If you thought depression or related symptoms were limited to adults, it’s time to do a reality check. A survey by a local NGO on the mental health of adolescents, aged between 13 and 17 years, might force you to sit back and ponder hard on how your child’s personality is shaping and why.

Carried out on a sample size of 1,400 children from schools across the tricity, the study has revealed shocking results. At an age when children are blissfully unaware of the worries of the world, 22 per cent admitted that they had felt depressed in the last six months due to studies or related pressures. Peer pressure also topped the list for depression in adolescents, with 32 per cent children blaming friends for worries.

Putting a question mark on whether parents are being able to provide a congenial family atmosphere to their children, 26 per cent attributed unhappy family for melancholic thoughts.

“Adolescence is synonymous with psychological turmoil. As children enter their teens, they go through various emotional changes which parents often tend to ignore. We conducted the study with the objective of presenting a clear picture of their mental state so that timely measures are taken for a sound mental health,” said Dr Anju Gupta, secretary, Health Aid Medicare.

The study revealed that happiness is a luxury for majority of the students. Only 39 percent felt happy, satisfied and contented while the rest were gripped with one problem or the other. With parents unable to devote quality time to children, loneliness too posed a problem. Twenty-two per cent said there was no one with whom they could share their emotional state.

Another major problem that surfaced in the study was the development of feelings that adolescents failed to deal with. While 40 per cent said they were angry or irritable easily on trivial matters, 1.4 per cent admitted suicidal or self-harm thoughts had crossed their minds often in the last 12 months.