Depressive symptomatology in school children of Tehran-Iran

During the past decade, as depression was becoming increasingly evident at younger ages, a great deal of attention has been directed towards the diagnosis and treatment of depression in children and adolescents. A considerable amount of research has been focused on the prevalence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents in western societies, but researches conducted on non western samples are considerably scarce. The purposes of this study were to estimate the levels of self- reported depressive symptomatology in school children of Tehran and to assess its relationship to some characteristics of children's families.
Methods and Materials: 1054 children 9-11 years of age (521 girls, 533 boys) were randomly selected frame the schools scatted in all five geographical areas of the city of Tehran. (tow schools forereach area). Assessment of depression was undertaken as a classroom based activity with Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). The CDI is a 27-item self- report inventory measuring depressed mood in children. All children were tested in their classrooms. Demographic and some Characteristics of their families were assessed with a questionnaire that was designed for parents of these children. With frequent contacts, 896 parents completed the questionnaires. The results of CDI and parents questionnaire were statistically 'analyzed.
Results: Considering the standard cut point of CDI (CDI score≥ 20), 18% of the total sample had positive test (equal to or greater than 20). The means of the total CDI scores in boys and girls were not significantly different, but the percent of positive test were slightly higher in boys (19%) than that in girls (17%). The means of the total children's CDI scores were significantly related to the family function in terms of emotional atmosphere of home, the number of marital conflicts and marital satisfaction of parents.
Conclusion: In this research, school children of Tehran reported higher levels of depression than children of many western countries (10%) and these levels were comparable to results of similar researches in Russia and Egypt. The scores equal to or above the cut point in the boys were slightly more than those in the girls, which was expected in this range of age. Clearly, it is not being suggested that all children in this sample who scored equal to or above the cut point of the CDI, would meet the DSM-IV criteria for depressive disorders in terms of symptom content and severity. However the high prevalence of self-reported depression in children and the relationship between symptoms of depression and some familial variables indicate the importance of implementing preventive procedures in which these factors should be considered.