Prevalence of Depression among School Going Adolescents in Rural Block of Haryana

Background & Objectives: Depression among adolescent is an area of increasing concern worldwide. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depression among school going adolescents in government schools in a rural area of Haryana. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample size of 300 students (150 males and 150 females) studying in class 8th–12th. A predesigned, pretested tool SCL 90 R containing 90 items was used to screen depression in these students. Depression is one of the psychiatric morbidities screened by this tool. Cut-off point of estimated raw score of 1 was used to label as depression. All the statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 20. Results: The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 38%. Depression was found among 36.6% male students whereas it was found among 40% of all females surveyed, thereby showing that females were more prone to have depression. Overall prevalence of depression increases with age. It was found to be 34.2% among 12–14 years age group, 39.3% among 15–16 years age group and 53.3% among 17–19 years age group. Conclusion: A high prevalence of depression points out that teachers and parents should be made aware of this problem. Appropriate counselling of these students should be done after identifying them through regular school-based screening programme.