Engajamento escolar e depressão: um estudo correlacional com crianças e adolescentes

• Ano de defesa: 2009
• Autor(a) principal: Gouveia, Rildésia Silva Veloso
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Brasil; Psicologia Social; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia Social; UFPB
• Palavras-chave em Português: Engajamento; Depressão; Escola; Crianças; Adolescentes; Engagement; Depression; School; Children; Adolescents; Escuela; Depresión; Niños; CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/tede/9916

Although depression is more commonly found during adulthood, it is also observed in children and adolescents, deserving attention especially since the 1970s. This humour disorder jeopardizes several human abilities, such as thinking and task performance, mainly due to the apathy and discouragement inherent to this symptomatic pattern. Regarding the specific case of these youngsters, an area that can he clearly jeopardized is the school, due to children and adolescents' isolation and lack of engagement on school tasks. Although these aspects are emphasized in the literature, there is a lack of studies that aim at testing the association between school engagement and depression, especially considering different age groups. It is also necessary to highlight that no measure of school engagement was found in the Brazilian milieu, nor it was observed any studies on the prevalence of depression among children and adolescents in cities such as Aracaju and Maceid. Based on this context, it was decided to develop the present dissertation, with the following main objectives: (1) adapting the School Engagement Scale and investigating its psychometric parameters (factor validity and internal consistency), (2) testing the factor structure invariance of this measure with respect to participants' gender, (3) examining the prevalence of depression among children and adolescents in schools from these two capitals, (4) identifying the correlates of depression and school engagement, analysing to what extent these constructs are correlated among themselves, and (5) investigating if this presumably correlation varies according to participants' age. Participants were 1,883 school children and adolescents, divided in two cities: Aracaju (n = 981) and Maceio (n = 902). They presented a mean age of 14.2 years (sd = 1.98; ranging from 10 to 18 years), most of them females (52.2%) and enrolled in private schools (57.6%). They answered a questionnaire booklet with a set of instruments: School Engagement Scale (SES), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and a Demographic Questionnaire. Results confirmed the factor structure of the SES, divided in three dimensions (absorption, dedication, and vigor) and this structure was invariant in relation to participants' gender. It was observed a prevalence of depression of 6.4% in Aracaju and 4.4% in Maceio. In these two cities, it was also observed that depression was not associated with participants' age and gender, whereas it was negatively associated with social integration indicators. On the other hand, school engagement was not correlated to age, but it was higher between women. Independent of city, the engagement was directly correlated to social integration and school belonging. Depression and school engagement was negatively correlated with each other, although the magnitude of this association varied according to participants' age. Finally, a model was developed with the following hierarchy: depression —+ social-school withdrawal —> school engagement, which was found to be adequate in both cities. Results were discussed based on the literature, indicating the convergence of these findings. Potential limitations of this study were discussed, as well as its applicability and future studies that appeal to researchers dedicated to the topic.