Abstract

CAJIGAS-SEGREDO, Nelda; KAHAN, Evelina; LUZARDO, Mario  and  UGO, Ma. del Carmen. STUDENTS, LEVELS OF SEVERITY, GENDER AND AGE DEPRESSION IN PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL. Cienc. Psicol. [online]. 2010, vol.4, n.2, pp.149-163. ISSN 1688-4221.

The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI, Kovacs, 1992) was administered to six hundred 11 to 17 year old students of middle-low socio-economic status from the public system middle school in semi-rural Montevideo. The translation and validation had been made in Spain and was adapted, factorized and validated in the Uruguayan sample by these authors. Psychometric properties were largely satisfactory. Depression prevalence reached 15% of students. Regarding gender, the Global Composite and the identified dimensions confirmed higher scores in girls. Only the Inefficacity factor was found to be gender independent, which suggests a specific adolescence issue. Depression evolution depends on gender and significantly increases with age. This is consistent with a number of previous studies that highlights an increment in girls after 12 years old. Albeit non depressed students do not show a difference inter gender, moderate to severely depressed girls are double the number of depressed boys with variation by factors

Keywords : Adolescent Depression; Severity Levels; Gender; Age; Scales.

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