The Relationship Between Depression Levels and Perceptions of Social Support in 4th - 7th Grade Primary School Students

Objective:

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between depression levels and perceptions of social support in 4th – 7th grade primary school students.

Method:

Descriptive in fashion, this study was carried out between 20 May 2008 - 6 June 2008 with 792 primary school students who went to any of the 10 schools within the borders of Sivas province. Data were collected by using Personal Information Form, Children’s Depression Inventory, Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale and Social Support Scale. For the analyses of the data, t test, Mann Whitney U test, Anova and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used and statistical signifi cance level was set at p<0.05.

Results:

Mean age of the students was 11,75±1,2. Depressive symptoms were detected in 7,8% of students aged between 9-11 years and 6.2% of students aged between 12 and 14 years. In this study, there were signifi cant differences between the scores of depression and age, parents’ level of education, mother’s occupation, school achievement levels, state of having a friend outside school while there were signifi cant differences between the scores of social support and age, school achievement levels, state of having a friend outside school (p<0.05). It was also found that there was a signifi cant relationship between social support scores and depression scores of the students (p<0.05)in the negative direction ; depression decreased as social support increased.

Discussion:

In this study it was found that there was a close relationship between depression and social support in primary school students and that depressive symptoms increased as social support decreased. For this reason, attention towards mental health services to protect and maintain the psychiatric well-being of the children in primary schools is of vital importance.