The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a play program in the creative thinking of preschool children. The study used a repeated measures experimental pretest-posttest design with control groups. The sample included 86 participants aged 5 to 6 years (53 experimental and 33 control participants). Before and after administering the program, two evaluation instruments were applied: The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1990) and Behaviors and Traits of Creative Personality Scale (Garaigordobil & Berrueco, 2007). The program consisted of a weekly 75-minute play session throughout the school year. ANOVA results showed that the program significantly increased the verbal creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality), graphic creativity (elaboration, fluency, originality), and behaviors and traits of creative personality. In the pretest phase, there were no differences in the creativity of boys and girls, and the program stimulated a similar level of change in both sexes. The discussion focuses on the importance of implementing creative programs with preschool children.

The main objective of this study was to develop a brief versión of the Escala de Satisfação com o Suporte Social for children and adolescents (Ribeiro, 1999). A representative sample of 3195 children and adolescents was obtained from 5th and 7th graders throughout all five Portuguese regions. The results showed a good internal consistency for the social support satisfaction factor, α = 0.84; acceptable for the necessity for activities connected to social support factor, α = 0.69. By using ANOVA, gender, age and socioeconomic status related differences were identified. A confirmatory factorial analysis was done and an adjusted model was found by taking off item 5. The concurrent validity was inspected with measures related to social support, such as optimism, self-worth and perceptions of health related quality of life. With this analysis, we verified that women and younger participants (< 12 years) showed a higher social support satisfaction. Medium-high socioeconomic status participants showed a higher negative social support satisfaction. These results suggest the validity of the scale in assesing perceptions of social support.