[Epidemiologic study of psychic morbidity in a group of future teachers]

An epidemiological study of prevalence of psychopathology in a sample of students on secondary-school teachers training is presented and compared with that of a control group (N = 118). This study is based on standardized clinical interviews of the subjects which were in turn evaluated blind, by a psychiatrist. The main interest of the study was to investigate the psychopathological tendencies of future teachers which the practice of the teaching profession may tend to highlight. The results of the comparative study show that: 1. the incidence of psychopathological instability and its evolution across the four year period studied here are high across all groups. This general finding leads us to assume that to a certain limited degree, psychopathological manifestations in the post-adolescent period (18-25 ans) has prognostic value; 2. the differentiating factor between the two groups lies in the evolution of the psychopathological symptoms. In the group of future teachers, an increase in pathology across the four year period can be observed while the pathology in the control group virtually diminished. An attempt to explain this phenomena is made in terms of several differential situational factors characterizing the two groups.