Youth's school experience: Testing the role of symptoms of anxiety and co‐occurring symptoms of depression

Abstract

Although symptoms of anxiety often coexist with symptoms of depression, little is known on how such coexistence affects youth's school experiences. Objectives: We tested how the two types of behaviors, when coexisting, were associated with youth's negative attitude toward teachers, school, and poor peer relations. Method: Data were collected from 203 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth (male: 24.6%; mean = 15.8 years, standard deviation = 2.4) with the 3rd edition of the Behavioral Assessment for Children: Self‐Report of Personality. Results: Scores for symptoms of depression alone explained negative attitude toward teachers (β = .28; R2 = 17.88%), negative attitude toward school (β = .27; R2 = 14.74%), and poor peer relations (β = .42; R2 = 44.60%) as effectively as scores for both types of behaviors did. Conclusion: The coexistence of symptoms of anxiety and depression did not appear to impair youth's attitude toward teachers, school and peer relations more than symptoms of depression did alone.

Factors Associated with Suicidal Ideation in Last-course High School Students Facing the University Entrance Test in Spain

“…Higher levels of anxiety, depression and burnout are associated with lower levels of positive suicidal ideation. These results agree with those of previous studies associating suicidal ideation with anxiety, and also with investigations of the relationship of suicidal ideation with burnout, and especially with depressive symptoms [20,21,26,47]. The result confirms our working hypotheses.…”

“…Some recent studies have shown the presence of suicidal idea-tion in adolescents even months before university entrance exams [46]. And although suicidal ideation has been associated in different studies with burnout, as we have just seen, as well as with emotional alteration, including anxiety and depression, there are not many studies that have explored this association in students facing the university entrance exam in Spain [26,47]. Hence, we think that it is necessary to study these aspects so that a greater knowledge of these circumstances can help to plan more efficiently initiatives aimed at the prevention of suicide in young people.…”

“…Lastly, it should be noted that depression in the student population has also been associated with various emotional disorders and even suicide and suicidal ideation [26]. Regarding the relationship between sui-cidal ideation and depressive symptomatology, suicidal ideation has traditionally been considered a symptom and predictor of depression [27][28].…”