Junior High School Depression And Its Related Factors

The stage of junior high school is the definite transition from childhood to manhood, in which the individuals undergo important development in body growth, mental and social adaptation. On the one hand, the middle school students are young and changeable, while they have to confront the complex social life at the same time. Under such situation, they can't deal with incidents properly. Therefore, their mental burden rises, and the mental problems appear. It is concluded from the literature that depression is one of the most important causes influencing middle school students' mental health. It is necessary to investigate middle school students' depression, and to explore the depression's influence factors.To analyze the relationships between life events, coping style, social support and depression, 1222 middle school students from 4 middle schools in Tang Shan were asked to complete the ASLEC, TCSQ, SSRS and CES-D.The results showed:1.The depression scores were 35.21±12.59, 26.8% of the students suffered from depression.2. ANOVA showed that, there was a significant main effect for grades(F=38.17, P<0.01), the depression scores in grade three were significant higher than those in grade two and grade one. A significant main effect was also found for schools(F=10.92, P<0.01), the depression scores in outstanding schools were significant higher than those in ordinary schools, the interaction between schools and grades was significant(F=5.44, P<0.01), there was not significant difference between outstanding schools and ordinary schools in grade one and grade two, but a significant difference was founded in grade two. There is a significant interaction between gender and grades(F=8.26, P<0.01), there was not significant difference between boys and girls in grade one and grade two, but a significant difference was found in grade three.3. There were nine life events which often happened, and most influenced the middle school students' mental health. Respectively were examination failure or unsatisfactory, learning burdens, misunderstanding, disputing with friends, pressure from the higher school, sudden change of living habits (diet, rest, etc.), public claiming, the familyexerting pressure on the study, the discrimination.4. Correlation analysis showed that depression was significantly associated with life events (r=0.54, P<0.01), significantly negative associated with the coping style (r=-0.50, P<0.01), and significantly negative associated with social support(r=-0.33, P<0.01).5. Interaction analysis showed that, there was a significant interaction between life events and social support under depression level (F=4.69, P<0.05), the higher social support can significantly lower depression;There is a significant interaction between life events and coping style under depression level (F=20.21, P<0.01). Positive coping can lower depression regardless of the life events' level, and positive coping can more significantly lower the depression under the higher life events' level.The conclusions of this study were as follows:1. The depression is a common mental problem among middle school students, and more attention needs to be paid.2. There exited significant differences in depression between different grades, schools.3. The negative life events concluded learning, relationship, adaptation, etc.4. Life events, social support, coping style were significantly correlated with depression. Life events perform influence in depression by mediators, social support and coping style.