the relation between demographic characteristics and prevalence rate in depression among adolescent undergraduate students at ray city

the aim of present research was to study the relation between demographic characteristics (age, sex, and family economical status) and the rate of prevalence of depression in high school students at ray city. 388 subjects (166 boys and 222 girls) were selected through stratified random sampling method. the age range of these students was between 14 to 18 years. research data was gathered through demographic characteristics questionnaire, and beck depression inventory. they were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, sheffe, and student. findings of research indicated that 28.8% of these students were nondepressed, 27.2% had mild depression, 12.6% had mild-moderate depression, 19.5% had moderate-severe depression, and 11.6% had severe depression. girls as compared to boys were significantly more depressed. there were no significant difference in intensity of depression between different age groups. but, this was significant among female students, i.e., 17 and 18yearold girls were more depressed than 15 yearold girls. also, there were significant differences in intensity of depression among different family economical levels. in this case, those students with very low, and moderate family economical levels were more depressed as compared to those students with good and very good family economical levels. the rate of prevalence of depression among adolescent students is very high and demographic characteristics play an important role in it.