Experiências Adversas na Infância como preditoras de Sintomas Depressivos, Ansiosos e de Estresse em jovens adultos

Abstract

Introduction: Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) have been increasingly studied in their various forms due to their serious and long-lasting cumulative repercussions in the medium and long term in the lives of individuals. Despite the robust international production on this theme, in Brazil, the joint approach to these experiences is still scarce. Aiming to contribute to a greater deepening of the discussion in our environment, this Dissertation aims to: Evaluate Adverse Childhood Experiences as a predictor of depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms in Young adults. Method: It is a quantitative, exploratory, transversal and psychometric research, consisting of three studies. The first study, a systematic review, reviews the last five years of scientific literatura regarding articles on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms, published in magazines, journals, databases and virtual libraries. The second study consists of an article that deals with the psychometric properties of the Anxiety, Depression and Stress Scale (EADS-21), entiled “Anxiety, Depression and Stress: A study with Young adults in the northern of Ceará”. The third article that composes this dissertation refers to the correlation and difference analysis between the EADS-21 scale and the Adverse Childhood Experience – ACE questionnaire, whose name is “A study on the prediction and difference variables of Adverse Childhood Experience for anxiety, depressive and stress symptoms”. And, to conclude this study, the fourth article presented is entitled “The stability of the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire – ACE: Assessing the instrument’s level of agreement”. Results: In the first study “Adverse Childhood Experience as predictors of Mood Disorders and Other comorbidities in Young adults”, 13 articles were selected for review, which confirmed the existence of an increased probability of occurrence of depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms in individuals who had adverse experiences during childhood. The results of the second study indicated that the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (EADS-21) presented good psychometric evidence, with the Cronbach’s Alpha of this research being .94. The third study, indicated the existence of significant correlations between them and these, demonstrating a prediction percentagem of 32,5%. Finally, the fourth article evidenced the stability of such an instrument over time through the Kappa statistical test. Given the above, it is inferred that this dissertation constitutes a study so far underdeveloped for the northern region of the state of Ceará and its results pointed to a negative effect of diferente forms of adverse childhood expriences on depressive, anxiety and depression symptoms, stress in adulthood.