Effect of Gender and Age on Depression among Adolescents

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders and, also a highly recurrent disorder with an increasingly younger age of onset for the initial episode. Depression in adolescence is under-recognized although its associated burden of illness is very high. Some frequent associations with depression in this age group are underachievement, poor lifestyle choices including substance abuse, and a high risk of the persistence of the illness into adulthood. The present study was aimed to examine the effect of age and gender in the experience of symptoms of depression among adolescents. The sample comprised of 50 males (25 early adolescents, 25 middle adolescents) and 50 females (25 early adolescents, 25 middle adolescents) adolescents in the age range of 12-18 years. Sample was selected by making use of purposive incidental sampling procedure. The results of 2X2 ANOVA revealed that female adolescents were significantly higher on depression as measured by Beck depression inventory, than male adolescents. Further, depression was found to be significantly higher in early adolescence as compared to middle adolescence.