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Leyla - Suleymanli - Depression Among Teenagers
Leyla - Suleymanli - Depression Among Teenagers
Leyla Suleymanli
ADA University
WRIT-1202-20181
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 2
Introduction
We all had a time when there was nothing to worry about in social life, different problems, and
we were freer from responsibilities. When kids reach the teenage years, their life perceptions can
be changed, both good and bad, which are affected by our environment. Sometimes many days
can not be as fun as they can, and when we need our parents’ attention the most, they may not be
able to understand our concerns. The same thing goes for the school, which is why most teens
prefer to keep everything to themselves, and the results do not satisfy in the end. The disease that
may occur in them is called depression. Depression is the most severe disruption that may
ultimately influence people's state, behaviors, and relationships with others. Many studies have
shown that nowadays, many young adolescents suffer from depression, and it takes quite a long
time to recover. While researching the reasons behind the weak mental disorder, here comes the
question: How is depression associated with the complexities of life? Based on a degree of
psychological well-being, today’s teenagers are expected to be responsible for their future,
regulate their emotions, and comprehend the difference between a pastime and an actual
profession. This responsibility is placed on them, damaging the dream world or self they have
always desired to be. These challenges can lead them astray. Throughout the research, there will
be in-depth information about the levels of depression, their factors, and their effective therapy
methods.
Methodology
Different approaches were presented to solve the research issue within the boundaries of this
study. This paper mainly relies more on the quantitative approach that focuses on data collection,
surveys statistical analysis rather than qualitative methods that primarily deal with words and
meanings. To investigate the current problem, it is necessary to prove the evidence of the scope
of the issue by maintaining the results of surveys, test scores, and effect analysis using statistics.
All the well-known electronic databases used in the paper were taken from the ADA library,
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 3
where there was a big focus on JSTOR, Taylor & Francis in 2000-2022. These journal articles
Literature Review
1. Factors of depression
Many factors, such as health, family communication, social contacts at school, and education,
can impact a person's physical and mental health, depending on the environment, household,
geographical location, and lifestyle. According to Laura N. Desha, Jan M. Nicholson, and Jenny
M. Ziviani (2011), parental interactions begin building a child's mental stability. Adolescents
report less unhappiness when they spend more time with loving parents. In this stage of a
psychological issue, it is essential not to lose instant communication with the teens and try our
best to prevent the expressive symptoms from complicating the condition. However, in most of
the events, we observe that the environment that affects adolescents slowly damages the
worldview they set up for themselves. Even the medications and interactions cannot help. They
may think they are failing to reach the performance standards they have set for themselves.
Therefore, they are always dissatisfied and depressed. They have a negative view of the world
and consider themselves worthless. This problem has eventually led to a host of severe concerns
in their academic careers, such as low exam grades (Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi et al., 2019).
2. Levels of Depression
Recent research has described the causes and effects of mentally disturbing adolescent behavior.
Additionally, it is critical to recognize that different persons may have varied symptoms of
depression depending on their illness stage. That is why we must examine the stages of
depression in kids to intervene by helping. To thoroughly investigate the issue, the youth
completed several tests and surveys, which can be used to support immediate treatment
decisions. According to major prospective studies done by Anita Thapar, Stephan Collishaw,
Robert Potter, and Ajay K Thapar (2010), adolescent depression is associated with an increased
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 4
risk of suicide (odds ratio 11 to 27), and suicide is the third largest cause of death in the 14–19-
year age group. Moving on, the further discovery made by Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi et al.
(2019) entirely disregard gender distinctions of the teens and how symptoms and degree of
depression that may occur in their well-being by declaring that the 18–19-year-old was found to
be significantly different from the 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17-year-olds in this study. According to
their research conducted in Shiraz, pupils over the age of 17 had the highest depression rate
among teens, and there was no distinction in the depression between males and girls. By
summing up the results, we may arrange depression levels in an acceptable way given the
findings of scores from across the world by summarizing all of the data. The results of the tests
establish four categories of distress: Normal or symptom-free (0–15); mild depression (16–30);
The majority of investigations have relied on illness incidence and severity logic. Following the
approaches to treating depressed teenagers. Many published assessment studies have focused on
therapy (CBT), or both. There is a scarcity of data on long-term efficacy and relapse prevention.
In contrast, large, controlled research (TADS) from the United States found that CBT alone is no
better than a placebo in moderate-to-severe depression. It is only beneficial when paired with
fluoxetine. The research was extensively studied and defined the primary goal of CBT. Parent
involvement, detecting and treating parental mental illness, teaching patients about depression
(including the use of educational leaflets), situation, attending to recent family or peer group
disputes, coping with the disorder, and coordinating with schools and other agencies are all
proposed ways, all while tracking mental status and utilizing an empathetic, reflective approach.
Food and health recommendations, exercise (45 minutes to an hour three times per week), sleep
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 5
hygiene, and anxiety management are all recommended, guided self-help and semi-supportive
therapy (Anita Thapar, Stephan Collishaw, Robert Potter, and Ajay K Thapar,2010).
Discussion
During the comparative and critical analyses of relevant sources, this research paper
demonstrates that nowadays, in today's society, one of the expected outcomes is depression
because of the considerable burden that students have on schools and social life. As a result of
the study, researchers conclude that depression is a heavy burden that students carry at school, at
home, and even in social life. Each depressed teenager may experience one of several depression
degrees. Depending on the level, it may be easy for some teens to recover but more challenging
for adolescents with deeper stages of mental disorder. According to Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi
et al. (2019), there are two types of medications such as CBT and antidepressant drugs. They
prevent severe types of depression, while other types can be prevented through specific school
programs, for example, appointments with psychologists. Additionally, they claim that the
research was extensively studied and defines the primary goal of CBT. In a further study of this
effective method, the analyzers confirmed the effects of the use of CBT. The study done by
Heather L. Crisp, Gretchen R. Gudmundsen, and Stephen R. Shirk (2006) maintains that
diagnosable children treated with CBT were likely to be less symptomatic than roughly 85
empirically validated psychosocial therapies for youth, CBT for teenage depression was not
included among "probably effective" treatments. Even though the most effective type of
treatment for the severe type of adolescent depression is considered CBT, most schools cannot
implement it for young students for one of several reasons. This medication is not suitable for
some students who need the whole treatment program consisting of aid and visits to specialists or
keeping ill teens in specific hospitals for full supervision if there is a need. For these types of
cases, scholars came up with easing the disease prevention program by distributing it online on
computers. The primary reasons for this interest were that they enjoyed using computers or
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 6
online games or that it would be easier than talking to someone. Other respondents agreed that it
would be beneficial for individuals who dislike communicating. The impact of the online
structure shows satisfactory scores in enhancing students' wellness. In agreement with Theresa M
Fleming, Robyn S Dixon & Sally N Merry (2012), electronic treatment was viewed well by the
students in this research. Conversely, researchers maintained that only 25% of youngsters who
have used CAMS services wanted to use a computer program. Following these statistics,
scholars also discovered that roughly half of the university teenagers assumed they used an
online program to assist school performance. Digital treatment may appeal to our sample of
young people who are not getting support anywhere. This method is also helpful to those who
are a little embarrassed in interacting with others or do not see themselves as confident enough to
express their real feelings. Even though the computerized version can achieve many cognitive
results, drawbacks need to be noticed. Theresa M Fleming et al. (2012) state that direct and
indirect difficulties in adopting a depression computer software were identified. The most
pressing fear was humiliation or embarrassment when other young folks discovered they were
sad. One prevalent hurdle discovered was a shortage of computers at certain alternative schools
and a loss of actual room to house computers. Even though all of the sources in the paper fully
engaged in determining and understanding the correct way of solving the problem, it seems that
there are various that should be taken into account, such as: considering that teenage depression
can vary depending on the mentality of the country they live, traditions and rules that each
family can build, or trying to reduce the external sources of depression among adolescents, for
example, bullying, the impact of social media or violence and conflicts happening between
Conclusion
The teenage years are the most difficult, fragile, and stressful to cope with. As many aspects
determine teens' struggle, the mental breakdown can be divided into different levels depending
on how long the students kept their concerns to themselves. If there is no action taken to help
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 7
deal with depression spreading in many schools, teens are more vulnerable to committing
suicide. Even though many sources used for the research gave the enough information and
support for the analysis, there are some drawbacks that needed to be considered. For example, all
the surveys and tests introduced in the paper had only one main purpose: to understand the
reason behind teenagers' mind breakdowns, however, none of the testers tried to discover the
logic of depression in the connection with parent nurturing. .For the further implementation, by
getting more knowledge about the mental disorder that is common among young teenagers,
parents, school counselors, and even survivors of the depression will be able to join many teams
in opening special programs for helping teenagers understand that they are not alone in this
journey, that it is okay to talk about anxieties that bother them despite it to be in a family,
between peers, friend or school. As it is a lot easier nowadays to test the students' mental health
and take some statistics or survey results, school counselors will distribute the step-by-step
solution list, which consists of appointments with psychologists, attending different prevention
programs, and even taking medicine needed to maintain each students' health.
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 8
Bibliography
Crisp, H. L., Gudmundsen, G. R., & Shirk, S. R. (2006). Transporting Evidence-Based Therapy for
Adolescent Depression to the School Setting. JSTOR, 287-309.
Desha, L. N., Nicholson, J. M., & Ziviani, J. M. (2011). Adolescent Depression and Time Spent with
Parents and Siblings. JSTOR, 233-238.
Fleming, T. M., Dixon, R. S., & Merry, S. N. (2012). ‘It’s mean!’ The views of young people alienated from
mainstream education on depression, help. Taylor & Francis, 195-203.
Khesht-Masjedi, M. F., Shokrgozar, S., Abdollahi, E., Habibi, B., Asghari, T., Ofoghi, R. S., & Pazhooman, S.
(2019). The relationship between gender, age, anxiety, depression, and academic achievement
among teenagers. Taylor & Francis, 799-804.
Thapar, A., Collishaw, S., Potter, R., & Thapar, A. K. (2010). Managing and preventing depression in
adolescents. JSTOR, 254-258.