Abstract
This study has examined the degree of depression and anxiety among high school students in an urban area and then explored the factors influencing their depression and/or anxiety status. Self-administered questionnaires were offered to 2,381 students from ten high schools in Daejon Metropolitan City. The items for investigation included such factors as various characteristics of school and family life, daily life style, and the degree of depression and anxiety. Based on the study results, the following conclusions were made； 1. The distribution according to the depression degree has shown that 61.9％ of students were normal, 32.9％ of students had mild depression, 5.0％ moderate depression, and 0.3％ severe depression. As for anxiety, 40.2％ of students were normal, while 19.1％ were classified as having anxiety and 40.7％ borderline anxiety. 2. As regards to the degree of depression and anxiety, it was greater in girls than boys, in 3rd graders than 1st and 2nd graders, and in the groups who have recieved lower grades in studies, who had poor relations with their friends and a low feeling of satisfaction with school life. In particular, concerning various characteristics of family life, the scores of depression and anxiety were higher in the groups whose financial conditions were poor, whose parents' interests were lower, whose degree of satisfaction with their family and school life was lower, than their counterparts. 3. According to their life styles higher scores of depression and anxiety were found in the groups whose sleeping time was inappropriate, whose breakfasts were skipped, who ate daily snacks, who didn't take regular exercises, and who had poor health habits, compared to their counterparts, respectively. 4. As for the correlation between the degree of depression and its associated variables, the higher scores of depression were in positive correlation with the groups who had lower grades in studies, poor relation with their friends, low feeling of satisfaction with school and home life, low parents' interest, poor subjective condition of health, breakfast skipping, lack of regular exercises, and lower indices of health habits. 5. As for anxiety, the higher scores of anxiety were in the positive correlation with the groups with poor relation with their friends, low feeling of satisfaction with school and family life, poor subjective condition of health, lack of regular exercises, and poor health habits. 6. The influential factors on the depression of students were selected such as subjective condition of health, sex, feeling of satisfaction with family and school life, grades in studies, relation with their friends, presence of regular exercises, degree of interest of parents, sleeping time, cigarette smoking and eating breakfast. 7. The influential factors on the anxiety state of students were selected such as subjective condition of health, feeling of satisfaction with family and school life, sex, sleeping time, regular exercises, cigarette smoking, snacking and relations with their friends. The present study results suggest that girls rather than boys, higher graders than lower ones are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression state, and besides, various characteristics of school and family life, and daily life style can be influential on students' emotional states. Therefore, better management of psychological status of students is thought to require a wide variety of measures to modify the influencing factors and to encourage social support.
