Avaliando as crenças centrais na adolescência

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is a developmental stage of significant cognitive, emotional, and social changes that grounds mental health in adulthood. Negative core beliefs, outlined by Beck's cognitive theory, often emerge from early experiences and influence thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. There is an intrinsic relationship between adverse childhood experiences, such as child abuse, and the onset of these beliefs and psychopathological symptoms, subsequently affecting life satisfaction. Objectives: To validate the Negative Core Beliefs Inventory (NCBI) and investigate the correlation between child abuse, negative core beliefs, and life satisfaction in a sample of Brazilian adolescents. Material and Methods: A total of 146 adolescents aged 11 to 17 from a public school in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, participated in the study. Data collection included the application of the NCBI, the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS-47), the Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (QUESI). The psychometric analysis of the NCBI applied to adolescents involved Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), reliability tests with Cronbach's alpha, Item Response Theory (IRT), and network analysis to explore the relationship between core beliefs, anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Regarding the analysis of child abuse, negative core beliefs, and life satisfaction, statistical analyses that included demographic descriptions, bivariate correlations, and logistic regressions were performed. Results: The two-dimensional structure of the NCBI was confirmed with adequate fit indices in the CFA (robust CFI = 0.95, robust TLI = 0.94, robust RMSEA = 0.050). One item (nCB-S9) was identified as problematic, requiring refinement. The reliability of the NCBI was high, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.82 to 0.93. Network analysis showed that negative core beliefs were significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression and inversely associated with life satisfaction. Experiences of emotional abuse and emotional neglect had significant correlations with negative core beliefs and lower life satisfaction. Regarding child abuse, the data implied that mainly experiences of emotional abuse and emotional neglect had significant correlations with negative core beliefs and poor life satisfaction. Conclusion: The validation of the NCBI for adolescents contributes significantly to the field of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBT), improving diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic efficacy. The findings highlight the factorial structure of the NCBI and its good psychometric properties. The use of the NCBI in clinical and research contexts to assess and address core beliefs in adolescents may improve mental health outcomes. Early interventions focused on adjusting negative core beliefs may have a significant positive impact on the life satisfaction and mental health of adolescents. The findings highlight the relevance of preventive and multidisciplinary interventions to lessen the psychological impacts of child abuse, suggesting a correlation between such abuse and the onset of negative core beliefs, offering significant perspectives for understanding the long-term psychological impacts of these adverse experiences.