Early Adolescent Depression Symptoms and School Dropout: Mediating Processes Involving Self-Reported Academic Competence and Achievement

Research on adolescent well-being has shown that students with depression have an increased risk of facing academic failure, yet few studies have looked at the implications of adolescent depression in the process of school dropout. This study examined mediation processes linking depression symptoms, self-perceived academic competence, and self-reported achievement in 7th grade to dropping out of school in later adolescence. We followed 493 (228 girls and 265 boys) French-speaking adolescents from low-socioeconomic-status secondary schools in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) for 6 years. Almost 34% of participants dropped out of school during this period. Findings indicated that self-reported depression symptoms in 7th grade increased the risk of dropping out of school in later adolescence. Structural equation modeling revealed that the predictive relationship between depression symptoms and school dropout was mediated by self-perceptions of academic competence. Current findings provide support for self-perceptions of competence as mediational processes in the relationship between adolescent depression symptoms and early school leaving.