Abstract

MONTEIRO, Fabiana Ribeiro; COUTINHO, Maria da Penha de Lima  and  ARAUJO, Ludgleydson Fernandes de. Depressive symptomatology in high school adolescents: a study of the social representations. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2007, vol.27, n.2, pp. 224-235. ISSN 1414-9893.

Depression is one of the psychopathologies that have increased in the demands of collective health, occurring at any age independently of the socioeconomic and cultural situation. The present study had as objective apprehend the social representations of the depressive symptomatology in adolescents with and without symptomatology inside the public and private high schools of João Pessoa - PB. The instruments used were the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Tecnique of Association Free from Words (TAFW) both with 210 students, male and female, who were between 14 to 18 years. The data apprehended through the TAFW were processed in the software Tri-Deux-Mots through the Factorial Analysis of Correspondence(AFC). The data indicated that the social representations of depression elaborated by the adolescents without symptomatology indicated death and pain, while the students with depressive symptomatology referred to loneliness and drugs. These results suggest that depression can interfere negatively in daily interpersonal relations and in the adolescents' quality of life.

Keywords : Social representations; Depression; Adolescents.

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