EPA-1163 – Hazard Perception and Personality Traits in Adolescents with Mental Disorders and Healthy Ones

Abstract

Introduction:

Hazard perception is an important factor of human's behavior and emotional state. Distortion of hazard perception is cognitive and emotional component of some psychopathological phenomena as phobia, anxiety, paranoia, risking behavior.

Objectives:

To specify relation between hazard perception and aggressiveness and patterns of reactions on frustration in different groups of adolescents.

Methods:

22 adolescents (diagnosis: schizotypal & personality disorders) – MDA (mentally disordered adolescents) group - undergoing medical treatment in a clinic; 23 adolescents – control group - never attended by psychiatrist were examined in school. Diagnostic complex targeted at identifying the peculiarities of categorizing situations ambiguous in the aspect of danger consists of projective methods specially prepared for the investigation, Hand test, Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study.

Results:

MDA group has increasing of situations estimated as dangerous (p<0,01 Mann-Whitney criterion), they refer more situations to the hazardous ones. Their judgment about danger is more personified and includes traumatic experience and obsessive ideas.

MDA and control groups consider social interaction and existential questions as most significant origin of danger.

There were no correlations between aggressiveness, leading pattern of reaction on frustration and hazard perception.

Conclusions:

This study has identified the structure of perceived hazard in adolescents with mental disorders and identified its specific features in comparison with normal adolescents cases. MDA group has referred more situations to the hazardous ones.

For further investigation we set a task to increase the number of participants in both groups and to include additional tests for estimating personal traits, which may be related with hazard perception.