title: Self-reported depressive symptoms in a school sample of Italian children and adolescents.
abstract: This study reports on self-reported depressive symptoms, assessed with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), in a school sample of 685 Italian students. The participants were 254 males and 431 females, the age range of the subjects was 8 to 17 years (mean age 13.0 +/- 2.8 years). The CDI mean score was 10.49 +/- 2.76. According to our data, about 10% of the subjects scored higher than the clinical threshold of 20. More than 1/3 of the students reported thoughts of death, but only 2.2% had explicit suicidal ideation. Girls scored higher than boys, and young adolescents (11-13 years) scored lower than pre-pubertal children and older adolescents, and showed fewer thoughts of death. Factorial analysis yielded seven factors, a general factor with no predominant theme, two factors related to academic self-image and body image, and four related to anhedonia-withdrawal, hypocondria-asthenia, irritability-opposition, and loss of appetite.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Stella Maris, Scientific Institute of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Calambrone (Pisa), Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poli
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sbrana
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcheschi
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Masi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires