Level, Factor and Coping Mechanism of Depression among Adolescents in Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders. It is also one the most challenging to treat. Depression can negatively contribute to and severely impact an adolescent's life if left untreated. This study aims to identify the level of depression among adolescent male and female, as well as the factors causing depression and the coping mechanism used by adolescents suffering from depression. Methods: In this study, 97 (N=97) Form 4 students (16 years old) were employed as the samples of the study. The BDI inventory, DASS instrument, and structural interview method were used to determine the factors of depression and the coping mechanism used by adolescent. T-test was used to determine the significant difference between the level of depression among male and female adolescents. Results: The findings from DASS show that 1% of teenage school students (n=1/97) experience normal level of depression (score 0-5), 12.3% experience mild depression (score 6-7) (N=12/97), 62.8% experience moderate level of depression (score 8-10), 20.6% experience severe level of depression (score 11-14) (n=20/97), and 3% experience extremely severe level of depression (more than 14) (n=3/97).The findings from BDI also shows that 40.2% of the adolescents (n=39/97) experience mild depression (score 20-39) and 59.8% of them experience moderate level of depression (score 40-59) (n=58/97). The findings reveal that the prevalance of depression is higher in female adolescents than in male adolescents. There is a trend of factors of depression and coping mechanism used by depressed adolescents. The findings also show that there is no significant difference in the mean score between male and female students. Conclusion: The findings suggest the state of depression among school students' adolescents and there is the need to respond to this state more urgently, noting the important role schools, school counselors, psychiatrists and parents can play to help out. Moving forward, there is a need for further research on the causes of depression to guide the development of more effective treatments.