Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 30;15(4):e38340.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.38340. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Prevalence of Depression in School-Going Adolescents and Its Impact on Scholastic Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study

Veni Nirudya  1 , Mohan Reddy M  1 , Ruth Sneha Chandrasekhar  1 , Purushotham A  1 , Mano Ranjitha V  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of Depression in School-Going Adolescents and Its Impact on Scholastic Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study

Veni Nirudya et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background: Adolescents are more prone to depression, which needs early identification.

Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of depression in school-going adolescents and its association with their scholastic performance.

Materials and methods: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 473 students, among whom 271 girls and 202 boys with an age group of 12-17 years, who were selected through simple random sampling from four high schools located in and around Kolar city, Karnataka, India, from January 2023 to March 2023, were included in the study after obtaining three informed consents from adolescents. A questionnaire was given to all the study participants, and the depression was assessed according to the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) score. The severity of depression among the children was assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-A (PHQ-A). Further, these children were assessed for their scholastic performance based on their final examination scores. The data were entered into an Excel sheet, and statistical analysis was performed.

Results: A total of 473 subjects were included in the present study; 177 had depression, which represents 37% of the total population. According to PHQ-A, 31% had mild depression, 5% had moderate depression, and 1% had severe depression. The association between depression and scholastic performance was not significant.

Conclusion: In the current study sample, depression was found to be mild to moderate, which reflects the overall performance of adolescents. All students were treated accordingly. Hence, active measures are to be initiated to prevent depression.

Keywords: adolescence; ces-dc; depression; phq-a; scholastic performance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Prevalence of depression as per severity observed in PHQ-A results
Figure 2
Figure 2. Scholastic performance of male students and depression
Figure 3
Figure 3. Scholastic performance of female students and depression
Figure 4
Figure 4. Number of participants spending screen time (Pareto chart showing descending order of frequencies with a cumulative line on secondary axis showing as a percentage of total)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Prevalence of depression in a university population. Mkize LP, Nonkelela NF, Mkize DL. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11040586/ Curationis. 1998;21:32–37. - PubMed
    1. Global prevalence of depression and elevated depressive symptoms among adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Shorey S, Ng ED, Wong CH. Br J Clin Psychol. 2022;61:287–305. - PubMed
    1. The global burden of disease, 1990-2020. Lopez AD, Murray CC. Nat Med. 1998;4:1241–1243. - PubMed
    1. Adolescent subjective well-being and realized values. Rask K, Astedt-Kurki P, Laippala P. J Adv Nurs. 2002;38:254–263. - PubMed
    1. The global burden of disease: generating evidence, guiding policy. [ Apr; 2023 ];http://www.healthdata.org/policy-report/global-burden-disease-generating... 2015 31:0.

LinkOut - more resources