The evaluation of depressive symptomatology and self-esteem in high school adolescent students in Greece and the assessment of their relation to demographic variables, school performance and adolescents' activities.

The CES-D Scale (depressive symptomatology) and the Rosenberg scale (self-esteem) were administered to 713 students (396 girls and 317 boys, age 15-18), of the Athens Metropolitan Area, Senior's High School Grades 1-3. Personal data such as age, sex, school records, family's conditions and time spent per week in school-related (e.g. tutorials) and extracurricular (e.g. sports) activities were collected.

Considering CES-D cut-off score >28, 26.2% of the students (33.7% of females and 16.1% of males) could be considered as having depression. CES-D score was found to be associated to sex and school record (being less for students with a better record). Male students were having higher depression scores as they grew older, while respective scores for females were decreasing; at third grade boys had slightly higher CES-D mean score than girls.

Self-esteem and depressive symptoms were negatively correlated among both boys and girls.

A relatively high number of adolescent students in Greek schools can be considered as having significant depressive symptomatology and low self-esteem. The higher depression score in girls is consistent with the existing literature. The fact that boys have higher depression scores in the last grade of high school may be an indication of the higher pressure for academic achievement imposed by the family on them.