How Differences in Experiencing Depression Effects School Attendance Between Different Cultures

How Differences in Experiencing Depression Effects

School Attendance Between Different Cultures

Rachel Praver

University of British Columbia

Abstract

Depression is a worldwide-accepted mental disorder that is experienced by almost everyone. Yet it has been proven through previous research that different cultures experience the symptoms of depression is dissimilar ways. Some cultures, including the Chinese, report mainly physiological symptoms as indicators of depression, whereas those from Western cultures tend to report psychological symptoms as the main indicators of depression. Depression, experienced in any way, negatively effects those who suffer from it, and can lead to a lack of participation in many daily activities, including attending school. It was hypothesized that students who feel more psychological symptoms compared to physiological symptoms will more likely be truant from their classes. In this experiment, university students from Chinese and First Nations backgrounds who qualified for this experiment were given a survey three times throughout the duration of their courses in order to test their current levels of depression and how they were experiencing their symptoms. In addition, all participating students must sign out with the teacher after each class to give proof of their presence. Many complications arise with this experiment, as some students may arrive late to class, or miss days for other reasons than for experiencing symptoms of depression. Further studies must be conducted, as suicide is one of the highest reasons for death in college students.

Keywords: Depression, school attendance, symptoms, cultures.

How Differences in Experiencing Depression Effects

School Attendance Between Different Cultures

While depression is a well known and widely experienced psychological disorder throughout the world, many people experience the symptoms of depression is vastly different ways. Individuals may experience mostly physiological symptoms, such as physical pain, sleep problems, headaches, etc., or in mostly psychological symptoms, including feelings of deep sadness or guilt (Heine, 2008). Many studies have shown strong evidence that these different experiences with depression are culture based. For example, when comparing Chinese and Westerners, it has been established that in China, depression is widely experienced as physical symptoms and patients tend to lack the psychological symptoms and mood disruptions, whereas Westerners usually experience the symptoms of depression in the opposite way, reporting more psychological problems (Heine, 2008).

Depression is an increasingly common experience for college students. In a study done by Steven J. Garlow et al. (2008) on undergraduate college students who participated in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-sponsored College Screening Project at Emory University, 11.1% of the students reported suicidal thoughts within the last 4 weeks, and 16.5% had attempted suicide. It was also noted that students who were currently having suicidal thoughts were experiencing much more severe symptoms of depression than those students who were not having suicidal thoughts (Garlow et al., 2008). The results of this study suggest a strong correlation between how severe symptoms are and with suicidal thoughts, and that suicidal feelings and actions are relatively common among college students (Garlow et al., 2008).

In another study done in two U.S. medical schools by Uma Chandavarkar, M.D., Amin Azzam, M.D., and Carol A. Mathews, M.D. (2007) examined how depression and anxiety effected medical student's perceived performance rates. The study showed that lower perceived performance was associated with greater levels of anxiety and symptoms of depression (Chandavarkar et al., 2007). It is shown here that depressive symptoms play an important role in how we perceive ourselves and our school performance rates.

As depression is so commonly experienced by college students, it is important to examine how depression effects attendance rates, and what can potentially be done in order to reverse this. For Canadian Aboriginal students, where the suicide rate is exceptionally high, many do not even reach college level in their academics. Having a higher rate of Aboriginal