The relationship between coping styles and prevalence of depressive symptoms in students prepari̇ng for university entrance exams

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between depression levels of the students preparing for the university entrance exams and their coping styles. This research is a descriptive and correlational research. The population of this research is consisted of the students studying in the Anatolian high schools in the Avcılar province of Istanbul, whereas the sample of this research is consisted of 285 12th grade students that agreed to participate in the research. The sample was given the Beck Depression Inventory, a self-report measure developed for the measurement of the emotional and motivational components of depression, and the Appraisal of Stressful Situations Scale to measure their coping styles; demographic information was also collected. Percentage, frequency and mean values of the collected data were calculated, One-Way ANOVA, Independent Samples T-Test, Kruskal – Wallis Test and Pearson Correlation technique was used to investigate the relationships and differences between the groups. The results showed that %47,5 (N=135) of the students participated in the study had moderate and severe levels of depression. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between the total points obtained from the Beck Depression Inventory and ''Seeking of Social Support'' subscale of the Appraisal of Stressful Situations Scale, (p=0,286; p>0,05). The results also showed that there was significant, moderately negative correlations between total depression points and Optimistic Style (r=-0,441) and Self-confident Style (r=-0,504) subscales. Depression points were significantly moderately correlated with the Helpless Style (r=0,396) subscale and significantly strongly correlated with the Submissive Stlye (r=0,504) subscale. Some relationships with the Beck Depression Inventory points and some demographic variables were also found.