Depression can be defined as a disorder that affects the normal functioning of the mind and body. It is characterized by persistent bouts of sadness as well as an inability to perform everyday duties. This is not similar to the normal feelings of grief that follow an unhappy experience or frustrating day. This kind of sadness is recurrent and intense, and it is accompanied by overwhelming feelings of helplessness. The person experiencing it is unable to carry out routine activities such as sleeping, eating, studying or working. Though sadness is the primary symptom, it may be accompanied by one or more symptoms (Khurshid et al., 2015).
People with depression have problems concentrating and remembering essential details. They may have difficulty sleeping or experience insomnia on some nights. Some may oversleep or awake too early in the morning hours. Loss of appetite or overeating is other symptoms. Feelings of pessimism often dominate the depressed person more than other positive feelings. They may think of committing suicide or other self-destructive acts. The person also loses interest in activities that they once found pleasurable. They also get tired faster when they perform simple activities. They complain of fatigue as well as restlessness and irritability. The biggest indicator of depression is the loss of interest in activities that are normally pleasurable such as sex. Another prominent symptom of most depressed people is the occurrence of regular psychosomatic illnesses. They include headaches, recurrent aches and pains and digestive problems. These ailments do not have any known medical cause or cure, and they do not respond to treatment.
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The American Psychological Association (APA) explains that people with depression may have a combination of any of the symptoms above. They may range in severity, frequency and intensity. Practicing psychologists have also come to realize that depression is caused by a myriad of factors that may manifest in different ways. The APA also defines the ailments as a mood disorder and may also be known as a mood episode. A mood episode is a time during which a depressed person experiences the symptoms above in intensities that affect the normal functioning of the mind and body. A mood disorder is a clinical description that differentiates different manifestations of depression. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) separates mood disorders into three. Bipolar Disorders, depressive disorders and other Mood Disorders
The most common depressive disorder is the Major Depressive disorder. It normally occurs over a span of two weeks where the affected person experiences lower energy levels, changes in sleeping, eating and concentration and also in the will to live. Other depressive disorders include Dysthymic disorders where the above symptoms last for about two years. Adolescents and children with this disorder are diagnosed after one year with a combination of the symptoms. The mood disorders classified as others are those that do not meet the criteria for either major depressive disorder or dysthymic disorders. They include Recurrent Brief Depressive Disorder, Minor Depressive Disorder, Post Psychotic disorder and Premenstrual Dysphoria disorder such as PMS or postnatal depression. Changes in the moods that are caused by substance abuse are not listed in this classification.
Purpose of the Study
Depression is a disorder that is growing and spreading fast in the United States. Different studies have been done to show that there is a correlation between human capital and productivity in the workplace. The various studies focus on the productivity and output of persons living with depression. There is little or no studies showing the correlations between depression and the academic performance of suffering patients. This paper will follow the academic performance of high school students who have been identified to be living with depression. The paper .will then compares the academic performance of the depressed students with the rates of the others. This is despite widely publicized findings that showed a clear correlation between mental health care and work disability.
Hypotheses
The following hypothesis was developed and tested.
Alternative hypothesis
1. There is a decline in academic performance for students who are suffering from depression.
2. There is a significant decline in varying intensity of academic performance for students who have low, high or medium rates of depression
Null Hypothesis
1. There is no decline or impact of depression on the academic performance of students.
2. There is no significant decline of academic performance for students who have low, high or medium rates of depression.
Literature review
This section reviews some publications that study the effect of depression on an individual’s capacity to function, and on other factors that impact concentration. Khurshid et al. (2015) discuss the impact of depression on a group of women in a college. These authors go through the full length of the depression. They mention its various causes and the different ways it manifests. They also describe the different ways in which the condition can manifest in various intensities. Khurshid et al. manage to outline how depression weakens a person’s resolve towards the pursuit of their education. He outlines factors such as sleeping deprivation or overindulgence in food as some of the factors that impact concentration and therefore, ultimately affect performance.
Jones (2008) also raises similar concerns. His report is based on studies that were carried out in conjunction with the University of Florida. They highlight the systematic differences in academic performance from when a person is diagnosed with depression all through to his treatment journey. The results show that the performance is negatively impacted by unmanaged or undiagnosed depression. The peers of the affected individual may also experience lower motivation rates when they associate with those suffering from depression. This led to a general decline in the execution of academic tasks and in the faculty’s ability to fully impartiality knowledge and communicated with a distracted student. Students who reported an increase in experiencing feelings associated with depression performed much lower than non-depressed students. The difference noted was up to a GPA reduction of 0.84 points per average student. This score was higher for students who were in the highest intensity of depression. Jones also observed that some demographic groups were more likely to be more affected by depression than others.
Jaycox et al. (2009) study goes further by relating the extent and aspect of academic performance with the severity of the depressive state. About 14% of the student population was reported to show signs of depression. This resulted in a feeling of being overwhelmed by the general school activities. The affected percentage also experienced poor concentration and a decrease in the amount of self-reliance. This article also shows that female students were more susceptible to depression. Depression also lessened the chances for social interaction. This also hampered the well being of the students who were left unable to cope because they lacked a support system. There was also an evaluation of Gross man's model which demonstrated the relationship between education and mental health.
Materials and methods
This being a descriptive study, the research was carried out by collecting the relevant data and describing its relevance. Participants were chosen from different high schools in the school district of Parkland in Florida. The sample size was explicitly selected from the students undertaking the final two years of high school. This is because it is easier to trace their academic records accurately and with the assistance of the school administrator. The research paper analyzed data collected from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health also known as Add Health. This is a national resource centre that researches continuously on different issues that may affect the adolescent till he reaches adulthood. The Additional Health Group is funded by the government and an additional over 30 independent bodies. These findings were supplemented by further analysis of the GPA (Grade Point Average) results that were attained during the study. The sample size was narrowed down to 262 students who were distributed among various schools. The participants or subjects of the study were selected based on their frequency and intensity of their symptoms. During the screening process, the participants were required to fill in a questionnaire with structured questions. They were expected to grade their symptoms by choosing intensity and frequency as described on a Likert scale. Those who exhibited four or more of the symptoms described in the introduction above were considered. Those who had not had the symptoms recurring over a period were not selected. Those whose symptoms had recently become more frequent and extreme in intensity were given the priority (Hart et al., 2009).
The chosen subjects were interviewed about their feelings two weeks before the commencement of the research study. This frequent communication was to allow the continuous evaluation of the symptoms that were characteristics of the major depressive disorder. The interviews also served a purpose of continuity of data as well as supplementing the data that was received from Add Health. The confirmation of the symptoms and frequency has three functions. The first and obvious one is the selection of patients with a major depressive disorder. The second purpose is to demonstrate how the frequency of these symptoms can be disruptive to everyday scheduling and performance of activities. For example, recurrent insomnia will automatically lead to fatigue and irritability which will eventually hinder the subject from concentrating in class.
The subject may not be motivated enough to study in such circumstances, and they are likely to result in a state of unproductiveness. This will automatically lead to lower grades because the subject was unable to study or concentrate in class. The third and last purpose was to eliminate any symptoms that may be as a result of a medical condition that is not related to depression. For example, a person with anorexia will demonstrate changes in appetite and fatigue, but this will be symptoms of an eating disorder and not a depressive disorder. Additional information that was used for screening included an educational background that sought confirmation of stability. This was done by establishing whether a student had ever missed a grade or been required to repeat one. This eliminated the possibility of a learning disability (McCarthy et al., 2016).
The academic performance outcomes were set as a dependent variable. This part of the analysis required students to answer questions on their exact scores on tests. These tests were performed at a time when the student seemed to be the most vulnerable to his depressive disorder. Individual scores were collected from data on subject areas such as Arithmetic, English, Social Studies or Science. These scores were compared to older test scores that were taken when the subject was in better mental health or stable condition. The result was compared to demonstrate whether the depressive disorder had an impact on the overall academic performance of the depressed students. Comparisons were made with individual test scores as well as with the overall GPA scores from both time periods.
The collected data then undergoes first differencing. This is a process of analysis where the data denoting academic performance undergoes analysis to accommodate the presence of factors such heredity or familial influences that may affect the student's academic performance. This will lead to factors such as race or sex being differenced away because they do not change over time. This will establish the relationship that is present between the two sets of grades received. Sibling fixed effects were also performed to compare the results of two siblings who have different depressive states. This is done by applying a vector of fixed effects. The Davidson-Mackinnon test is also used to cater for the over identifying restrictions that may occur from the use of two or more instruments. Finally, the Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) or Instrumental Variables are used to simplify the data collected (Fröjd et al., 2008).
Discussion and results
Only 7% of the subject population exhibited most of the characteristics that were associated with significant depressive disorders. This is similar to a national rate that suggested that the national statistics stood at 8.3% for the adolescent population. This means that Parkland Florida is below the national average for the prevalence of major depressive disorders. The students who were noted to experience depressive mood symptoms some of the time had a GPA score of average 0.1425 lower than those without the depressive symptoms. The group of students who reported experiencing depressive moods some of the time had a GPA that was lower than the non-depressive student by an average of 0.237 points. The final group of students who exhibited the highest major depressive disorder symptoms produced results that were an average 0.3965 lower than the students with no depressive symptoms. More than 50% of the respondents with the most severe depressive symptoms were female, with majority females being in the ghetto major depressive category. Caucasian respondents formed the largest percentage of the total sum of respondent except in the most depressed category. This grouping had the largest number of Asians, Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans (Romero et al., 2014).
The research findings point to a combination of factors that are responsible for academic performance. Depression is one of the factors that impact performance. The results show that depression causes changes in behavior and self-esteem. These changes make a person lose their sense of worth and their ability to concentrate. This is significant factors that affect the body and mind and interfere with the person's ability to manage their affairs. This combination of effects is eventually what negatively impacts the academic performance. The results are similar to findings from other research projects done on mood disorders. The results in a majority of such tests have shown inconsistencies in the extent to which depression negatively affects the academic performance. This is because factors such as personal effort could not be determined by the research mandate. There were also gender variances that showed different trends in the male and female students. The male students showed more symptoms of depression than anxiety while the female students were observed to have more anxiety symptoms than were observed in the male students. They also have less depressive symptoms. The study could not relate the presence of anxiety symptoms to either the academic performance or to the extent to which the depressive symptoms were exhibited. Though a negative impact was established, its effect could not be quantified with certainty.
Conclusion
The following conclusions were drawn based on the hypothesis:
1. The results show that there is a decline in academic performance for students who are suffering from depression; therefore, the null hypothesis number 1 is therefore rejected.
2. The results showed that there is a significant decline in varying intensity of academic performance for students who have low, high or medium rates of depression. Therefore, the null hypothesis number two is therefore rejected.
These findings should assist educators and mental health specialists in the formulation of robust systems that provide support for the troubled students. This will put these findings to good use and help manage depression at an early stage. This will ensure that there is a decrease in the national statistics of the number of people who tend to suffer from depression without proper management. Additionally, enabling the high school students to develop coping mechanisms at a young age makes them well prepared for the life after school and the challenges associated with independence and the job market. The players in the educational sector also have to be vigilant in observing the young people under their charge so that they can ensure that they are mentally stable. This will prevent issues such as the high school shooting that took place at Marjory Stone man Douglas High School. This is a more permanent solution than the tightening of security measures. In summary, the management of depressive disorders is vital in high schools, for better academic performance and improved overall mental health.
References
Fröjd, S. A., Nissinen, E. S., Pelkonen, M. U., Marttunen, M. J., Koivisto, A. M., & Kaltiala-Heino, R. (2008). Depression and school performance in middle adolescent boys and girls. Journal of adolescence, 31(4), 485-498.
Hart, S. R., Kastelic, E. A., Wilcox, H. C., Beaudry, M. B., Musci, R. J., Heley, K. M., & Swartz, K. L. (2014). Achieving depression literacy: the adolescent depression knowledge questionnaire (ADKQ). School mental health, 6(3), 213-223.
Jaycox, L. H., Stein, B. D., Paddock, S., Miles, J. N., Chandra, A., Meredith, L. S., & Burnam, M. A. (2009). Impact of teen depression on academic, social, and physical functioning. Pediatrics, 124(4), e596-e605.
Jones, R. C. (2008). The effects of depressed mood on academic outcomes in adolescents and young adults. University of South Florida.
Khurshid, S., Parveen, Q., Yousuf, M., & Ghafoor, A. (2015). Effects of depression on students’ academic performance. Science International, 27(2), 1619-1624.
McCarthy, A. E., Young, J. F., Benas, J. S., & Gallop, R. J. (2016). School-related outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of adolescent depression prevention programs. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 1063426617717739.
Romero, C., Master, A., Paunesku, D., Dweck, C. S., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Academic and emotional functioning in middle school: the role of implicit theories. Emotion, 14(2), 227.
