Depression and Self-Esteem in Early Adolescence

Depression prevalence has increased in the last few decades, affecting younger age groups. The aim of this research was to determine the range of depression and low self-esteem in elementary school children in the city of Split. Testing was carried out at school and the sample comprised 1,549 children (714 boys and 832 girls, aged 13). Two psychological instruments were used: the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) and the Children and Adolescent Depression Scale (SDD). The average value of scores obtained by SEI test was 17.8 for all tested children. No statistically significant difference was found be-tween boys and girls. It was found that 11.9% of children showed signs of clinically significant depression, and 16.2% showed signs of depression. Statistically significant association between low self-esteem and clinically significant depression was found. No statistically significant difference among boys and girls according to dimension of cognitive depression was found, whereas statistically significant level of emotional depression was higher in girls than boys. It was found that both dimensions of depression decreased proportionally with the increase of SEI test score values: cognitive and emotional dimension of depression. The results of this study show that it is necessary to provide early detection of emotional difficulties in order to prevent serious mental disorders.