|
Abstract
|
BACKGROUND: There is a significant gap with respect to the prevalence of depression, suicidal ideation and help seeking among youth in India. In this background, the current study attempts to examine the effect of a brief universal school based awareness program in reducing depression and suicidal behaviours among youth in schools.
METHOD: Stratified random sampling was used to select educational institutions. The intervention adopted a single group pre and post assessment design. Youth studying in 8 to 12 grades from public and private institutions were included (8-10 grades, n = 168; 11 and 12, n = 205). The tools used were: Demographic Data Sheet, Scale for Suicidal Behaviours, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and Suicide Probability Scale. Classroom based two session interventions were carried out in group format in the selected classes of 7 institutions. Descriptive statistics, RMANOVA, chi square test, 't' and Mann whitney U tests were used to analyse the data.
RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in depression, suicidal ideas and attempts, and suicidal probability scores. However, there was no change in the severity category for both depression and suicidal probability. Older youth showed better improvement on depression and suicidal ideation compared to their younger counterparts. Females showed better improvement on depression, suicidal ideation, hostility and suicidal probability compared to males. Significant improvement was seen for youth having higher scores on depression.
CONCLUSION: The study provides preliminary evidence for usefulness of a brief school based awareness program for depression and suicidality, a common mental health problem among adolescents in India. © 2018
Language: en |