Professor Kazuhiko Nakamura of Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, Associate Professor Masaki Adachi of Graduate School of Health Sciences, Associate Professor Yoshio Takahashi, and Specially Appointed Professor Takuya Saito of Hokkaido University Hospital are the actual conditions of depressive symptoms for elementary and junior high school students in Japan. We found that 13.6% of children had moderate to severe depressive symptoms and 4.9% had moderate to severe depressive symptoms. 2.4% of children think about suicide and self-harm almost every day, highlighting the need for help to prevent suicide.

 According to Hirosaki University, the survey was conducted in September 2019 using a screening scale created in accordance with the diagnostic criteria for depression, and responses were received from 9 students from 4th grade to junior high school students in Japan.The breakdown of respondents by gender is 7,765 for boys and 3,850 for girls.

 21.6% of the children had no symptoms and 63.4% had minimal depressive symptoms, but 13.6% had moderate, 3.4% had moderately severe depressive symptoms, and 1.5% had severe depressive symptoms.Applying this to a standard class with 26-35 students, it is calculated that there is one or more children with slightly to severe depressive symptoms.

 When asked how much of a week they had thought about suicide or self-harm, 1% said "a few days."Of these, 16.2% answered "almost every day", and compared to the results of a survey conducted on adults, children may be thinking of suicide or self-harm more frequently than adults. Also became clear.

reference:[Hirosaki University] Current status of depressive symptoms including suicidal ideation and intentions of children targeting the general population (PDF)

University Journal Online Editorial Department

This is the online editorial department of the university journal.
Articles are written by editorial staff who have a high level of knowledge and interest in universities and education.