English abstract
This study aimed to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms among after primary education stage schools in the internal governorates. The researcher used the descriptive and analytical research approach. The study sample consisted of (983) students representing (8.6%) of the study populations, which selected by random sampling methods.
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) published (1996) which translated to the Arab environment by Garib (2001), and standardized to Omani environment by Al-Ansari and Kazem (2007). After verifying the BDI-II validity and reliability the data were collected and analyzed using (SPSS) software, a number of statistics were calculated (means, and standard deviations) and well as conducting a t-test for two independent samples ANOVA and Post-Hoc multiple comparison tests, and the following results were founded.
The results raveled that the study sample in general suffering from depression symptoms in moderate level. Their overall mean was (14.21), also the result shown that 4.07% from the overall the sample suffering from server depression.
Furthermore, the result shown that a significant difference in the mean of the depression due to gender, female students have been higher level of depression. In addition to, there was the difference in the depression due to student grade, the 111th grade student has high level of depression. Furthermore, there is significant difference in depression due to the level of income, low-income students have higher level of depression comparing to other levels of income. Furthermore, the depression level was significantly different due to health condition. The student with chronic disease was higher in the level of depression.
The results shown there is no significant different in the level of depression among the sample due to place of living, and the family member number.
The study suggested a number of recommendations to carry more research in Sultanate of Oman, to find the profound factors that embedded in the depression in different areas, as well as, provide counseling programs that help the student handle stress.
