An investigation of the relationship between depression and school achievement in adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated mainly the relationship among depression,thought processes, anxiety and achievement. Specifically, the relationshipamong the level of depression, presence of negative preoccupations, level ofanxiety and school achievement in high school students were of concern.It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship amongcognitive distortions, depression and anxiety; and a negative relationship betweencognitive distortions and school achievement.The participants of the study were 124 high school students inRobert Lycee. The measurement instruments were the Beck Depression Inventory,the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire and the STAI A-Trait scale.Additionally, each student's grade point average was calculated to assess theirschool achievement.The results showed that cogmtive distortions, depression and anxietyare positively correlated with one another. However, no correlation was foundbetween cognitive distortions and school achievement. Some speculations werediscussed related to the findings and suggestions for further studies weregiven.