Psychosocial correlates of depressive symptoms in junior high school students from Dalian, China

Abstract

In urban China, the incidence of depression has increased, and has become a social problem among junior high school students. This study was conducted to examine the relationships between psychosocial variables and depressive symptoms and to search for clues for preventive intervention. We conducted self-administered questionnaires to a sample of 293 junior high school students in Dalian in April and May 2008. Age, sex, health-related factors, depressive status, locus of control, social support, coping and negative life events were investigated.
The incidence of depressive symptoms was 39.2% and 53.3% in males and females, respectively. Regardless of the CES-D categorization, after univariate logistic regression analysis, we found that cognitive style, avoidance coping and negative life events were significantly associated with depressive symptoms among males ; this association remained significant even after multivariate logistic regression analysis. Among females, we found that avoidance coping, failure of self-evaluation of health and negative life events were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Thus, avoidance coping and negative life events may influence depression in both male and female adolescents. Other psychosocial variables, such as cognitive style, were related to lower level of depressive symptoms in males, while health care was related to depressive symptoms in females.