Urban allotment gardens (AG) in Portugal have increased in recent years, as in many other European countries and worldwide. The contribution of these gardens to the happiness and well-being of urban populations has been recognized, but evaluations of their benefits are still very scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate this contribution, based on the urban organic AG of the Devesa Park in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The sample included 65 gardeners who completed the self-administered questionnaires of Bem-Estar Pessoal (personal well-being scale), Felicidade Subjetiva (subjective happiness scale) and sociodemographic characteristics. Respondents were mainly adults under 65 years, married and academically well qualified and about half of them had a professional activity, with nearly one third being retired. They considered themselves happy with their life (Personal Wellbeing Index = 74.5%) and revealed an optimistic and positive attitude towards life, regardless of economic or social difficulties. The increased frequency of visits for gardening was positively related to a greater perception of subjective happiness. The gardeners who visited the AG more frequently considered themselves happier from a self-perspective and in comparison with peers. It can be suggested that urban organic AG represent a means for enhancing citizen well-being, contributing positively to their feelings of happiness and life satisfaction, changing behaviours and developing personal capacities. Beyond economic measures, urban AG can be recommended to capture the well-being of societies.

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Background The understanding of how individuals manage their emotional experiences has flourished dramatically over the last decades, including assessing of emotion (dys)regulation. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is a well-validated and extensively used self-report instrument for emotion regulation problems. Despite the wide use of DERS in both clinical and research settings, its length potentially increases fatigue and frustration in respondents and limits its inclusion in brief research protocols. Consequently, a short-form version of the DERS (DERS-SF) was developed, which requires cross-cultural adaptations and the study of its reliability and validity. Objectives In order to address this issue, this study aimed to analyze the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of DERS-SF and examine the DERS-SF factor structure invariance between men and women. Methods The sample comprised 646 participants aged between 18 and 66 years (M = 29.93, SD = 11.71). Results The correlated six-factor structure of the original version has an acceptable fit, good reliability, and convergent validity. Our results also suggested the invariance of the factor structure of the DERS-SF across genders. Conclusion The DERS-SF has good psychometric properties, and it may be useful for future research and clinical work to use this six-factor brief version and improve emotion regulation assessment.

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