Avaliação das habilidades sociais e variáveis sociodemográficas de adolescentes com e sem indicadores de depressão

Abstract

Researches indicate that adolescents who have diagnostic or indicators of depression present many difficulties to start and maintain social relationships. Frequently, they are rejected by the society, which products a clinically relevant ill-being. The literature points associations between depression among adolescents and low repertory of social skills and, on the other hand, adolescents without depression indicators would present higher frequency of social skills. Therefore, the presence of social skills in the adolescents repertory would constitute a protection factor, and the low frequency, risk to the development of depressive symptoms. However, although this hypothesis is plausible at the theoretical point of view, empirical studies that investigate the theme depression in adolescence and social skills are few, especially in the Brazilian context. Studies found in the literature also didn t insert socio-demographic variable like age, gender, socio-economic status at the researches about social skills and depression in adolescence, which are also considered variables associated with depressive symptoms and social skills. In this sense, the general objective of the present research was to characterize, compare and predict the social skills repertory of adolescents with and without depression indicators, considering socio-demographic variables. This thesis is composed by four studies where one of them is theoretical and the other three are empirical. The first study, of theoretical nature, reviewed the last 20 years of scientific literature on the theme of social skills and depression in adolescence. The second characterized and compared the social skills repertory of 103 adolescents with and 103 without depression indicators, considering differences in gender. The third one suggested a model of multiple logistic regression, where the social skills of 642 adolescents (103 with depression indicators and 539 without it) were investigated as protection/risk factors and the predictive power in indicating depression in adolescents. The fourth study compared two samples: a general one (composed by 103 adolescents with depression indicators and 539 without it) and another one, nonclinical (composed by just 539 adolescents without depression indicators), aiming to check the impact of this control on the social skills scores and the influence of gender and social-economic status on the results. The participants of all empirical studies were 13 years old in average. The instruments used in these empirical studies were the Inventory of Social Skills for Adolescents IHSA Del Prette, Inventory of Infant Depression and Brazil Criteria. Data were collected at municipal schools, of a city in the interior of São Paulo state. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used. In the first study were found 28 articles, the biggest part of them were empirical , done outside the country, with pre-experimental design, emphasis on the use of instruments of self-report, aiming to predict variables and categories of social skills investigated were: assertiveness, communication and approach. In the second study, there was difference significantly statistical in the general score, on the classes of self-control, civility, and assertiveness in the female sample; in the case of male sample, there was difference significantly statistical just for the categories of social resourcefulness. In the third study, the skills more frequent of empathy and self-control as well as 12 years old were shown as risk factors. The model presented low predictive power. In the fourth study, the results pointed debasement of the overall score and the social skills of empathy and self-control, just for the female sample. The implications limitations and reach of these data are discussed.