The Correlation of Health Literacy and Social Support to Depression Among Senior High School Students
Keywords:
Health literacy, Social support, Depression, Senior high school studentsAbstract
Depression is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adolescents. If factors related to depression are known, adolescents can be protected from it. This study aimed to explore health literacy, social support, and depression among senior high school students and explain the correlation between these two factors and depression. The participants consisted of 301 senior high school students who were selected by multi-stage random sampling. The instruments used in the research were 1) the health literacy questionnaire; 2) the social support questionnaires; and 3) the CES-D as a screen for depression questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaires was tested by Cronbach's alpha coefficient with results of 0.90, 0.89, and 0.81, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Spearman rank correlation coefficient.
The results found that students' health literacy levels (M = 3.57, SD = 0.72) and social support levels (M = 3.75, SD = 0.78) were high while they had mild to moderate levels of depression (M = 20.34, SD = 9.57). Social support was moderately negatively related to depression (rs = -.48, p < .001), and health literacy had a negative relationship with low levels of depression (rs = -.36, p < .001) with statistical significance.
The results of this research can be used as basic information to promote students' health literacy and for increased social support in order to prevent students from becoming more depressed.
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