The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social skills and social support on the levels of depression in junior high school students by comparing the results of behavioral records, which measured the number of times social skills were used and the number of times social support was received, with the results of self-report questionnaires on social skills and social support for depression. The questionnaire on social skills, social support, and depression, and the self-monitoring of social skills and social support were administered to 459 public junior high school students: in Chubu district, 90 from the seventh grade (41 boys and 49 girls), 98 from the eighth grade (50 boys and 48 girls), 97 from the ninth grade (48 boys and 49 girls) ; and in Kyushu district, 174 from the seventh grade (90 boys and 84 girls). The self-report questionnaire for cognition showed that social support had a stronger influence on depression than self-monitoring. The result of this study that cognition has a large effect on depression lays the theoretical foundation for establishing an effective cognitive behavioral approach.
