Resumo:
INTRODUCTION: Between 10 and 20% of children and adolescents have mental
disorders, resulting in impaired socio-occupational functioning and integral health.
Presence of abuse increases the risks of developing symptoms of anxiety and
depression. OBJECTIVE: The first objective of this thesis was to analyze the
effectiveness of trial-based cognitive training in group (TBCT-G) applied universally in
reducing anxiety and depression symptoms in school adolescents. The second
objective was to investigate the association between abuse and the occurrence of
anxious and depressive symptoms. METHODS: At a military school located in
Salvador, Bahia, 684 adolescents, divided in 28 classes, were evaluated for the
presence of maltreatment, anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, quality of life and
risk behaviors. These classes were then randomized to either the TBCT-G group or
the control group (without intervention). The active group lasted 18 weeks, in which
adolescents were trained to develop cognitive and behavioral skills to reduce
psychological symptoms. Twelve months after the end of the intervention, follow-up
evaluation was performed. Primary measures were the revised Anxiety and
Depression Scale for Children (RCADS) and the Child Trauma Inventory (QUESI).
Secondary measures were the multidimensional student life satisfaction scale
(MSLSS), socio-demographic inventories and questions about the practice or suffering
of bullying, use of alcohol, cannabis and other drugs, and self-harm behaviors.
RESULTS: After the intervention period, there was no statistically different reduction
between groups in baseline RCADS data. The results also did not indicate
improvement in MSLSS scores in any of the domains. In line with previous studies,
data have shown that universal interventions have limitations for reducing internalizing
symptoms in school adolescents. The thesis also identified that most of the
maltreatment suffered is emotional abuse, physical abuse and emotional neglect.
Having suffered such maltreatment was both associated with the presence of higher
levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and increased probability of these
symptoms occurring. CONCLUSION: The study showed that TBCT-G training was not
effective in reducing anxiety and depression symptoms, probably because of its
universal application and probably because of the time limitation in the training
application. Also, childhood maltreatment is frequent and produces anxious and
depressive symptoms, increasing the risk of developing mental disorders.
