SUMMARYAim: Depression prevalence has increased in the last few decades, affecting younger age groups. The aim of this research was to determine the range of depression and low self-esteem in elementary school children in the city of Split. Testing was carried out at school and the sample comprised 1,549 children (714 boys and 832 girls, aged 13).Methods: Two psychological instruments were used: the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) and the Children and Adolescent Depression Scale (SDD).Results: The average value of scores obtained by SEI test was 17.8 for all tested children. No statistically significant difference was found between boys and girls. It was found that 11.9% of children showed signs of clinically significant depression, and 16.2% showed signs of depression. Statistically significant association between low self-esteem and clinically significant depression was found. No statistically significant difference among boys and girls according to dimension of cognitive depression was found, whereas statistically significant level of emotional depression was higher in girls than boys. It was found that both dimensions of depression decreased proportionally with the increase of SEI test score values: cognitive and emotional dimension of depression. Conclusion:The results of this study show that it is necessary to provide early detection of emotional difficulties in order to prevent serious mental disorders.

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IntroductionThere is a lack of epidemiological evidence on the prevalence and incidence of mental health disorders in adolescence in Croatia. Depressive disorder and paranoid symptoms have been demonstrated to be closely related in adult community samples or patients with adult depression. The present study used a cross-sectional design to evaluate a sample of Croatian adolescents.ObjectivesExamine the prevalence of paranoid symptoms in adolescents attending grammar school as a preliminary study of clinical characteristic of depression in adolescence.MethodsA sample of 450 individuals, average age 15.7 (SD = 0.45); female 232 (51.6%), male 218 (48.4%). The screening was followed by the use of a structured psychiatric interview (HAMD-21), which was administered to confirm the presence or absence of depression disorder. Item paranoid symptoms were administered to evaluate the level OD symptoms (0–none; 1–suspicious; 2–ideas of reference; 3–delusions of reference and persecutions).ResultsA total of 450 participants were screened, using HAMD-21, paranoid symptoms occurred (44.9%). Depressed adolescents: moderate, severe and very severe, defined as more than 14 points in HAMD-21 presented paranoid symptoms 68.1%, and non-depressed 32.2%.ConclusionThe depressive group displayed more frequent and intense paranoid symptoms than the control group (P < 0.001). Among non-depressed the incidence of paranoid symptoms is a surprisingly high. This could be the consequences of the war in Croatia, transition, as well as the influence of social networks on adolescent communication. This requires future studies.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.