Insatisfacción con la imagen corporal y sintomatología depresiva en adolescentes de una unidad educativa de Cuenca

Abstract

Body image dissatisfaction and depressive symptomatology are variables that mainly occur during adolescence, a stage in which a series of biopsychosocial changes prevail. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to describe the levels of body image dissatisfaction and depressive symptomatology in adolescent males and females aged 12 to 15 years. The study was quantitative, not experimental, cross-sectional and initially descriptive. The information analysis was carried out through measures of central tendency, data dispersion and non-parametric tests. The sample consisted of 222 students, 69 men and 153 women, from 12 to 15 years old ( = 13.47). Two instruments were applied, the IMAGEN questionnaire (Solano and Cano, 2010), and the Child’s Depression Inventory in its Spanish version (Del Barrio and Carrasco, 2004), in addition to a brief record sociodemographic The results showed a high percentage of adolescents with body image dissatisfaction, being the males those who obtained higher levels of dissatisfaction; on the other hand, depressive symptomatology appeared in a small number of participants, also, in greater proportion in men. A positive average correlation was found between body image dissatisfaction and depressive symptomatology. It is concluded that the presence of these two variables can be explained by the convergence of negative cognitive-behavioral elements, such as: thoughts, perceptions, emotions and behaviors; same that hinder the appropriate psychosocial development of the adolescent.