Abstract

PANIAGUA-SUAREZ, Ramón E; GONZALEZ-POSADA, Carlos M  and  MONTOYA-GOMEZ, Brígida. Three typologies for adolescents’ mental health in north-eastern Medellín, Colombia, 2006. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2010, vol.12, n.1, pp.51-60. ISSN 0124-0064.

Objective Obtaining typologies for adolescent students in north-eastern Medellin in 2006 concerning five mental health indicators (depression level, family functioning level, risk of suicide, consuming psychoactive substances and family vulnerability) linked to gender, age group and commune. Method The information was collected from a stratified random sample of 779 adolescents who were proportionally assigned by the size of educational institutions in each commune in the study area; a 3,5 % error and 95 % confidence interval were used in such calculation. The students were given a questionnaire to fill in by themselves. Results Three typologies were presented where adolescents were classified as follows: two grouped adolescents without difficulties regarding the five mental health indicators and a third category grouped adolescents having problems in all the mental health indicators studied formed mainly by students from the Popular and Santa Cruz communes (35 %, around 15,636 students). Conclusion The mental health of adolescent students from north-eastern Medellín was seen to be a multidimensional phenomenon needing interdisciplinary intervention and presented differences by gender, age group and commune.

Keywords : Mental health; public health; classification; adolescent.

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