Prevalence and Predictors of Depression Among Adolescents

To determine the prevalence of depression among school going adolescents and to identify the predictors of adolescent depression.

A total of 1057 adolescents (619 males and 438 females) studying in six selected schools of Ernakulam District, Kerala participated in the study. All the students from 8th to 12th standards of the schools present during the time of data collection who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled into the study. Data were collected using Socio personal data sheet and CESD-R (Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale- Revised).

Of 1057 samples, 150 (14.19%) had depression and 907 (85.87%) had no depression. Among them 14.53% (90) of males and 13.69% (60) of females had depression. Family history of medication use (OR: 1.43, CI: 0.5-0.585), history of medication use among adolescents (OR: 6.07, CI: 0.496-0.515), history of family dispute (OR: 3.32, CI: 0.536-0.605), presence of learning disability (OR: 2.20, CI: 0.51-0.571), chronic physical illness (OR: 2.22, 0.508-0.567) and mother's occupation (OR: 1.40, CI: 0.499-0.581) were significantly associated with depression among adolescents. Family dispute (OR: 2.65, CI: 0.232-0.608) was the only predictor of depression among adolescents.

With limitations of the study, authors observed that family dispute is a significant predictor of depression in adolescents.