Correlation between depression， anxiety and social support among grade three senior high school students under in-school quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic / 四川精神卫生

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo assess the level of depression， anxiety and social support among grade three senior high school students under in-school quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic， so as to provide references for targeted psychological intervention of them. MethodsA total of 724 grade three senior high school students from three key schools in Binzhou City， Shandong Province were selected using random sampling method. Generalized Anxiety Disorder （GAD-7）， Patients' Health Questionnaire Depression Scale-9 item （PHQ-9） and Perceived Social Support Scale （PSSS） were used to survey the psychological status including anxiety， depression and the level of social support. Partial correlation analysis was adopted to discuss the correlation of PSSS score with GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores， meantime， the multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between PSSS and PHQ-9 scores. ResultsAmong grade three senior high school students， 341 （48.64%） and 383 （54.64%） were found to have symptoms of anxiety and depression， respectively. PSSS total score as well as the dimension score of family support and other support of female students were higher than those of male students， with statistical significance （t=-3.431， -3.048， -4.482， P<0.01）. GAD-7， PSSS total scores and the dimension scores of family support and other support demonstrated statistical differences among grade three senior high school students with different selections of academic subjects for college entrance examination （F=1.992， 2.660， 2.074， 3.138， P<0.05 or 0.01）. PHQ-9 score was negatively correlated with the total score and each dimension score of PSSS （r=-0.329， -0.283， -0.284， -0.284， P<0.01）. The dimension score of family support and friend support in PSSS could negatively predict the PHQ-9 score （B=-0.213， -0.308， P<0.01）. ConclusionGrade three senior high school students under in-school quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic suffer a high prevalence rate of anxiety and depression， while students with higher perceived social support scores report fewer symptoms of depression. Hence， improving the level of social support may alleviate depression in students.