A Study of Depression, Externalizing, and Internalizing Behaviors among Adolescents Living in Institutional Homes

Adolescence, a psychologically vulnerable stage of life, when coupled with stressful environment such as institutional homes, may result in high psychiatric morbidity. These psychiatric disorders including depression are detrimental to the psychological development in adolescents.

The objectives of the study were to describe and study the extent of depression in adolescent boys and girls living in institutional homes and to study the association between depression and externalizing and Internalizing behaviors among adolescents in institutional homes.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 150 adolescents staying in institutional homes in Visakhapatnam city. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data. Patient Health Questionnaire was used to screen for Depression. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to score for externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics and tests of association. P < 0.05 was taken as significant.

Clinical Depression was found in 19 (12.7%) out of 150 adolescents. Subclinical mild depression was found in 19.3% of the sample. Depression was found to be significantly associated with gender and academic performance. Externalizing and internalizing behaviors were positively correlated with depression while prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with depression.

Depression has high prevalence in institutionalized adolescents. Those adolescents who show signs of externalizing or internalizing behaviors should be especially screened for depression. Further research should be done to collect more data in this regard and to focus on designing interventions for its prevention, screening, and treatment.