Depression, anxiety and stress among adolescent students belonging to affluent families: A school-based study

Abstract

To study depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) among adolescent school students belonging to affluent families and the factors associated with high levels of DAS. 242 adolescent students belonging to class 9-12th selected for the study. DASS-21 questionnaire was used for assessing DAS. The scores in the three domains (DAS) were found to be remarkably correlated. It was seen that depression was significantly more among the females (mean rank 132.5) than the males (mean rank 113.2), p=0.03. Depression (p=0.025), Anxiety (0.005) and Stress (p<0.001) were all significantly higher among the 'board classes' i.e., 10th and 12th as compared to the classes 9th and 11th. All the three (DAS) were found to have an inverse relationship with the academic performance of the students. Depression and Stress were found to be significantly associated with the number of adverse events in the student's life that occurred in last one year. A significant proportion of the students were found to be having high levels of DAS and several important factors were found to be associated with them. Proactive steps at the school-level and community-level and steps for improved parent-adolescent communication are needed for amelioration of the problem.