Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
association with self-concept in comparative schools, and also from parents and tutors.
samples of institutionalized (IC) and nonin- Trained psychologists administered the
stitutionalized children (NIC) in the state instruments to groups of 510 children who
of Guanajuato, Mexico. voluntarily agreed to participate, and who
were reassured that they were able to suspend
their participation without any explanations
METHODS given. A final report of the investigation was
provided for every institution. Talks regard-
Sample ing risk behavior assessment and addressing
were offered to parents and school staff.
An intentional, nonprobabilistic sam-
ple of 166 children from Guanajuato, Mex- Statistical Analysis
ico, fell into two groups (IC and NIC)
paired to age and sex, with 83 children per Frequencies were obtained for each
group. IC refer to children living in resi- indicator to further analyze variable associa-
dential foster institutions with a 24-hour tions. Variables with absolute scores, from
staff. NIC were sampled in three private both scales, were measured in intervals. To
primary schools. Both groups consisted of compare both groups, statistical chi-square
68.7% males and 31.3% females aged 612 and Students t tests were used; to deter-
(mean age = 9.33, SD = 1.78). Only chil- mine the importance of the GSCQ factors
dren without diagnoses of psychiatric on the overall score of depressive symp-
disorders or intellectual disabilities were tomatology, a linear regression analysis was
considered. Participation was voluntary and performed.
approved by parents or tutors, with the
proper institutional authorizations.
RESULTS
Instruments
Child Depression
The Child Depression Inventory
(CDI), adapted to the Spanish language Suicidal ideation was found in 36%
(Kovacs, 2004), is a self-report scale that of the sampled children: 28% positively
measures symptoms of depression in chil- responded to the item I think about killing
dren, grouped into the following subscales: myself, although I wouldnt do it and 8%
negative mood, ineffectiveness, negative self- who positively responded to I think about
esteem, pessimism, and social withdrawal. killing myself (Table 1).
The scale also provides the following indica- Symptoms of depression were found
tors for the depression factor: dysphoria, in 22.6% of the sample, including 12.7%
negative self-esteem, and suicidal ideation. with severe symptoms. Within the NIC
The General Self-Concept Question- group, 6% had symptoms of severe depres-
naire [GSCQ; Garca-Torres, 2001] consists sion and 4% had symptoms of minor
of 48 indicators grouped into six categories: depression. In comparison, the IC group
physical self-concept, social acceptance, fam- showed three times more symptoms of
ily self-concept, intellectual self-concept, severe depression (19%) and minor depres-
sense of control, and personal self-evaluation. sion (13.8); the differences between the
two groups were statistically significant
Procedure and Ethical Considerations (v2 = 11.82, df = 2, p = <.05). Raw scores
of depression were 10.84 for NIC versus
Informed consent was obtained from 15.42 for IC. This was also a significant dif-
the authorities of both foster institutions and ference (t = 3.81, df = 164, p = <.001).
4 SUICIDAL IDEATION IN MEXICAN CHILDREN
TABLE 1
Percentages of Suicidal Ideation Items for Both Groups
I think about killing myself I think about
although I would not do it (%) killing myself (%) Total (%)
Self-Concept TABLE 2
Self-Concept Scores by Category
Diminished self-concept was found in a
significant amount of children, as 46.4% of Below average Above
them expressed difficulty accepting their Self-concept (Deficient average
physical appearance, in contrast with 18.1% category self-concept) (Overvaluation)
children who expressed a high level of physi- Physical 46.4 18.1
cal self-concept. Regarding social acceptance, self-concept
36.7% expressed difficulty with establishing Social 36.7 12.0
social relations, more than double the 12.1% acceptance
who perceived themselves with high social Family 30.7 21.1
skills and peer acceptance. Similarly, 30.7% self-concept
scored low in family self-concept, compared Intellectual 30.7 21.0
with the 21.1% who scored high. Regarding self-concept
Personal 50.6 19.3
intellectual self-concept and school perfor-
self-evaluation
mance, 30.7% scored below average, describ-
Sense of control 34.9 12.2
ing themselves with intellectual difficulties,
while 21% scored above average; that is, only
2 of 10 children expressed confidence in their To support those results and to lower
intellectual abilities. variation in group comparison, statistically
Concerning personal self-evaluation, significant differences were obtained with a
50.6% scored below average, suggesting low Students t-distribution, finding that IC
self-esteem in half of the children. In contrast, scored lower for family self-concept
only 19.3% scored above average. About (t = 2.89, df = 2, p = <.05), personal self-
12.2% expressed that they had control of evaluation (t = 3.76, df = 2, p = <.05), and
their lives (sense of control), whereas 34.9% sense of control (t = 2.08, df = 2, p = .05).
described difficulties in this category. The There were no statistically significant differ-
highest and lowest scores for all categories of ences for physical self-concept, social accep-
self-concept are summarized in Table 2. tance, and intellectual self-concept.
for NIC, whereas for IC, personal self- IC have lower levels of family self-concept,
evaluation and sense of control explain personal self-evaluation, and sense of
30.7% of the variation. control.
Notably, IC showed higher levels of
depressive symptomatology, possibly due to
CONCLUSIONS difficulties originating in their families and
their upbringing before institutionalization.
The results of this study contribute to The importance of personal self-evaluation,
the clarification of international concerns family self-concept, and social acceptance
about depression and suicide risk in children. was confirmed by the regression analyses.
A high percentage (36%) of the total sample Noteworthy variations (41.3% for NIC vs.
presented suicidal ideation, coinciding with 30.7% for IC) suggest that interventions
official reports (INEGI, 2016) and previous aimed at increasing self-concept in children
studies (De la Torre et al., 2009). The high would have a significant impact reducing
prevalence (34.7%) of symptoms of depression symptoms of depression. Those differences,
also concurs with previous reports of a preva- however, do not discard the occurrence of
lence of symptoms above 30% (Gallegos severe cases of depression in NIC.
et al., 2013) and also matches the 29% preva- Expressions of dysphoria, sadness, or
lence of suicidal ideation related to depression depression in children are not always easily
and low self-esteem found in Mexican samples recognizable by caregivers or tutors, and those
by De la Torre et al. (2009). However, official symptoms may aggravate and possibly lead to
statistics from Mexico (SSA, 2006) have expressions of self-harm because of inherent
reported a significantly lower prevalence complications for early detection of risk
(2.5%) of symptoms of depression. Nonethe- behaviors and signs of alarm. Continuous
less, although those official statistics are a dec- evaluations of depression in children and their
ade old, it is noteworthy and a potential correlations should be conducted in diverse
concern that 80% of those children were only populations, such as foster care institutions,
treated with psychiatric medications, while indigenous communities, and migrants. How-
perhaps minimizing a comprehensive under- ever, difficulties with conducting studies of
standing of child depression including family, risk behaviors in Mexican children range from
social, and cultural factors. misconceptions (such as considering that chil-
It is important to highlight that one dren do not get depressed), to administrative,
third of the sampled children of this study government, or academic obstacles (by assum-
scored below average in all self-concept cat- ing child depression as an irrelevant issue).
egories, with higher prevalence for specific Despite the strength of a paired-groups
subcategories. About 50.6% scored below method, a limitation of this study is the small
average in personal self-evaluation, which size of the sample. This limitation partially
means that half of the sampled children had responds to administrative obstacles, as it was
a negative image of themselves. difficult to obtain permission for instrument
The results of this study showed a sig- application in both NIC and IC populations.
nificant association between depression and In fact, sampling IC in foster institutions
suicide risk through self-concept, supporting involved enormous efforts and lengthy
previous findings (Garaigordobil et al., 2008; bureaucratic processes, while for NIC, it was
McCabe et al., 2011). As expected, signifi- impossible to sample public schools.
cant differences were noted between the The implementation of strategies for
groups of IC and NIC. One fifth of the total diagnosing and addressing children at risk
sample presented symptoms of depression, and emotional suffering is relevant and
but this percentage decreases to one tenth unpostponable, with suggested psycho-edu-
for NIC and increases to one third for IC. cative interventions for universal, selective,
This difference may be due to the fact that and indicated prevention.
6 SUICIDAL IDEATION IN MEXICAN CHILDREN
REFERENCES