Condições emocionais de estudantes universitários: estresse, depressão, ansiedade, solidão e suporte social

Abstract

The period of higher education demands an adaptive process of university students regarding personal, social and economic issues, which can lead to interferences in the physical and mental health of this population. Studies on depression and anxiety in university students are frequent, but there are still few that focus on several emotional aspects simultaneously, which could help to understand this public more comprehensively and help reduce a relevant knowledge gap. Thus, the present study has as general objective to describe the sociodemographic profile and to evaluate social support and the presence of symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness in college students. A total of 384 students of the Federal University of the Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM) were evaluated. The study is divided in two studies, the first of which was to describe the sociodemographic profile and levels of social support, depression, anxiety, loneliness and stress in the public addressed. The second study aimed to correlate the sociodemographic profile and life habits with the prevalence of stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness and social support of university students. The instruments that composed the work were a questionnaire elaborated for the research, focusing on the sociodemographic profile and life habits of the participants; The Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults (ISSL); Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI); Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9); Brazilian Scale of Loneliness (UCLA-BR) and the Social Support Perception Scale (EPSS). For the analysis of the results obtained through the application of the instruments, we used descriptive and corrective statistics. The results of Study 1 indicated the presence of psychic suffering in this public with 47% of university students affirming the presence of feelings of loneliness, 59.2% of the participants with depressive symptoms, 70.4% with anxiety prevalence and 78.1% presented with stress. The perception of social support 12% of the participants characterized it at low level. The second Study found a positive correlation between symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety and feelings of loneliness, indicating that the presence of one of the symptoms could reflect the level of the others. However, social support was characterized as possible protection for the evaluated symptoms. Based on the data analyzed, it is concluded that there is a prevalence of psychic suffering among UFTM students regarding the symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness, and social support is a protective variable for the symptoms evaluated. In view of the vulnerability of this group, the relevance of health promotion strategies for this population is suggested.