Depression, Self-Esteem, Suicide Ideation, Death Anxiety, and Gpa in High School Students of Divorced and Nondivorced Parents

Abstract

131 subjects from a small north central Kansas high school participated and completed the Beck Depression Scale, Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory short form with the Lie scale included, the Death Anxiety Scale, and the first 11 questions of the Beck Scale of Suicide Ideation. Background information collected from each subject included age, grade, marital status of parents, and sex. Grade point averages (on a 4-point scale) were taken from the students' files. On death anxiety girls had a significantly higher mean than boys while freshmen's and sophomores' scores were significantly higher than those of juniors and seniors but there was no difference between means of students of divorced and nondivorced parents. On self-esteem and GPA children of divorced parents scored significantly lower than children of nondivorced parents, but there was no difference between the sexes on self-esteem. On GPA girls scored significantly higher than boys. On depression the children of divorced parents scored higher than children of nondivorced parents but there was no sex difference.