SELF-PERCEPTION OF ADJUSTMENT AND SADNESS IN ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

The aim of this research study is to know the self perception that adolescents have about their own adjustment and their feeling of sadness, comparing it with that made by children and adults. Furthermore, it is analysed the differences of gender in adolescence. For that purpose, 226 adolescents were applied a self-report to gather the frequency and intensity with which they report to live sadness, and the Self-assessment Multifactorial Childhood Adjustment Test (Test Autoevaluativo Multifac-torial de Adaptación Infantil - TAMAI). The same self-report was applied to a sample of 145 children and 157 adults as the contrast group. The results show that adolescents state to live sadness with a bigger level of intensity than that stated by children and adults, as well as they feel misad-justment. However, their socioemotional adjustment is influenced by gender, being girls those who show more sadness and misadjustment than boys. From these results, it can be displayed the need of socioaffective programs to improve the knowledge and management of feelings in adolescence and the importance of taking into account a perspective of genre in their development.