Asad Nargis, Karmaliani Rozina, McFarlane Judith, Bhamani Shireen Shehzad, Somani Yasmeen, Chirwa Esnat, Jewkes Rachel
Department of Psychiatry, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, 3500, Pakistan.
School of Nursing & Midwifery, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2017 Nov;22(4):232-241. doi: 10.1111/camh.12249.
Depression and peer violence are global issues impacting youth. We are presenting baseline data as part of a cluster randomized control trial underway, on adolescent depression, and associated factors among boys and girls in schools.
Cluster randomized control trial is underway for measuring the effectiveness of school-based play intervention program of the NGO Right to Play, in a sample of 1752 grade 6 youth in 40 public schools of Hyderabad, Pakistan. Students responded to Child Depression Inventory (CDI-2), the Peer Victimization Scale (PVS), the Peer Perpetration Scale (PPS), and investigator-driven seven-item School Performance Scale.
We report baseline assessments to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, and associated occurrence of peer perpetration and victimization. Boys report significantly more depressive symptoms as well as perpetration and victimization compared to girls (p ≤ .0001). Our analysis indicates that among boys, depression was found associated with greater age, food insecurity, poorer school performance and working for money, as well as being beaten at home and witnessing beating of their mother by their father or other relatives. Among girls, depression was associated with a younger age, greater food insecurity and poorer school performance. Depression was also associated with a great likelihood of engagement in peer violence, experience of punishment at home, and witnessing their father fighting with other men or beating their mother.
Engagement in violent behaviors, exposure to violent acts and poverty surfaces as detrimental to mental health in youth age groups, suggesting strong measures to address youth violence, and poverty reduction for positive mental health outcomes in school age children.
抑郁症和同伴暴力是影响青少年的全球性问题。作为一项正在进行的整群随机对照试验的一部分，我们正在呈现关于青少年抑郁症以及学校中男女生相关因素的基线数据。
正在进行整群随机对照试验，以测量非政府组织“游戏权利”开展的校内游戏干预项目的效果，该试验选取了巴基斯坦海得拉巴40所公立学校的1752名六年级学生作为样本。学生们对儿童抑郁量表（CDI - 2）、同伴受害量表（PVS）、同伴施暴量表（PPS）以及研究者设计的七项学业表现量表进行了作答。
我们报告基线评估结果，以检查抑郁症状的患病率以及同伴施暴和受害的相关发生率。与女生相比，男生报告的抑郁症状以及施暴和受害情况显著更多（p≤.0001）。我们的分析表明，在男生中，抑郁症与年龄较大、粮食不安全、学业表现较差、打工挣钱以及在家中被打和目睹父亲或其他亲属殴打母亲有关。在女生中，抑郁症与年龄较小、粮食不安全程度较高和学业表现较差有关。抑郁症还与参与同伴暴力的可能性较大、在家中受惩罚以及目睹父亲与其他男性打架或殴打母亲有关。
参与暴力行为、接触暴力行为和贫困对青少年心理健康有害，这表明需要采取有力措施来解决青少年暴力问题，并减少贫困以促进学龄儿童的积极心理健康结果。
