| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 公共衛生學系 === 94 === World Health Organization reported that by 2020, depression would become the second cause of death following cardiovascular disease. Depression thus is an almost universally important issue in public health now. According to the related literature on personality traits, smoking, aggression, and depressive symptoms, most studies focused on investigating the relationships between two factors mentioned above. The roles of conduct problems on the association between personality traits and depressive symptoms were still indefinite. This study thus aimed to examine both the direct and indirect effects of smoking and aggression on the relationship between personality traits and depressive symptoms.
This study drew data from the Wave-II investigation of a research project of “The Investigation of the Adolescent Depression-Related Factors and the Monitor of its Prevention-Intervention Model.” In this investigation, four junior and senior high schools in Metropolitan Taipei area were selected, with a total of 1336 students recruited. All Questionnaires were self-reported, including demographic information, personality traits, smoking, aggression, and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were assessed by 20 items of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, CES-D). Multiple regression analysis and path analysis were conducted to estimate the direct effects and indirect effects of smoking and aggression on the association between personality traits and depressive symptoms.
The study found that personality traits of Neuroticism and Extroversion, current smoker, and physical and verbal aggression were exhibited to be risk factors of depressive symptoms, after controlling for all other factors in the regression full model. Besides, in the path analysis, personality traits of Neuroticism and Extroversion were demonstrated to increase the levels of depressive symptoms through physical and verbal aggression, while verbal aggression only was shown to be the mediator between personality traits and depressive symptoms.
This study investigated the impacts of smoking and aggression on the association between personality traits and depressive symptoms among adolescents. Although this study was unable to determine casual relationships among factors explored, the evidence that personality traits might influence depressive symptoms of adolescents through verbal aggression might warrant further exploration after considering other individual factors, environment factors, and the interactions between factors above. Finally, the results of this study could be employed for the design of a more effective prevention/intervention program to prevent youth from depression.
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