Anxiety and depression in adolescents with hostile behaviour

Adolescents go through a phase characterised by physical, mental, psychological and social changes which justify periods of hostile behaviours. The occurrence and intensity of these behaviours may correspond to a psychopathological condition that will affect their future lives. The aim of this research is to identify the socio-demographic and family background variables that influence hostile behaviours in adolescents and to analyse the influence of depression and anxiety in hostile behaviours in adolescents.

This is a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study with epidemiological characteristics. The sample consists of 1890 adolescents, 863 (45.7%) boys and 1027 (54.3%) girls whose average age is 16.26 years. The data collection instrument includes the socio-demographic and family background and anxiety, depression and hostile behaviours in adolescence measurement scales: the State-Trait Anxiety Scale, the Depression Scale and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory.

We found that the prevalent group is between 17 and 21 years old (40.3%) 41.4% boys and 39.4% girls; the highest percentage of the adolescents (37.8%) are in the 10th year of schooling; 50.7% live in the city, 70.0% live with their parents; the monthly household income is medium-high (56.7%) for (56.5%) girls; 3.5% of the adolescents exhibit depressive symptoms, mostly girls who are 17 or older; girls have higher levels of anxiety-trait and boys of anxiety-state.

We may conclude that only depression has a relationship with hostile behaviours. It is higher in adolescents with these behaviours. The presence or absence of anxiety is not related to the hostile behaviour in adolescents.