Co-morbidity of specific learning disabilities and depressive symptoms in non-clinical sample of adolescents

Objective: to determine the comorbidity and relationship between specific learning disabilities and depressive symptoms in non-clinical sample of adolescents. methodology: a cross-sectional study was conducted at four government schools of lahore from march to december 2014. the study comprised of 287 students selected through systematic random sampling technique,age ranges between 11 to 16 years. demographic information questionnaire,learning disabilities checklist and children depression inventory were administered to obtain data. descriptive statistics,crosstab analysis and pearson relationship were applied. results: the mean age of 287 participants was 12.98 ±1.22 years. overall,56 (19.51%) of adolescents were identified with mild,83 (28.94%) with moderate and 40 (13.94%) with severe levels of comorbidity of depressive symptoms and specific learning disabilities. significant relationships between depressive symptoms and specific learning disabilities were demonstrated (p value=.0001). these relationships were also found significant for sample of boys whereas for girls,only significant relationship was observed on subscale of ineffectiveness (p value=.036) conclusion: significant comorbidity of depressive symptoms and specific learning disabilities was found. comorbidity of severe level of depressive symptoms and specific learning disabilities was more prevalent for sample of boys. © 2017,postgraduate medical institute. all rights reserved.