Depressive symptoms and perceived competence among Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong

Depressive symptoms of 621 Grade 7 to Grade 12 secondary school students were assessed and described in terms of dimensions of disturbances in mood, self-image, behavior, hedonic capacity, and self-efficacy using the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Using the cutoff score of 20, 24% of the adolescents would be in the depressed range. In a subsample of 319 students who also completed the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents, depressive symptom levels tended to be highest among students who perceived themselves to be relatively incompetent academically and socially, and lowest among students who perceived themselves to be academically and socially competent, supporting the cumulative effects of perceived academic and social incompetence on depressive symptoms. The relatively more elevated CDI scores and subscores among Chinese adolescents compared with US adolescents and the choice of a cutoff score for screening in the Hong Kong school population are discussed.