Graduação e saúde mental: reflexões sobre os sentimentos e a aprendizagem dos estudantes de Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal do Ceará

Abstract

Admission to higher education is marked by changes in lifestyle, which may be difficult for some individuals to cope with, since the university is an environment of learning and personal and professional development but can present itself as an environment conducive to the emergence of depressive symptoms that affect student learning. This work aims to reflect on the feelings and learning of Biological Sciences students of the Universidade Federal do Ceará. The study was previously approved by the Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa and is characterized as an exploratory, applied and transverse field research of a qualitative and quantitative nature. Data collection was done with a three-part questionnaire: interviewee profile, Beck Depression Index (BDI) and interviewees' feelings (IE), applied by the research author in the semester of 2018.2 with UFC Biological Sciences students in regular enrollment situation. The sample interviewed was of 179 students (39.86% of the population), 51.96% female and 48.04% male, the majority of whom did not perform any activity beyond college (74.03%) and those who performed (23.76%) divided into: physical activity, course, church, paid work or voluntary work. Regarding the number of extracurricular activities, 45.81% did none and 54.2% did one or more. At the time of the study, the IDB analysis showed that 23.46% of the interviewees did not present depressive feelings and 76.54% presented some symptoms, among which the main feelings were: selfaccusations, feelings of guilt, fatigue, sleep disturbance, lack of satisfaction, inhibition to work, irritability, indecision, social retraction, somatic concern, self-depreciation, pessimism and sadness. The analysis of the QSE allowed us to observe a more negative emotional load present in veteran students about feelings about the course, relationships with students and teachers, feelings about the subjects, willingness to give up the course, anxiety and opinion about the undergraduate contribution to mental illness. It has been observed that the situation of Biological Sciences students in relation to mental health is affected by the feelings and experiences that they accumulate throughout the course, resulting in impacts to their social, affective, cognitive and behavioral abilities.