Prevalence and Severity of Depression among UPSC Aspirants

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21868369

Biradar Gayatri¹, Pragnya Priyadarshini Panda², Supriya Ramani³, Renu Joshi⁴, and Preeti Yadav⁵ (Department of HDFS, CCS, PJTAU, Hyderabad, Telangana¹, Department of HDFS, CCS, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha²,
Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan³, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana⁴, IHSc, BAU, Agra, Uttar Pradesh⁵)

Each and every year, many students are appearing for the preliminary Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). In India, it is one of the most competitive and admired exams, which is being conducted in three phases: prelims, mains, and interview. In recent years, an increasing number of suicidal cases, overthinking, depression, anxiety and other mental health problems have been detected among UPSC aspirants enrolled in various coaching centers, making it a significant concern. The difficult nature of the examination process is the main reason for all these mental health issues being faced by UPSC aspirants. The present study is intended to assess the prevalence and severity of depression among UPSC aspirants enrolled in different coaching institutes in Delhi. A total of 240 UPSC aspirants studying in different coaching centers, including 120 males and 120 females were selected for data collection. To assess the prevalence and severity of depression among UPSC aspirants, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used. Personal interview sessions were conducted with all the participants in order to analyze the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms. The results of the present study revealed that a moderate to severe level of depression was observed among UPSC aspirants. A substantial proportion, i.e., 45.83 per cent of the respondents were identified as experiencing moderate depression, while 17.91 per cent of the respondents were suffering from severe depression. 16.66 per cent of the respondents exhibited borderline depression and 9.16 per cent were identified as experiencing mild mood disturbances. The findings of this study concluded that moderate to severe depression is highly prevalent among UPSC aspirants. Additionally, the study also found that there is a statistically non-significant difference in depression levels among male and female aspirants, suggesting that both genders are equally vulnerable to depression and other mental health symptoms during the preparation for any competitive examination.