Risk factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms in Chinese adolescent girls: a cross-sectional study

Depression and anxiety are common in adolescence girls. This study aims to examine the prevalence and risk factors associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms in Chinese adolescent girls. A cross-sectional study was conducted in six provinces in the eastern, central, and western regions of China. A total of 4,658 adolescence girls aged 10-19 years old was included in this study. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorders-7(GAD-7), respectively. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of sociodemographic, academic pressure, physical/mental violence, interpersonal relationship, and lifestyle on depressive and anxiety symptoms. In our study, the prevalence rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms were 6.0% (279/4658) and 2.6% (122/4658), respectively. The multivariable logistic regression models show that risk factors including education level of junior high school and above, suffering from physical/mental violence, having academic pressure, having poor interpersonal relationship problems significantly increase the risk of both depressive and anxiety symptoms (P < 0.05), while additionally shorter night time sleep duration significantly increases the risk of depression symptoms (OR = 1.46. 95%CI:1.08-1.97, P = 0.01). The prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms are 6.0% and 2.6%, respectively among Chinese adolescent girls, with certain sociodemographic, academic pressure, and interpersonal relationship problem being the risk factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms.