Abstract

The present study examined the effects of the perceived stress related to school, self-esteem, parent-children communication and parents' internal support on adolescent depression, as well as the moderating effect of perceived parent-children communication, self-esteem, and parents' internal support on the relationships between the perceived stress related to school and adolescent depression differently upon the gender. A Questionnaire was distributed to 373 high school students (including 197 girls and 176 boys). Results of stepwise multiple regression showed that we can predict the levels of boys' depression with self-esteem, schoolwork stress, parent-children communication. We can also predict the levels of boys' depression with self-esteem. parent-children communication, schoolwork stress, and school violence stress. Among all the predictors, self-esteem had the largest effect on predicting levels of adolescent depression. Moderated multiple regression showed that parents' internal support negatively moderated the relationship between depression and school violence stress in girls. Implications and limitations of the results and suggestions for future study were discussed.