A influência da autoestima, das competências emocionais e dos comportamentos de saúde no bem-estar psicológico do adolescente

Abstract

The quest for well-being is the engine of human development and is not restricted to occasional moments of one's life, but is related to general aspects of satisfaction with life instead. The objective of this study is to verify the extent to which self-esteem, emotional competencies and health behaviors contribute to the psychological well-being of adolescents. This is an observational and descriptive study that used a sample of 205 adolescents, secondary school students, aged between 15 and 19 years, of both sexes. Data were collected at a secondary school in the district of Porto with the following self-report instruments: Adolescents Psychological Well-Being Scale - EBEP (Fernandes, 2007); Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (Santos, 2003); Health Behavior Questionnaire (Ribeiro, 1993); Emotional Competencies Questionnaire (Faria Lima & Santos, 2005) and Socio-Demographic Questionnaire. The results reinforce the importance of psychological and behavioral variables on adolescents’ psychological well-being. On the other hand, socio-demographic variables do not significantly explain the levels of psychological well-being. It was also found that selfesteem is the best predictor of psychological well-being. However, other variables also have a positive relationship with psychological well-being of adolescents. Health behavior is the variable with the lowest preponderance in psychological well-being in adolescents. Regarding socio-demographic variables, results showed that adolescents’ socioeconomic status does not have a significant impact on psychological well-being, as well as on other psychological variables. In terms of gender, there were significant differences only in the level of selfesteemand health behaviors.

Date of Award	Sept 2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Eleonora C. V. Costa (Supervisor)