Estressores psicossociais, senso de comunidade e bem-estar subjetivo em crianças e adolescentes de zonas urbanas e rurais do Nordeste do Brasil = Psychosocial stressors, sense of community, and subjective wellbeing in children and adolescents in urban and rural areas in Northeast Brazil = Estresores psicosociales, sentido de comunidad y bienestar subjetivo en niños y adolescentes de zonas urbanas y rurales del Nordeste de Brasil

Abstract

The study’s overall objective was to investigate the relationship between psychosocial stressors, sense of community, and subjective wellbeing in urban and rural schoolchildren in Northeast Brazil, focusing on differences according to territorial context. The sample consisted of 757 participants, 495 from urban schools and 262 from rural schools, enrolled in the 6th and 7th grades (9 to 18 years of age) in 21 municipal and state public schools, of which 13 urban and 8 rural, in 7 municipalities (counties) in Ceará State, Brazil. The study instruments were inventory of stressful events, scale of life satisfaction for students, index of sense of community, and satisfaction indices by life domains (family, material goods, relations, neighborhood/zone, health, time, school, and personal). The results indicate that socioeconomically underprivileged public schoolchildren from urban areas are more exposed to daily stress and score lower on satisfaction in specific domains of life and on sense of community. This latter is an important indicator for evaluating wellbeing in this young population