A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF DEPRESSION AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN RELATION TO ACADEMIC STRESS, SELF-EFFICACY, AND NEUROTICISM

Abstract

Adolescence is a formative and turbulent phase where physiological, psychosocial, and cognitive changes leave adolescents vulnerable to psychological disorders (Shorey, 2022). Depression is one of the most common mental health issues, with an estimated prevalence of 5% among adults (W.H.O.D, 2021). Depression is one of the global issues in the contemporary era and is a significantly contributed to various psychological problems and in the stage of adolescents this problem goes into a graver to due to various sociological demands of the society. About 8% of children and adolescents suffer from depression and 11% of adolescents have a depressive disorder by the age of 18 years according to the National Co morbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (2017). This study has been conducted to estimate the prevalence of depression among adolescents studying in higher secondary schools in order to find out a relationship between certain psychological correlates. Descriptive research design was employed to find the prevalence of depression in relation to certain psychological correlates. The findings of the study revealed that depression among adolescents’ correlates across certain psychological correlates like neuroticism, academic stress and self efficacy. As depression tends to be higher among adolescents experiencing high academic stress compared to moderate and low stress levels. Similarly adolescents with low self efficacy showed higher depression than those with high self efficacy and adolescents with high neuroticism showed higher level of depression.