Assessment of depression among adolescent girls with early and late menarche-Influence of area and socioeconomic status

Depression is the one of the most common psychopathological issues experienced by girls during menarche. The present study is aimed to assess the depression among adolescent girls with early and late menarche. A total of 360 adolescent girls comprising of 180 each in early and late menarche were randomly selected from in and around Mysuru district. They were administered Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) (1967), which measured the extent of depression amomg these adolescent girls in early and late menarche stages. The data were analysed using two-way Analysis of variance, taking depression scores as dependent and groups and other factors as dependent variables. Results revealed that adolescent girls in early menarche experienced more depression scores than adolescent girls in late menarche. Adolescent girls from rural areas were more depressive compared to adolescent girls from urban areas.Socio- economic status of the adolescent girls did not have significant influence over their depression scores.