Prevalence and Determinants of Depressive Symptoms among Young Adolescents in Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Depression is the most common mental health problem affecting adolescents globally, wherein its increasing prevalence together with the negative health impacts escalates the need for further research in this area. This work determined the prevalence and factors associated with depressive symptoms among young adolescents in Malaysia. A total of 1350 adolescent aged 13 to 14 years in school across nine secondary schools in Selangor state, Malaysia participated in a cross-sectional study. Independent variables were examined using the using the Global School-Based Student Health Survey included age, gender, ethnicity, alcohol intake, smoking and illicit drug use, loneliness, bullying, parental marital status, income and supervision; and the Health Literacy and Stigma questionnaire examined mental health literacy levels. Depressive symptoms were the dependent variable which was examined using the Center for Epidemiology Study Depression (CESD) instrument. Prevalence of depressive symptoms among all participants was 19 % (95% CI [16.9, 21.2]), with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms being reported among females 26.3% (95% CI [23.0, 29.8]) compared to males 11.7% (95% CI [9.4, 14.4]). Determinants namely females (AOR = 3.83; 95% CI [2.66, 5.52]), smoking (AOR = 6.16; 95% CI [3.15, 12.05]), been bullied (AOR = 3.70; 95% CI [2.51, 5.47]), felt lonely (AOR = 10.46; 95% CI [7.09, 15.42]) and having no parental supervision (AOR = 1.79; 95% CI [1.26, 2.53]) significantly increased the odds of depressive symptoms among all adolescents in the multivariate model. In addition, feeling lonely, being bullied and smoking were identified as common significant determinants of depressive symptoms across both genders. Feeling lonely (65% to 71%) and being bullied (10% to 19%) were ranked as the most important determinants of depressive symptoms among young adolescents. Tackling these factors would be instrumental in helping decision makers formulate depression prevention strategies and activities for adolescents.

Depressive symptoms and its associated factors among secondary school adolescents of Birtamod Municipality, Jhapa, Nepal

“…Similar to the finding of this study, another study from Nepal revealed that female adolescents were almost twice more at odds of being depressed than their male counterparts [35]. Similar phenomenon has also been observed in other nations such as Malaysia and Central Uganda, where female were found to have almost two-to-three-folds increase in odds of depression than males [41,42]. Female adolescents experience hormonal changes and stressful events during puberty much more than males, which might make them more prone to anxiety and stress [34].…”

Adolescent Life Satisfaction: Association with Psychological, School-Related, Religious and Socially Supportive Factors

“…Unsurprisingly, since life satisfaction is a positive construct, the negative emotions and psychological states, such as hopelessness or depressed mood, are often negatively correlated with it [12,13]. Depression is a common mental health problem in adolescence, with a surplus among girls [14], and even subclinical depressive symptoms may have a great impact on well-being [15].…”