INTRODUCTION: The present study examined the manifestation of depressive symptoms, as well as frequency and impact of stressful events in institutionalized and non-institutionalized children and adolescents. METHOD: A total of 257 youths, of both genders, aged 7-16 years were included in this study. Of these, 130 lived in protection youth shelters and 127 lived with their families in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. All participants were attending 1st to 8th grades of public elementary schools located in low-income neighborhoods. Children's Depression Inventory and Stressful Events in Childhood and Adolescence Inventory were used. RESULTS: Data pointed out a significant difference, with higher means in the Children's Depression Inventory and Stressful Events in Childhood and Adolescence Inventory for the institutionalized group. The most frequent events for the family group was "to have to obey your parent's rules," and "to be taken to a protection shelter" was most frequent for the other group. The events of greater impact were "death of one parent," "to be raped," "to be rejected by members of the family," and "to be sexually touched against one's will". Considering the participant's gender and context, differences were found in attributed impact. Adolescents, regardless of context, had a higher frequency of significant events than children, which did not occur concerning impact. CONCLUSION: Results indicated that institutionalized youths were more exposed to potential risk situations, which could be related to the manifestation of more depressive symptoms. However, assessment of the impact of a stressful event was not correlated with the Children's Depression Inventory in any context.
Children; adolescents; depressive symptoms; stressful events
