Mild and severe childhood depression: differences and implications for prevention programs in the school setting

Abstract

PurposeThe study had two goals as follows: 1) to identify the prevalence of children with mild and severe depression (MD and SD), exploring sex differences; and 2) to determine possible significant differences in adaptive and clinical variables between children with different levels of depression (absence of depression, MD, and SD).Materials and methodsWe used a sample of 420 participants aged 7–10 years (53.3% boys) enrolled in third and fourth grade of primary education, from schools in the Basque Country (Spain). The Children’s Depression Scale (CDS, self-assessment) was administered as well as six more assessment instruments.ResultsIt was found that 84.2% of children had no depression, 10% had MD, and 5.8% had SD. Compared with children with depressive symptoms, participants without depression had significantly: 1) lower levels of maladjustment, stress, emotional symptoms, internalizing problems, and behavioral problems; and 2) higher levels of personal adjustment, resilience, social skills, and self-concept. In addition, children with MD had significantly lower levels of clinical maladjustment, emotional symptoms, and stress than children with SD. However, no differences were found in school maladjustment, internalizing problems, behavioral problems, personal adjustment, resilience, social skills, and self-concept between children with MD and SD.ConclusionThe discussion emphasizes the importance of identifying children with MD and implementing universal prevention programs from an early age.

Child Depression: Prevalence and Comparison between Self-Reports and Teacher Reports

“…That is, teachers rarely detected students with depressive symptomatology or even detected “false positives”. These findings are similar to those found in other studies (Bernaras et al, 2015; Cicchetti et al, 2010; Kleftaras & Didaskalou, 2006; Sternberg et al, 2006), although they differ from the results found by Achenbach et al (1987), who found a moderate overlap between different informants. The results obtained in the present study confirm teachers’ low capacity to identify child depression, which emphasizes the importance of training teachers in matters related to mental health and particularly, in depressive symptomatology.…”

“…Thirdly, the results have shown that students with depressive symptomatology presented low academic performance scores (assessed through the perception of academic success that the teacher had of his/her student), thus confirming the posed hypothesis, in line with the conclusions obtained in other studies (Bernaras et al, 2013, 2015; Moyeda et al, 2009; Orgilés et al, 2014; Suhrcke & de Paz Nieves, 2011; Wu & Kuo, 2015). However, it also should be noted that teachers perceive a greater relationship between performance and depression than that indicated by the results when taking into account the students’ self-reports on their depressive symptomatology.…”

“…Moreover, depressive symptomatology has been identified as a predictor of poor academic performance (Marsh & Hau, 2003). Other studies have found significant negative, although low relationships between academic performance and depressive symptomatology (Bernaras et al, 2013; Bernaras et al, 2015; Moyeda, Velasco, & Ojeda, 2009).…”

“…When assessing the identification of internalizing and externalizing variables and the level of agreement of such variables between parents and teachers, little overlap has been reported, especially in the identification of internalizing variables (Deng, Liu, & Roosa, 2004; Grietens et al, 2004). Overall, comparative assessments of parents and teachers show that the correlation between informants is low (Bernaras, Jaureguizar, Soroa, & Garaigordobil, 2015; Cicchetti, Rogosch, Gunnar, & Toth, 2010). Clay, Surgenor, and Frampton (2008) argued that this inconsistency may be due to the lack of agreement among informants and to the different characteristics of the informants, or even to the situational variability of children’s behavior.…”

Influence of a Physical Exercise Program in the Anxiety and Depression in Children with Obesity

“…The possible impact that all these aspects can have on school performance in children has also been studied and, although the conclusions are not consistent, it is an aspect that should be considered in the long-term follow-up of these children [ 13 , 14 ].…”