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Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents in the general Japanese population using a depression self-rating scale and determine whether this prevalence varies according to age, gender, or region.

Method:

The Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale for children (DSRS) was used to examine the extent to which depressive tendencies were present among 2,453 elementary and middle-school children (6 to 15 years old) in two cities in Japan.

Results:

The mean DSRS score was high at 8.75 + 5.66. A significant increase in score was observed with increasing age. There were no significant differences between regions. Using a DSRS cutoff score of 15 points as a risk of depression, the scores of 14.9% of the subjects exceeded the cutoff.

Conclusions:

As determined using the DSRS, a high proportion of Japanese children and adolescents have depressive tendencies.

Keywords

children adolescents depression Birleson depression self-rating scale for children (DSRS)community sample

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