title: [Stressing events in socially vulnerable children and adolescents in Porto Alegre].
abstract: This paper investigated the occurrence and impact of stressing events for 297 low- income children/adolescents (both sexes; 7-16 years, M =11.22; SD = 2.13) in the city of Porto Alegre. Group 1 (G1) consisted of 142 participants (living with their families) and Group 2 (G2) of 155 institutionalized individuals. All were individually interviewed and answered the Stressing Events Inventory for Children/Adolescents. The most frequent stressing events for the sample were: follow orders given by the parents (85.2%); quarrels with friends (72.9%); death of relatives (71.8%); failure at school (69.2%); and rivalry of siblings (68%). Student's t-test revealed significant difference between groups (p <0,001) regarding the occurrence of stressing events, G2 presented higher scores (M = 26.79; SD = 8.67) than G1 (M = 19.16; SD = 9.37). The events that caused the greatest impact upon the studied group were: death of parents and friends, rape, rejection by relatives and violence. There was no significant difference between sexes (p>0.05). The high frequency and strong impact of stressing events reveal the situation of social and familiar vulnerability, presence of violence and lack of resources in the whole group.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre RS. michelepolettopsi@gmail.com
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poletto
authors.forename: Sílvia Helena
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.forename: Débora Dalbosco
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Dell'Aglio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D012961:Sociology; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000523:psychology