of asthma control. Additionally, the relationship between parents’ asthma knowledge and their report of symptoms and estimation of asthma severity was explored. Methods: Fifty children (M = 10.5 years) and their caregivers were recruited from two Portuguese hospitals. A measure of asthma symptoms report (Severity of Chronic Asthma, SCA) and a subjective evaluation of asthma severity were collected and compared with physicians’ ratings of asthma control, as well as parents’ knowledge about asthma (Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire, AKQ) and emotional disturbance (Brief Symptom Inventory, BSI). Results: Although parents’ evaluation of perceived asthma severity was moderately correlated to symptoms reported, results confirm an inconsistency between parents’ reports of symptoms, their subjective rating of asthma severity and the physician’s rating of clinical control, revealing a tendency for parents to underestimate disease severity and to underreport asthma symptoms. Asthma knowledge was not significantly correlated to SCA or to parents’ subjective evaluation of asthma severity. Parents with poorer knowledge reported fewer symptoms. Conclusions: Portuguese parents revealed a tendency to overestimate their child’s level of asthma control and a low level of asthma knowledge. Parents’ education, psychological disturbance and time since diagnosis were associated with asthma knowledge. Parents’ knowledge was not related to the child’s asthma outcomes or to their subjective evaluation of asthma severity or symptoms reports. Parents’ asthma knowledge deficits, underreporting of symptoms and underestimation of asthma severity, may affect parent–provider communication and impede asthma control.

Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within universities is an urgent necessity. Understanding and measuring the environmental behaviors of university students is an essential initial step in this process. This study had two primary objectives: to translate and adapt the General Ecological Behavior (GEB) Scale for European Portuguese and to provide an exploratory analysis of environmental connection, awareness, and behaviors within a Portuguese university student sample. A convenience sample of 112 university students, aged 18–65, was surveyed using a paper-based, self-report questionnaire. This instrument included sections on sociodemographics, environmental concerns, preferences, and self-report measures (GEB, GAD-7, and PHQ-9). We present the translation and adaptation procedure for the GEB, alongside preliminary findings that suggest acceptable reliability, factorial validity, and discriminant validity. Moreover, exploratory data on environmental connection, awareness, and behaviors are discussed. This study provides a foundational measure for future research into pro-environmental behaviors in the Portuguese context and contributes preliminary insights into the environmental attitudes and behaviors of Portuguese university students. We urge future research to focus on the SDGs, examining factors, measures, and strategies to enhance pro-environmental behaviors.

This study aimed to describe the quality of life of a group of Portuguese children with asthma, to explore the association between health-related quality of life (HRQL), asthma severity, child’s characteristics and parental psychopathology. Additionally, the concordance between the children’s HRQL self-report and the parents’ HRQL proxy was assessed. Fifty children with asthma (7–13 years) and their primary caregiver participated in the study by filling out the DISABKIDS-37 and other self-report questionnaires. Results for the DISABKIDS-37 supported a good internal consistency and associations between the facets and the global score, in the two versions of the questionnaire. Children and their caregivers scored the child’s HRQL positively. Parents of children with an asthma diagnosis for a longer period reported better HRQL. The distribution of the HRQL scores in the child’s version showed differences across categories of subjective severity rated by children and across categories of asthma control assessed by the physician. The group with uncontrolled asthma obtained lower HRQL scores than the other groups. There was a lack of convergence between self-report and parent’s report of HRQL, with the exception of the physical limitation facet. Asthma severity assessed by the child and parental psychopathology explained 28% of the variance in the children’s self-rated HRQL. Findings reinforce that children and caregivers’ reports are complementary to each other and support the recommendation to use both information sources.

Virtual Environments (VE) are used more and more for the treatment of phobias. The therapy using VE is starting to be a way of treatment of several types of phobias for people with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). People with OCD experience intrusive, unwanted thoughts that cause an increased amount of anxiety and intentional repetitive behaviors that decrease anxiety. The advantage of using a VE to experience and challenge compulsions is that it allows the user to imagine taking the risk without taking a risk. This is also true for the games, where players can face challenges without consequences in real life. This paper presents a virtual reality serious game for OCD therapy. The main purpose of this game is to serve as a tool to expose the patients to stimuli that can trigger OCD symptoms, for example, cleaning, checking and tidying. The game is more oriented for adolescents and younger adults with OCD because this public is more related to new technologies. In addition, OCD affects younger subjects, accompanying them throughout adulthood, generating a very accentuated degree of disability in their routines. A preliminary evaluation of the game was realised with a group of specialists and the results were positive. An evaluation with patients was not yet possible due to Covid-19 restrictions.

This study examines the reliability and validity of the Family Asthma Management System Scale (FAMSS), with a sample of 31 Portuguese children with asthma (aged 7–13 years) and their parents and its associations with asthma morbidity, asthma knowledge (AKQ) and psychopathological symptoms (BSI) in parents. The FAMSS demonstrated good internal consistency (α = 0.86) and convergent validity, with significant associations with AKQ. No associations were found with levels of asthma control or symptoms severity, but correlations with number of parents’ reported exacerbations and with BSI were found. The FAMSS proved to be an adequate instrument to assess families’ asthma management.