A total of 452 adolescents participated in the present study with an age range of 9 to 18 years and a mean age of 13.52 years (SD±2.53). More than three-quarters of participants were female (75.2%). More than half of the participants were in the primary school class group (57.7%). Only one in 20 participants were living in the rural areas (4.4%). Table 1 provides a detailed breakdown of the participants’ characteristics.
<Table 1>
Approximately two-thirds of the participants were found to have symptoms of depression (65.3%) including those aged between 9 and 13 years (64.0%), those studying in secondary school classes (67.0%), and females (66.2%). There was a significant relationship between the class group and the presence of depression symptoms showing a decrease in the presence of depression symptoms among high school students compared to the primary school students. Moreover, secondary school students had the highest rate of depression symptoms (see Table 2). No other significant differences were found in relation to socio-demographic variables and depression.
Follow-up post-hoc test indicated that the number of secondary school students with depression was significantly higher than the number of primary school students with depression (p=0.011). However, there were no significant differences between the number of secondary school students and high school students with depression (p=0.447). Follow-up post-hoc tests also indicated no significant differences between the number of depressed students from different economic backgrounds (p-values ranging from 0.065 to 0.134).
<Table 2>
Almost nine-tenths of participants were found to have poor self-esteem (87.2%) including both males (87.5%) and females (85.9%) (Table 3). Almost all of the participants in the high school were found to have poor self-esteem (94.5%). One-tenth of the participants with high economic status were found to have normal (i.e., good) self-esteem (9.5%). There was a significant relationship between self-esteem and (i) the class group (high school students had poorer self-esteem compared to primary school students), (ii) father’s educational level (students whose fathers had a university degree had higher self-esteem than those with illiterate educational background), and (iii) economic status (high income students had lower self-esteem than middle-income students). More specifically, follow-up post-hoc tests indicated that (i) poor self-esteem was significantly higher among high-school students compared to primary school students (p=0.001), (ii) there were no significant differences between secondary school and high-school students in relation to poor self-esteem (p=0.209), and (iii) poor self-esteem was significantly higher among those with a high economic status compared to middle-income students (p=0.024).
<Table 3>
Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to see which variables predicted depressive symptoms. The results for each variable were as follows: age (AOR=0.73, p=0.43), gender (AOR=0.77, p=0.39), class group [secondary school (AOR=0.65, p=0.29)], economic status [low-income (AOR=0.44, p=0.07)], place of residency (AOR=0.31, p=0.07), father’s educational level [university (AOR=0.48, p=0.07)], and mother’s educational level [secondary school (AOR=1.97, p=0.02)] (Table 4).
<Table 4>
Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to see which variables predicted high self-esteem. The results for each variable were as follows: age (AOR=0.75, p=0.55), gender (AOR=0.77, p=0.56), class group [secondary (AOR=0.56, p=0.25)], economic status [low-income (AOR=0.76, p=0.57)], place of residency (AOR=1.07, u=0.92), father’s educational level [University (AOR=0.42, p=0.11)], mother’s educational level [university (AOR=1.04, p=0.94)] (Table 5).
<Table 5>