{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,26]],"date-time":"2026-02-26T15:16:22Z","timestamp":1772118982521,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,26]],"date-time":"2025-05-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1748217600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Healthcare"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: This study aimed to characterize adolescents\u2019 levels of hope, stigma, psychological vulnerability, and positive mental health in a school context. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a non-probabilistic sample of 189 adolescents from eighth\u2013ninth grade in 2021. During the citizenship discipline, adolescents filled out an online self-completion questionnaire for data collection, containing all measurement instruments: Hope Thermometer, Attribution Questionnaire, Psychological Vulnerability Scale, and Positive Mental Health Questionnaire. Results: The majority were men (55.1%) with a mean age of 14 years. Overall, adolescents have acceptable levels of hope (M = 8; SD = 2.58), a high level of stigma (M = 25.6; SD = 5.23), satisfactory positive mental health (M = 118.3; SD = 14.8), and moderate psychological vulnerability (M = 15.2; SD = 6.4). Conclusions: Findings support educational practices and policies that target personalized intervention to promote and improve hope and positive mental health in adolescents. These data are relevant to getting ahead and designing more positive mental health behavior programs to reinforce adolescents\u2019 modifiable healthy aspects and positive mindsets.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare13111257","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,27]],"date-time":"2025-05-27T03:34:46Z","timestamp":1748316886000},"page":"1257","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Levels of Hope, Stigma, Psychological Vulnerability, and Positive Mental Health: A Descriptive Study of Eighth- and Ninth-Grade Adolescents"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7412-2252","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Jos\u00e9 Carvalho","family":"Nogueira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health of the Polytechnic Institute of Santar\u00e9m at Santar\u00e9m, 2001-904 Santar\u00e9m, Portugal"},{"name":"Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), \u00c9vora University, 7004-516 \u00c9vora, Portugal"},{"name":"RISE-Health, Porto University, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6307-6630","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Delfina","family":"Teixeira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RISE-Health, Porto University, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Shcool of Health of Tr\u00e1s-os-Montes e Alto Douro University, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1186\/1753-2000-8-26","article-title":"Mental health literacy and mental health status in adolescents: A population-based survey","volume":"8","author":"Lam","year":"2014","journal-title":"Child Adolesc. 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