Current Trends in Psychological Research in Ecuador: A Narrative Review of National Publications 2025–2026

Abstract

Recent Ecuadorian psychological research shows a scientific agenda focused on mental health issues, digital transformations, and contemporary psychosocial demands. The objective of this article was to identify current trends in psychological research in Ecuador by analyzing the publications in Ecuadorian journals during 2025 and 2026. A qualitative, documentary narrative review was conducted, based on content analysis of titles, abstracts, and keywords. The corpus consisted of Ecuadorian journals specializing in psychology and multidisciplinary journals with psychological or psychosocial articles published during the study period. The method involved locating available issues, selecting articles related to the field of psychology, organizing the information into thematic categories, and assessing recurring themes, emphases, methodological gaps, populations addressed, and represented disciplinary areas. The results show a predominance of research on mental health, adolescence, university students, violence, emotional dependency, social networks, artificial intelligence, educational inclusion, neurodevelopment, and evidence-based psychotherapy. A growing presence of systematic and integrative reviews on psychological interventions was also identified. Among the gaps identified in the reviewed literature were the predominance of descriptive and cross-sectional studies, the scarcity of longitudinal, experimental, mixed, and in-depth qualitative designs, as well as the underrepresentation of rural, indigenous, older adult, early childhood, and diverse worker populations. It is concluded that current Ecuadorian psychology demonstrates thematic dynamism and an applied orientation, although it requires greater methodological, population, and disciplinary diversification.