Nadia, Sadia Malik.
Relationship of life events and psychiatric symptoms among adolescents.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;55(2):44-7.

Background: There is a relationship between life events and the psychiatric symptoms. Depressive feelings and anxious thoughts are common in this perspective with significant gender difference. Objective: To correlate between life events and psychiatric symptoms among adolescents and explore if they are gender related. Study design, settings and duration: Cross sectional study conducted in Government and private schools and colleges of Gujranwala from January to March, 2014. Subjects and Methods: One hundred and fifty male and female students of both public and private sector school and colleges of Gujranwala region were enrolled using purposive sampling technique. The translated and validated version of Negative Life Events Scale (including components of Friends, Money, Course, Teachers, Parents, Students, Relatives, Health, Academics and Course Interest) and the Four Dimensional Symptoms Questionnaire (consist of four set of symptoms including depression, distress, somatisation and anxiety) were used for data collection. Results: Out of 150 participants, 75 were females and 80 males with a mean age of 16 years (SD 5.02). Female participants had more depressive feelings and were more anxious as compared to males; moreover, the females were less experienced in negative life events as compared to males. Negative life events were significantly associated with psychiatric symptoms. Conclusion: Negative life events were directly related to depression and anxiety feelings and were associated with somatisation and distress. Key words: Depression, anxiety, negative life events, adolescents, daily hassles, gender differences.

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