Emotional Problems in High School Students in Jakarta

A 2007 Indonesia survey reported emotional mental disorders was 11.6%. Its prevalence in the population aged 15 to 24 years was nearly 9%, and increasing in older age. Markedly, emotional problems may lead to depression associated with suicide, which is the most frequent cause of death among youths. Early detection of emotional problems in adolescence is, therefore, important for improving future general health. Since Jakarta was included in the big five proportion of this disorder (14.1%), the study objective was to describe the frequency and factors of emotional problems among high school students in Jakarta. An analysis employed polynomial logistic regression using 941 students obtained by a survey purposively conducted in one vocational and two public high schools in 2015 by the Ministry of Health. All firstand second-grade students, in similar numbers per school, were assessed using a selfadministered SDQ questionnaire that measured emotional problems. Results showed that emotional problems were differentiated by gender on the questionnaire: Girls measured 19% abnormal and 16.7% borderline, and boys measured 6.2% abnormal and 5.4% borderline. Likewise, girls were almost three-times more likely to score “abnormal� than were boys (95% CI was 1.7 to 4.8). Vocational school students were at double the risk, compared to public school students, of having emotional problems. To conclude, based on these findings, a school-based program in Jakarta addressing emotional disorders must utilize a gender-based design. Follow-up study is needed to explore different mental health problems that occur in public and vocational high schools, as well as ethnicity factors in emotional disorders.