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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1407021
This article is part of the Research Topic Students' Social and Emotional Skills in Educational Settings View all 12 articles

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in the Chilean Educational System: Children and Adolescents Post-pandemic Prevalence and Variables

Provisionally accepted
Jonathan Martínez-Líbano Jonathan Martínez-Líbano 1María-Mercedes Yeomans-Cabrera María-Mercedes Yeomans-Cabrera 2*
  • 1 Facultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile., Santiago, Chile
  • 2 Facultad de Salud y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de las Américas, Chile, Santiago, Chile

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The mental health of children and adolescents in the Chilean Educational System (ChES) has become a severe post-pandemic public health problem. This cross-sectional study, which included 1,174 children and adolescents from five Chilean regions, used the DASS-21 scale, focusing on determining the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as identifying associated risk factors. The results exposed a high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress (60.2%, 63.6%, and 50.2%, respectively). Risk factors for depression involve being female, having separated parents, being in high school, having a cell phone, difficulty sleeping, ruminative thoughts, and low self-esteem. For anxiety, factors included being female, being 12 years old, owning a cell phone, having sleep problems, having ruminations, having low self-esteem, and being an atheist. For stress, factors were identified as being female, owning a cell phone, sleep problems, ruminations, low self-esteem, being atheist, as well as extensive use of social networks. The research underscores the urgent need for intervention by educational authorities, given the marked deterioration in the mental health of children and adolescent students in the ChES, to prevent long-term consequences.

    Keywords: Mental Health1, children2, adolescents3, post-pandemic4, scholar system5

    Received: 26 Mar 2024; Accepted: 04 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Martínez-Líbano and Yeomans-Cabrera. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: María-Mercedes Yeomans-Cabrera, Facultad de Salud y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de las Américas, Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.