Laura Carvalho received her PhD in Physical Activity and Health at Faculty of Human Kinetics and a Sport Psychologist. She holds a masters’ degree in Social and Organizational Psychology and a postgraduation in Sports and Exercise Psychology. Between 2014 and 2020 accumulated professional experience in the fields of human resources, sport psychology and community intervention, and is currently working as a Sport Psychologist in private practice. Regarding scientific research, has participated in European research projects, in both health and sport psychology, and public health-based interventions. Her research interests are related to motivational and self-regulation processes underlying behavior change and maintenance, and the impact of transformative experiences on adoption and regulation of health, prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors.

Marques, M. M, Encantado, J., & Silva, M. N. (2021). Teoria da Autodeterminação. In I. Leal, & J. L. Pais-Ribeiro (Eds.), Manual de psicologia da saúde (1st ed., pp. 85–89). Pactor.

Godinho, C., Ribeiro, S. S., Encantado, J., & Marques, M. M (2021). Intervenções Digitais de Mudança Comportamental em Saúde. In I. Leal, & J. L. Pais-Ribeiro (Eds.), Manual de Psicologia da Saúde (1st ed., pp. 467–476). Pactor.

Catarina Paixão, research assistant at the PANO-SR Research Group, successfully defended (18 val.) her master thesis at the National School of Public Health, NOVA University of Lisbon. Her research work consisted in a systematic review about the weight control registries, more specifically by identifying the characteristics of weight control registries, key sociodemographic, cognitive and behavioural characteristics of successful weight loss maintainers, as well as correlates of weight loss maintenance, providing evidence-based clues for future public health and obesity prevention and treatment initiatives. Congratulations, Catarina!

Marlene N Silva, Catarina Silva and Pedro Teixeira from PANO-SR team authored a scientific article on the development and implementation of three digital tools to facilitate PA promotion in primary health care (PHC): 1) a PA brief assessment tool incorporated in the electronic health record platform “SClínico Cuidados de Saúde Primários“; 2) a brief counselling tool developed in the software “PEM—Prescrição Eletrónica Médica” (electronic medical prescription); and 3) a “Physical Activity Card” incorporated in an official NHS smartphone app called “MySNS Carteira”. These tools, developed according to best-practices and state of the art behavioural science, represent key actions to promote PA among Portuguese citizens using PHC as a priority setting.

The article "Classification of Techniques Used in Self-Determination Theory-Based Interventions in Health Contexts: An Expert Consensus Study" has been published in APA's Motivation Science. Involving a large number of experts in self-determination theory (SDT), it presents the first consensus-based set of motivation and behavior change techniques based on SDT. It focuses on health contexts and behaviors, such as physical activity and eating.

Marta Marques, PANO researcher, collaborated in the development of the compendium of self-enactable techniques to change and self-manage motivation and behaviour. The paper was co-authored with Kegan Knittle, Martin Hagger and Nelli Hankonen among others. The authors did scoping reviews of literature and used taxonomies to bring together 123 techniques, each of which is labelled, defined and presented with instructive examples to facilitate self-enactment. The preprint manuscript version can be found in the attachment link. Enjoy the "behind the paper" article HERE.

Pedro Teixeira and Eliana Carraça published the chapter entitled "Internal and external predictors of engaging in and adhering to physical activity" co-authored with Joreintje D. Mackenbach, in the American Psychology Association's Handbook of Sport and Exercise Psychology. The authors' manuscript version can be found in the attachment link.