Adolescent Depression: Its Prevalence in High School Students.

Abstract This paper presents the evidence pertaining to prevalence of depression in high school students. In spite of increasing concern with adolescent depression, prevalence figures are not clearly established, largely because of problems rooted in differences in conceptualization and measurement of this significant affective disorder. Original data from 103 high school tenth and eleventh graders from an urban school in South Carolina on the 13-item version of the Beck Depression Inventory are provided and compared with other prevalence data. On the basis of the cutoffs for level of severity established by Albert and Beck ( Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 4, 301–307, 1975), 26% scored within the moderate range, and 6% scored within the severe range of depression. The implications of the high rate of reported depressive symptoms among adolescents are discussed in relation to school psychology practice.