Depressive Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation among Czech Adolescents
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The incidence of suicide and suicide attempts in Czech adolescent population are among the highest in Europe. Based on the data of crisis hotline counselors for children, the frequency of suicidal callers doubled in the last five years. There seems to be many reasons for this increase; the depression in children and adolescents being the major one besides socio-demographic factors, family-related factors, substance abuse etc. The aim of our study was to investigate the incidence of depression symptoms during the period of early adolescence and to compare them with Czech normative data from 1997. The study was conducted on a large sample (N=1708) of Czech adolescents aged 11-16 years (m = 13.65; 52% female), utilizing the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI - Kovacs, & Beck, 1977; Kovacs, 1992). The CDI evaluates the presence and severity of specific depressive symptoms in youth; depression is seen as a syndrome, not a specific behaviour. The proportion of the adolescents with the total score indicating higher risk of clinical depression was between 17,8 - 42,9 % in our sample, depending on the cut-off score. Regarding the incidence of suicidal ideation, almost 2 % expressed a commitment to suicide and further 21 % admitted ideation without a firm intention (the latter being twice more common in girls than in boys). Significantly higher scores both in CDI total score and in the scale scores were found when compared to Czech norms constructed more than 15 years ago. Detailed pattern of gender differences and the correlations of CDI scores and family-related factors or relationships with peers including belonging to a subcultures as emo or goth are also presented. |
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