Investigation of the Relationship between Depression Symptoms and Related Factors of High School Students

Background: The frequency of psychological diseases in adolescents has increased due to changes in social, cultural and family values in recent years.

Objective: To investigate the frequency of depression symptom in high school students, the level of electromagnetic field (EMF) in school environment and other related factors.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was determined of the high school in a district area of Mersin. The research population consisted of 7791 students. Minimum sample size was calculated 558 students and 605 questionnaires were evaluated. The questionnaire was including the sociodemographic characteristics of the students, and the Childhood Depression Scale (CDS). The CDS was developed by Kovacs to determine the frequency of depressive symptoms. The scores over 19 were assessed for the presence of depressive disorder. EMF measurements in the classrooms were made with a Gaussmeter.

Results: The average age of the participants was 16.3±0.9 years and 54.5% were female. The mean score of the students` depression scale was 17.3±6.5. It was determined that 32.6% of the students were depressive symptoms. There was no significant relationship between the mean EMF level in the class and depression symptom frequency. According to the binary logistic regression model, the factors related to the depressive symptom frequency of the students are; being female (OR=1.61, p=0.031), having chronic disease (OR=2.31, p=0.004), poor school performance (OR=5.54, p=0.007), poor family relationship (OR=6.64, p=0.001) and the student`s self-rated health status was low (OR=0.86, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Approximately one in each of the three students had depressive symptoms. It is thought that to prevent depressive symptoms in the adolescent group, women should be evaluated as the primary risk groups and those with chronic diseases, school failure and family relations. Further research is needed to assess the association between depressive symptom frequency and EMF levels in class.