October 9, 2018

Does your child show symptoms of self-reported depression and anxiety?

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health. The day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide. Associate Professor Iliana Magiati (NUS Department of Psychology) and her co-authors, in their article, ‘Self‐reported depression and anxiety symptoms in school‐aged Singaporean children’ (Asia-Pacific Psychiatry, 2013) aim to examine the self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms in school aged Singaporean children. Their study explores various fields to analyse the common internalizing disorders (depression and anxiety) in Singaporean children. In the following study, ethnicity and gender influences in self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms were examined in a multi ethnic sample of school-aged children and thus factors like gender, developmental, ethnicity and cultural influences are reviewed.

This extensive study of ethnic and cultural influences revealed that compared with Chinese-Singaporean children, Indian-Singaporean children reported relatively better emotional well-being and closed perceived relationships with parents and siblings. There are however two significant limitations which states that cross-cultural research has been an over-reliance on culturally diverse samples from the US and primary focus was on either adolescents or pre-school children with little research on primary school children from non US countries. Magiati et al emphasise that further study should be aimed to better understand internalising disorders in children from non-Western cultures. In addition, role of parenting, life events and other social experiences should be taken into consideration for the study.

Learn more about the study here.