“Imagine the World…” – About Youth Hopelessness, Sleep Disorder and Alcohol Abuse

Abstract

Adolescents often experience the sense of hopelessness, not only because of their age and stage of development but also the reality (especially school) in which they function on a daily basis. Hopelessness is one of the diagnostic criteria that should be met during the diagnosis of depressive disorders. It can coexist with sleep disorders and a tendency to alcohol abuse, which are additional risk factors that affect not only the current quality of life, but also the future of young people. The aim of the study was to search for answers to the question of whether school children experience a sense of hopelessness. Another goal was to combine these results with the possibly comorbid mental disorders and discuss the possible impact of social expectations on the perception of reality by adolescents. The study was conducted on a group of 71 adult students of the final year in a public secondary school in the Pomeranian voivodship. The research was based on two tools: the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Health Questionnaire (PRIME MD‑PHQ), which evaluates the symptoms of the five groups of mental disorders, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. It has been shown that 43.7% of the young people do not experience a sense of hopelessness, 35.2% feel a mild sense of hopelessness, 14% present a moderate level of hopelessness, and 7.1% suffer from a profound sense of hopelessness. In addition, it was discovered that the most common disorders in this group of subjects include sleep disorder (48.57%) and a tendency to alcohol abuse (21.43%).

English translation: Anna Moroz-Darska

Modernisation of the journal's operations and translation into the English language of articles published in Ars Educandi in 2012-2017 were financed with funds from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a part of the task Science Promotion Activity (pl. DUN).

The task ‘The implementation of the editorial module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe – a system facilitating the editing and management of the academic journal Ars Educandi‘ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘The creation of a modern online version of the academic journal Ars Educandi through the implementation of the publication module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe and the handling of international indexing databases’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘Preparation of the English language version of the last 6 annual issues (2012-2017) of the academic journal Ars Educandi and their publication online’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.