A Survey of Depression Among Graduate Students and Their Academic Performance

The study investigated the depression level and academic performance of the graduate students of Bukidnon State University School of Graduate Studies, school year 2009-2010. Specifically, it sought to (1) determine the level of depression of graduate students in terms of Age, Gender, Civil Status, and Degree Program; (2) identify the level of academic performance of the Department of Education (DepEd) fellows in the four MA Programs; (3) establish if there is a significant relationship between the levels of depression and academic performance of the graduate students and (4) determine if there is a significant difference of the level of depression among the graduate students in four MA Programs namely Master of Arts in Science Education (MASE), Master of Arts in Mathematics Education (MAME), Master of Arts in English Language Teaching (MA-ELT), and Master of Arts in Educational Administration (MA-Ed.Ad.). This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. The researcher used the descriptive-correlational statistical analysis which will involved a survey on the graduate students level of depression encountered in their masters degree program at Bukidnon State University School of Graduate Studies using an instrument modified by the researcher adopted from Zung (2001) Self-Rating Depression Scale Questionnaires and the Graduate Students Profile Questionnaires. The respondents of this study were 55 graduate students who belong to the four MA Programs namely MASE, MAME, MA-ELT, and MA-Ed.Ad. A purposive non-probabilistic sampling method was employed by simply picking out the persons to which the researcher wanted to make an inference for purposes of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used in this study: (1) mean and standard deviation; (2) Pearson Product-Moment Correlation; and (3) the analysis of variance (ANOVA). With the first two tools, the data gathered was treated using the Special Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) at 0.05 level of significance. The last tool was used to test if there was a significant difference among the level of depression of graduate students in four MA degree programs. Result showed that graduate students in four MA degree programs of Bukidnon State University School of Graduate Studies have predominantly minimal level of depression and have a very good academic performance. This implies that graduate students are embracing many stressors in coping with the requirements in spite of the heavy loads in their respective degree program. Moreover, the level of depression and academic performance of the graduate students have significant relationship. This signifies that the academic performance of the graduate students are affected when they are experiencing major depression. Thus, adjustment and full control of one self is a must in coping with academic stress and depression. Hence, the findings that depression have a significant relationship with academic performance shows that coping mechanism to different stressors is utmost important in graduate studies. There are always pressure, stress and depression to meet, and thus require one's awareness and preparation of one's self to various stressors.