Effect of Gender, Socioeconomic Status and Family Structure on Depression in Adolescents in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The relationship between self-reported depressive symptomatology among adolescents in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who experienced the chronic stress during four year war, and risk factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, and family structure were investigated in the current study. The present study tested the hypothesis that each one of above mentioned risk factors individually impact depressive mood. Also interactions between gender and socioeconomic status and gender and family structure were hypothesized. A nationally representative sample of high school teenagers was selected from two high schools in the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo (N=559, 263 boys and 296 girls, mean age 15.34). Data from questionnaire done by Barber (1998), “Project: Youth and Family” were used. Demographic data (gender, age, socioeconomic status, and family structure) and The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI, Kovacs, 1992), short version (10-itens) were used in this study. Results revealed a significant effect for gender and socioeconomic status but not for family structure on depressive mood in adolescents. Moreover, an interaction was found between gender and socioeconomic status and gender and family structure such that girls were more vulnerable to depression in the face of poverty than were boys, and boys were more susceptible to depression living only with their mother than were girls.