EVALUATION OF THE INCIDENCE OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN FROM THE FIRST TO FOURTH GRADE, THROUGH CHILDREN’S DEPRESSION INVENTORY (CDI)

Abstract

The present study objectified to evaluate the incidence of depressive symptoms in children from the first to fourth grade, establishing a comparative with socio-demographic questions in children that composed the sample. Children depression no more is refused nowadays, studies emphasize that until 2,5% of the children and 8,5% oh the adolescents have been attached by depression. In this research, participated 80 child studies with 8,13 year old approximately: 40 of then were from public school, both situated in São Paulo City. The instrument utilized was Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), which detects general aspects of depressive symptoms. The results revealed that 15% from public school presents depressive symptoms, among then, 62% are boys and 38% are girls. The principal depressive symptoms observed in public school were about fatigue, loneliness, sadness, perturbation of sleep, pessimism, decline self-esteem, blame and preoccupation. At the private school, the principal detected symptoms were: decline self-esteem, disobedience, rebelliousness, pessimism, anhedonia, blame, crying, preoccupation and loneliness. Educational factors, related directly to socio-cultural elements, interfered in the results of search and in the literal application of CDI, showed a necessity of refinement of the instrument in its proceedings application, to depressive symptomatology evaluation can be more exact. Consequently, studies more extensive will be necessary that contribute to these questions.