RIBEIRO, K. C. S.; COUTINHO, M. da P. de L.; NASCIMENTO, E. da S.; Representação social da depressão em uma instituição de ensino da rede pública [The social representation of the depression in an educational public institution]. Psicologia Ciência e Profissão, Brasília (DF), v. 30, n. 3, p. 448-463, set. 2010.
Available on: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/pcp/v30n3/v30n3a02.pdf
This research aimed to apprehend the social representations of depression held by teenagers in a high school in João Pessoa, PB. The study included 276 adolescents, male and female, aged between 14 and 17 years. The instruments used in the research were the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure. The results indicated that depression is associated with four aspects: psychological and affective, with the subcategories depression as a synonym of sadness and loving disappointment; psychosocial, with the subcategory difficulty of social relationship; morbid ideas, with the subcategory idea of death and/or suicidal ideation. These associations are the result of the adolescent’s experiences, as the information and representations linked to his group of belonging, pointing to the need for preventive and educational practices in the institutions of education.