(2061) LIFE EVENTS, DEPRESSION AND GENDER: THEIR RELATION WITH SCHOOL ADAPTATION

摘要

The presence of depressive symptoms in adolescence may have adverse effects with an impact onseveral areas and teenage life contexts, affecting their school performance as well. In addition todepressive symptoms, school environment and negative reactions from teachers and peers, cancause problems in learning [1]. Research has demonstrated that female gender has a higher numberof negative life events and higher levels of depressive symptoms. Empirical evidence suggests thatgirls are more likely to depress when they are confronted with negative life events of interpersonalcontent ([2], [3]).The participants were 319 adolescents (217 girls and 102 boys) aged between 13 and 15 years old,attending the 8th and 9th grade in public schools, who participated in a Portuguese study aboutprevention of adolescent depression. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess negative lifeevents by DHMS - Daily Hassles Microsystem Scale [4] and depressive symptoms measured by CDI -The Childhood Depression Inventory [5].Results showed that the female gender had higher values on negative life events, particularly inproblems with peers and school hassles. Older adolescents had higher values on school hassles aswell. Besides, adolescents with separate parents had higher values in problems with peers.Additionally, it was found that adolescents with low socioeconomic status experienced more negativelife events compared with adolescents whose socio-economic level is high. Concerning academicperformance, higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with lower academicachievement and higher levels of experienced negative life events were, also, associated with loweracademic performance. Furthermore, these negative life events were predictors of depressivesymptoms and no moderating effect of gender on the relationship between negative life events anddepressive symptoms was found. Gender was significantly associated with depression, girls showinghigher levels of depressive symptoms.In conclusion, relations between negative life events, gender, age, marital status of parents andsocioeconomic status were found. Negative life events and gender were significantly related withdepressive symptomatology in adolescents. The results also revealed that negative life events werepredictors of depressive symptoms, however, no moderation effect of gender was found. Thesefindings highlight the impact of the negative life events on depression and the importance of variablesassociated with school adaptation.