The association between intention to quit school and youth depression

Abstract

This article-based master’s thesis is organized in two parts, beginning with an extended summary (“kappen”), describing the theoretical framework and methodological considerations. Following is the draft for the article manuscript “The association between intention to quit school and youth depression: Effects of a group CBT program”, written for submission to The Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research (SJER). The article assesses the relation between depression and intention to quit school, using longitudinal data from the intervention Adolescent Coping with Depression Course (ACDC) from 2016. The ACDC-data were collected via self-report questionnaires and the variables depression and intention to quit where measured with respectively Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Adolescents (CES-D) and Studsrød and Bru’s four-item scale on intention to quit school (Radloff, 1977; Studsrød & Bru, 2009). The data were collected from 228 youth (88 % girls, mean age of 16.70 years, SD= 1.14), 113 of whom allocated to the 10-week ACDC intervention and with 95 allocated to the usual care (UC) control condition. This Master’s Thesis explores whether the ACDC-intervention will reduce youths’ intention to quit school over time through initially reducing their depressive symptoms. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling in the statistical software Mplus. The findings of this study indicate that there was a moderate and positive prediction from depression at posttest to intention to quit school at 6-month follow up after the intervention ended (β=.291, p<.001), and that the ACDC had a moderate indirect effect on intention to quit school through reducing depressive symptoms (indirect β= -.117, p= .018). The results further suggest that implementing the ACDC-intervention could be one way to reduce intention to quit school in upper secondary school, but further research on the ACDC-material should investigate whether the ACDC prevents actual drop out.