Effect of personality and gender on the level of depression among adolescents

Pages: 363-367
Renuka Joshi (Department of Psychology, DAV (PG) College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand)
Yamini Negi (Department of Psychology, IGNOU, Dehradun, Uttarakhand)

The increase in the prevalence of depression and suicide rates among children and adolescents especially in India calls for a serious evaluation of the situation. The present study aims to address this problem by studying the relationship between the personality type of adolescents and their score on the depression scale by Karim and Tiwari. The total sample of the study consisted of 100 adolescents. To get the required number of extroverts (n-50) and introverts (n=50), Neymen-Kohilstedt Diagnostic Test was used. Further, the extrovert and introvert category had an equal number of males (n=25) and females (n=25), thus a total of 50 males and 50 females and adolescents in the age group of 14 -17 were included in the study. The findings of the study suggest that introvert and extrovert adolescents differ significantly from each other on the level of depression, and its different dimensions. The introverts had a consistently significant higher depression score than the extroverts. Additionally, the correlation between personality and depression score was negative and significant (r = -0.59) suggesting that as the score on the personality test increased i.e., extroverts, the score on the depression test decreased i.e. lower level of depression. Thus, the results support the hypothesis that introvert and extrovert adolescents differ significantly from each other on depression level.