Manglesh Kumar Manglam
Central University of South Bihar, Gaya
Pages:237-243
The problem of depression and suicide is increasing day by day. Depression and
suicidal ideation are common mental health problems in adolescents that are often
underreported and underdiagnosed. The aim of the current investigation was to evaluate
depressive symptoms and suicidal thought and quantify the severity level of the
depressive symptoms among adolescents’ students. 90 high school students were
selected through a simple random sampling method, aged between 13 and 16 years,
from Gaya, India. The Beck depression inventory and scale of suicidal ideation were
administered to assess and quantify depression and suicidal thoughts. Written informed
consent was obtained from all the participants. The study was approved by the Ethical
Committee of the University. The 26.7% of students had mild to moderate depression,
7.8% had moderate to severe depression, and 1.1% had an extremely severe level of
depression among school students. Female students had more depressive symptoms
and suicidal thoughts as compared to male students. The suicidal ideation total score
showed a significant positive association with the depression total score.