[Projective method in the investigation of perception of external dangers in adolescents with mental disorders]

To apply projective methods in the investigation of characteristics of external danger perception in adolescents with mental disorders and their healthy peers.

The clinical sample consisted of 42 inpatients (20 girls and 22 boys), aged 11-17 years, with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (ICD-10 items F20, F21, F25). The control group included 72 adolescents (50 girls, 22 boys), aged 11-17, pupils of secondary schools and colleges of Moscow and Moscow region, who had never been referred for psychiatric treatment. A complex of specially created projective methods for assessment of danger perception and psychometric methods for personality assessment scales were used.

Adolescents with mental disorders tend to increase the subjective danger level. In qualitative aspect, bizarre judgments about danger which reflect disease patterns, divergence between danger estimation and its interpretation, impulsivity of estimation and poor use of previous experience have been detected. Healthy adolescents perceive danger as a source of positive emotions, new experience and a reason for communication. Common traits in danger perception, including the distribution of results of danger situation selection and interpretations of uncertain hazards, in adolescents with mental disorders and their healthy peers were found. Several correlations between personality traits and subjective level of danger were identified.