Mike TrauntschnigDepressivität von SchülerInnen der Sekundarstufe

About this book deutschenglish

Depressive disorders are one of the most common mental disorders among young people. The fact that only about 25 percent of all patients are identified and treated is an alarming situation. For this reason the present investigation focused on student´s depression as well as the assessment from their teachers. To measure students´ depression, the short form of the Depression Test for Children (DTK-II) by Rossmann (2014) was used. In a similar procedure, teachers' assessments were made. The study refers to data from 436 pupils (218 girls) from the eighth school year of the “Neuen Mittelschulen”. The results show that teachers are able to assess the condition of their students. Previous studies ignored any differences of various subgroups, only Thiels and Schmitz (2008) were able to show that teachers assessed girls more precisely regarding the existence of mental disorders than boys. For this reason, further analyses examined whether teacher assessed their students equally well independently of gender, migration background or special educational needs (SEN). In a further step, analyses were conducted to determine whether gender, migration background, SEN, or socio-economic status can predict the extent of depression. The results of this study can be considered as an impulse to raise the awareness of teachers for the early detection of depressive disorders.