Prevalence of Depression among High School Girls in Kuhdasht, Iran

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorder that is debilitating and causes impairment in job, education and social performance. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of depression in high school girl students.
Subjects and In this cross-sectional study, 600 girl students of public and private high schools in the Kuhdasht city participated in the study. Beck depression inventory and demographic information questionnaire were used in order to gather the data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test.
In the present study, 65 % of students experienced depression (mild, moderate or severe) and 35% of students did not have depression. The mean score of depression was 21.1, in students of public schools and 19.39 in students of private schools. There were no significant associations between depression and the type of school, mother’s level of education and number of family members (P>0.05). But the relationship between depression with educational function, father's level of education and history of depression in family were statistically significant (P Our results indicate that there is no significant difference between public and private schools in terms of prevalence of depression. History of depression in family has positive relation with depression. Association between father’s level of education and students’ educational function with depression is inversely related. The results of this study confirm the importance of regular and effective training programs to enhance the awareness of society members, especially parents of teenagers, about depression in adolescents.