Crenças centrais negativas em universitários: sua influência no desenvolvimento de transtornos ansiosos

Abstract

Central beliefs begin to develop in childhood and are used for individuals to organize ideas and understand the environment around them. They are responsible for the way we see ourselves, others and the world in general, being inflexible and lasting. Because they are influenced by several aspects, they can be related to mental disorders such as pathological anxiety. The academic context, as it is an environment with numerous stressors, can cause university students to be prone to anxiety disorders. The present study sought to analyze which are the central negative beliefs that stimulate pathological anxiety in university students. An online quantitative and exploratory field research was carried out, in which 80 university students with symptoms of pathological anxiety collaborated who answered three instruments, namely a sociodemographic questionnaire, a specific questionnaire and an Inventory of Central Negative Beliefs (ICCN). Through the results, it was possible to verify that the index of negative central beliefs about themselves was higher in relation to the negative beliefs about others, totaling 59.96. Among the existing categories, the central belief that prevailed was that of devaluation, with M = 25.65 SD = 1.885. According to the results obtained, the present research can support new studies in relation to the belief in devaluation and its relationship with pathological anxiety, as well as strengthening the creation of actions that increasingly enable the strengthening of positive central beliefs in university students, both at the beginning and at the end of the course, with the objective of providing a new context when it comes to students' mental health.