Relationship between depression, self-esteem, and academic achievement of students in Birjand, 2013

It is important to understand the factors that influence academic achievement. Self-esteem plays an important role in mental health, and when low, it has preventive effects on academic performance. The purpose here is to determine the relationship between self-esteem and depression, and academic achievement of high school students in Birjand. This descriptive-analytic study was conducted with a two-stage cluster sampling of 596 high school students in Birjand. They completed Beck depression inventory and Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire with the reliability coefficients of 0.37 and 0.87 respectively. Total average score (of both semesters) of above 15 was considered as good achievement. The data were analyzed by SPSS; Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests; and Spearman correlation coefficient at α=0.05. The sample included 596 students with the average age of 16.1 ± 1.1, of whom 284 were girls (%47.7) and 312 (%52.3) were boys. Depression scores mean of students was 16.7 ± 8.1 and that of their self-esteem 7/4 ± 1/2. Among the students, %61.2 had scores of 15 and above. Depression and self-esteem had significant differences in terms of academic achievement, but they were not significantly different in terms of age and their parent's job and education. High self-esteem has a protective role against depression and leads to improved academic performance.