Citation

Paula CS, Vedovato MS, Bordin IAS, Barros MG, D'Antino ME, Mercadante MT. Rev. Saude Publica 2008; 42(3): 524-528.

Vernacular Title

Saude mental e violencia entre estudantes da sexta serie de um municipio

Affiliation

Programa de Pos-graduacao em Disturbios do Desenvolvimento, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Faculdade de Higiene e Saude Publica)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18461252

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze risk and protective factors for mental health problems among adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a random sample (N=327; attrition rate=6.9%) of sixth grade students from all public and private schools in the city of Barretos, Southeastern Brazil, conducted in 2004. The factors studied were: exposure to intrafamilial and urban violence, family socioeconomic level, sex, motherless household, participation in social activities (protective factor). All the independent risk and protective factors were included in the initial logistic regression model. Only the variable with a significance level of p<0.05 remained in the model. RESULTS: It was observed that exposure to violence was the only factor associated with mental health problems in the final logistic regression model (p=0.02, 95% CI: 1.12;4.22). In addition, adolescents exposed to intrafamilial violence were three times more likely to have problems than those exposed tourban violence (p= 0.04; 95% CI: 1.03;7.55). CONCLUSIONS: Intrafamilial violence was associated with mental heath problems among adolescents studied and it could be more important than urban violence in medium-sized cities.

Language: pt