Conductas de riesgo, síntomas depresivos, auto y heteroagresión en una muestra de adolescentes escolarizados en la Región Metropolitana de Santiago de Chile, 2007

Abstract

The aim of this study is to corroborate a reference framework that relates parental styles with drugs consumption, depression, self and other aggressive behaviors. We found that parents' acceptance correlates positively with adolescents' initiative and negatively with depressive and suicidal symptoms; psychological control with depression and behavioral control with antisocial behavior. Material and Methods: The CNAP+ (Cross National Adolescent Program) questionnaire (version CNAP Plus) was adapted in interaction with its author; and then was applied to a representative, random, three-stages sample of the Metropolitan Region (n = 1.447). Results: The worse the relation with parents, the higher the consumption, depression, suicidal ideation and hetero aggressive behaviors. Spearman's correlation coefficients were found in the same direction of a previous transcultural CNAP study. Frequent consumption of alcohol was found in 26.9%, of tobacco in 31.2%, of marihuana in 6.9% and of cocaine or other drugs in 2.3% of the sample studied. The same sample has suicide ideation 7.76% and depressive symptoms 6.9%. Self aggression prevailed among women and hetero aggression among men. With age there was an increase in alcohol consumption (÷2 = 107.95, p = 0.0001), of tobacco (÷2 = 63.02, p = 0.0001), of marihuana (÷2 = 18.78, p = 0.001) and of cocaine (÷2 = 8.995, p = 0.06). There is differential by age in violent behaviors, suicide ideation or depressivesymptoms. Conclusion: The results obtained by Barber et al in the multicultural application of his model in 16 countries is confirmed in this study run in Santiago de Chile. This is relevant to consider when designing public policies and preventive interventions. This survey confirms previous studies regarding sex, age and parental styles; there is higher consumption of chemical substances and hetero aggressive conducts among men, and of depressive feelings and suicide ideation among women. The studied behaviors increase with age, except for violence; they alsocorrelate with each other and decrease when there is a good relation with parents.