Academic Stress, Depression and Anxiety among Grade 11 and 12 Learners of Coastal Karnataka: A Cross Sectional Study

This cross-sectional study will be undertaken among students of grade 11 and 12 of Higher Secondary Schools situated in Costal Karnataka. The Coastal Karnataka comprises three districts, namely Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada. From each district ten colleges (5 Government and 5 Private) providing 11th and 12th grade education to science as well as commerce stream will be selected to collect the required data. The rating scale to assess academic stress, depression and anxiety will be administered to classes of science and commerce with a minimum of 20 students, which leads to a minimum of 2400 participants. A tool to assess the Academic Stress, Depression and anxiety developed by the project team, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (10 items) will be used to collect the data. The study is approved by the institutional ethical committee.Consent will be obtained from parents before participating in the study.  Consent/assent will be taken from students. The questionnaires will be completed during school hours. It will be administered to participants in the respective institution by a trained research assistant after obtaining permission from administrative heads of schools. Participation will be voluntary, and confidentiality of data will be assured. The anonymity of the students, as well as the institution, will be maintained. The data will be analyzed using SPSS version 15. Data will be summarized with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics.