Self perception linked to psychopathology in adolescents
Poster A16, Monday, October 8, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Essex Ballroom
Lucia Brazzale1, Yuri Maddalena1, Antonio Cozzi1, Ruggero Brazzale1; 1Italian Public Mental Health Department - Veneto Region
Adolescence is an important phase of the human life when people go through radical changes (physical, emotional and behavioral) that corresponds to a profound transformation of the perception of the self and its individuality. Self perception can be described as the entirety of the emotions and thoughts addressed to your own self, that are objectified. This self perception begins its development throughout adolescence, culminating in a stable concept of the self during the adulthood. The numerous changes that take place during this delicate stage can potentially deviates from their normal course and become psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and behavioral problems. Sometimes they could also lead to some major disturbances like psychosis. As a consequence of this, many studies have been conducted around the concept of an integrated self that is used as a prodromal index of psychosis in early adolescence. The aim of this study is to investigate the self-perception on a population of high school students through the Self Perception Scale test that is going to be correlated with the psychopathological domain of the SCL-90. The basis hypothesis is that the enhancement of an integrated self-perception leads to a decrease in the psychopathological scores of the SCL-90 scales, particularly with the psychoticism scale. If the hypothesis is confirmed it could contribute to outline new treatment pathways aimed to strengthen and integrate the self-perception concept in adolescents and so to intervene precociously in the development of psychosis.
Topic Area: Diagnosis and Phenomenology