Stress Anxiety and Depression among Adolescents of Schools in Godawari Municipality, Lalitpur.

Background Adolescence is a critical phase of life marked by various physical, emotional, and intellectual changes. Emotional aspects of adolescents are often undetected, unaddressed, and untreated. Objective To find out the level and factors associated with stress, anxiety, and depression among adolescent students. Method A descriptive cross-sectional study among 513 adolescents from grades 9 and 10 in the Public Secondary Schools of Godawari Municipality was carried out using cluster sampling techniques. The participants were administered a validated Nepali version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale 21. Descriptive statistics was used to assess the level of stress, anxiety, and depression, while binary logistic regression was used to identify predictors of these conditions among adolescent students. Result Findings revealed that mild level of stress (10.1%), moderate level of anxiety (21.2%) and mild level of depression (19.5%) were more prevalent among adolescent students. In a multivariate model, it was found that female adolescents were more likely to have symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. Similarly, witnessing domestic violence and experiencing abuse ever were significantly associated with stress; family health problems and witnessing domestic violence were significantly associated with anxiety and passed in previous examination, family history of mental illness, experiencing abuse ever and bedtime use of electronic devices were significantly associated with depression in adolescent students. Conclusion The severity of stress, anxiety and depression are increasing among adolescent students. Hence routine mental health screening, adolescent mental health awareness programs and counselling sessions should be conducted in schools.