Depressive Symptomatology and Personal Growth Initiative

• Autor(a) principal: Matos, Vera Lúcia Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/11741
• topic: Ces-D; Eicp-II; Espanha; Estudantes Universitários; Iniciativa de Crescimento Pessoal; Portugal; Sintomas Depressivos; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Psicologia

This research is part of project “VIOLENCE 360º - Clinical, familiar, social and community approaches to interpersonal violence in different populations”, aiming to analyze and compare levels of depressive symptomatology and personal growth initiative in young college students from Portugal and Spain. Transition from school to university constitutes, for most young people, the obtainment of independence, however it can also be seen as a critical phase of adaptation to new demands imposed by the university environment. Thus, adjustment to university experience constitutes a time period that is conductive both to negative events and harmful consequences on students’ mental health, as well as to positive events and opportunities for growth and development of skills that are transversal to all of the life cycle. The sample is composed of 485 participants, about half of which are portuguese students, from University of Beira Interior (50.5%) and 49.5% are spanish students, from University of Salamanca. The sample has 71.5% female participants and 28.5% male participants, adding that most participants are 18 and 19 years old. The scales used were Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS-II), along with a sociodemographic questionnaire. There are no statistically significant differences between nationalities concerning depressive symptoms and personal growth initiative. Age has an isolated effect on depressive symptoms. Age and gender present interaction effects on both variables. A negative correlation between depressive symptoms and personal growth initiative was found.