Associates and Predictors of Depression among Adolescents:Academic Stress Career Indecision and Peer Group Influence

The present study was aimed to find out the associates and predictors of depression in a sample of 300 adolescents (150 boys and 150 girls) pursuing science, arts and commerce in XI standard from Government Model Senior Secondary Schools of Chandigarh. For the collection of data Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996), Scale of Academic Stress (Bisht, 1995), Career Indecision Scale (Singh, 1999) and Peer Group Influence Inventory prepared by investigator were used. Analysis was done by using statistical techniques like t-test, Pearson product moment correlation and stepwise multiple regression. The results of the present study revealed that significant gender differences were observed on the variables of depression, academic stress and peer group influence except career indecision variable. In case of boys and girls, depression was found to be significantly and positively correlated with the variables of academic stress and career indecision which demonstrated that as the academic stress and career indecision increases the depression level also increases. But no significant relationship emerged between depression and peer group influence. Regression analysis showed that academic stress and career indecision was found to be the significant predictors of depression and contributed to it independently as well as conjointly both for boys and girls. This demonstrated that high academic stress and career indecision among boys and girls leads to high level of depression among them. The results of the present study indicated that academic environment, social environment and decision-making of adolescents affect their mental health to a great extent.