Depression, Anxiety and Stress among First Year Addis Ababa University Students: Magnitude, and Relationship with Academic Achievement

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to assess the magnitude of depression, anxiety and stress among Addis Ababa University first year students:  To achieve the objective cross sectional research design was employed. This study could help many parties to design and develop proper intervention programs to reduce psychological problems among students. The main campus college of Social Sciences, college of Education and Behavioral studies and school of Social Work freshman students of Addis Ababa University students were the aggregate population of the study. The total number of population was 502. Of this, 259 students were obtained by using proportionate stratified random sampling technique using colleges and departments as strata. DAS-S-depression, anxiety, stress scale, quantitatively   the collected data was analyzed by using percentage. Among the participants 18.5 % of the respondents scored  high on depression  (13.1 %-mild and 5.4% were moderate in depression levels of severity), 28.6% scored high level of anxiety (13.1% mild, 14.7% moderate, and 0.8% severe) and 24% scored high level of stress (14.3% mild and 8.1% moderate level of  stress). The results suggest that the early prevention of anxiety, depression and stress is critical since, if left untreated, it can have serious consequences on students’ future health and career possibilities.

Keywords: Academic achievement, Anxiety, Depression, stress