The Co-Occurrence of Disruptive Behavior and Depression among Disruptive Adolescents

Abstract

Disruptive behavior and depression are two of the most common mental health and psychiatric problems found in Thai adolescents today. Prior research has established that adolescents who engage in disruptive behavior are more likely to be depressed than adolescents who do not. Therefore, research on the co-occurrence of disruptive behavior and depression among disruptive adolescents within a Thai context is needed as a priority. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between   disruptive behavior and depression in a sample of disruptive adolescents. This study used a cross-sectional research design. Two hundred and fifty-three adolescents with disruptive behavior, aged between 13 and 17 years old participated in this study. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select the participants from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatient Departments/Services of seven hospitals/institutes from four regions in the Kingdom of Thailand. The adolescents completed a relevant questionnaire that incorporated the Thai version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). The participants’ parents completed a questionnaire that incorporated the Thai version of the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory (CADBI). The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that disruptive behavior is positively associated with depression in disruptive adolescents (r = .23, p < .01). The prevalence of concurrent disruptive behavior and depression was 45.5% (when using a CES-D cut off score of 16). The results of this clinical research reveal that in this sample of disruptive adolescents, disruptive behavior is associated with  depression. Assessment for other symptoms and problems should be considered when assessing behavioral problems in adolescents.