Depression, anxiety, and stress levels among adolescents - A school-based study

Mental health is the essential to overall health and well-being, and it has an impact on social and economic consequences throughout one's life. Anxiety disorders and depression are major contributors to the global burden of disease for people between the ages of 12 and 18. In India a review of school-based studies reported mental health morbidities ranged from 3.23% to 36.50%.

To assess depression, anxiety, and stress levels among school students.

One Central Board of Secondary Education school was selected from Belagavi City and a survey was conducted.

The survey included high school students (8^th-10^th standard). Each class had five divisions (A, B, C, D, E) one division with 45 students was selected randomly from each class. Study participants were then selected through complete enumeration. Out of 135 students, 123 completed the questionnaire. All students, who were present on the day of data collection were included. Students who showed unwillingness to participate were excluded.

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)-20 (IBM, Chicago, Illinois, USA) was used to analyse Descriptive and inferential statistics like mean, standard deviation, and percentage and Chi-square test.

Majority (16.3%) of the students had high stress levels, while only 1.6% and 2.4% of students had high level of anxiety and depression, respectively. The mean score of anxiety, depression and stress was higher, among male students compared to female.

Higher stress levels were observed among school going students as compared to anxiety and depression levels.