A survey of special and elementary educators' knowledge of childhood depressive symptoms

The purpose of this study was to investigate special and elementary educators' knowledge of childhood depressive symptoms to determine whether differences existed in the two groups' knowledge. A true-false test of childhood depressive symptoms was developed from a review of the literature and was administered to eighteen certified special educators and eighteen certified elementary educators. The hypotheses tested were that the group mean of elementary special educators' score on the test would be significantly higher than the group mean of elementary educators' scores and that special educators would give significantly more correct responses that would elementary educators on items which were peculiar to childhood depression and were unrelated to any adult depressive symptoms.

After testing the two groups of teachers, a t-test was applied to the group means to determine whether a significant difference existed. The results indicated that the group mean of special educators' scores was significantly higher than the group mean of elementary educators' scores. In addition, z-tests were applied to the proportion of correct responses over total responses on each item to determine the items on which the number of correct responses educators, as a group, had significantly more correct responses on differed significantly between groups. The results were that special items related to complaints of unhappiness, whining, temper tantrums, and pants-wetting. The hypothesis that special educators would give significantly more correct responses that elementary educators on items which were peculiar to childhood depression and had no similar adult depressive symptoms could not be conclusively supported because there was not a significant difference in responses on all items containing symptoms peculiar to childhood depression and because there was a significant difference on one item which was a symptom of both childhood and adult depression.