Depression among Runaway Adolescence

Author: Ayesha Latif

Supervisor: Ms. Afshi Yahya Khan

Degree: BS

Year: 2005-2009

University: Centre for Clinical Psychology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective of the present study was to assess Depression and Depressive symptoms, which were Negative Mood, Interpersonal Problems, Ineffectiveness, Anhedonia, and Negative Self-Esteem, among runaway adolescents. In the present research a sample of 100 runaway adolescents (86 males, 14 females) were taken from three youth agencies. The age range of the sample was 13 to 17 years. Current research was Cross-sectional in design. Purposive sampling was used to approach youth agencies whereas Convenience sampling was used to approach the participants. Demographic Questionnaire was administered in order to gather personal information of participants and demographic characteristics of runaway adolescents. Urdu version of Children’s Depression Inventory (Manzoor & Dawood, 2005), comprising of 27 items, was used to have a complete picture needed of runaway adolescents’ Depressive symptomatology Frequencies and percentages of Depression and Depressive symptoms were calculated by Descriptive analysis. According to the results 10 of adolescents had very much above average depressive symptoms, 8 of the participants scored much above average, and 11 of youth scored above average. It was also found in the study that 25 of the subjects of sample suffered from very much above average Negative Mood, 20 of the subjects suffered from much above average Interpersonal Problems, 14 of the subjects experienced slightly above average Ineffectiveness, 17 of the subjects had much above average Anhedonia and 14 of the subjects suffered from very much above average Negative Self-Esteem. Thus, it was concluded that runaway adolescents suffered from Depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Depression, Anhedonia ,Negative Mood, Runaway, Adolescents.

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