Prevalence and Expression of Depressive Symptomatology in Students with and without Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The present study compared girls and boys with and without learning disabilities (LD) on mean reports of depressive symptoms, prevalence of depression and type of depressive symptoms reported. One hundred children with LD (46 girls, 54 boys) ana 104 children without LD (50 girls, 54 boys) were compared on the Children's Depression Inventory's (Kovacs, 1992) overall score, percent meeting the cutoff for depression (19) and subscale factor scores indicating symptom patterns. Results revealed that (a) mean level of depressive symptoms between students with and without LD did not differ but prevalence of depression was marginally different; (b) girls with LD reported higher mean levels of depressive symptoms and higher prevalence of depression than girls without LD, whereas there was no difference in mean levels of depressive symptoms or prevalence of depression for boys with or without LD; (c) students with LD reported more symptoms of ineffectiveness; (d) girls reported more negative mood and less interpersonal problems than boys; and (e) girls with LD reported more symptoms indicative of a loss of pleasure, negative self-esteem and interpersonal problems relative to their peers without LD, while boys with or without LD did not differ in their symptom type reports. Implications and limitations of the results are discussed with reference to previous research and directions for future investigation.