The Relationship Among Irrational Beliefs, Emotional Adjustment and Depression of Junior High School Students

[[abstract]]Abstract The purpose of this research is to discover the relationships between irrational beliefs, emotional adjustment, and depression tendency of junior high school students in different grades and of different genders. The research targeted junior high students from the first to the third grade in seven cities and counties in Taiwan and the Fujian providence. Seven schools, one from each city/county, were chosen. A total of 1837 students answered the questions in the survey that was conducted. The instruments used in the survey including "Irrational Beliefs Scale (IBS)",“Emotional Adjustment Scale", and "Depression Self-Rating Scale. ”The data was analyzed with one way ANOVA, t-test, and canonical correlation analysis. The major results of this study are presented as follows: 1. There are significant differences among different grades in junior high schools with regards to their irrational beliefs, emotional adjustments, and depression tendency. With respect to irrational beliefs, first-grade students showed higher scores than in other grades in "demand for approval” and “blame proneness". First-graders scored higher than second-graders in the areas of “over-all irrational beliefs" , "anxious over-concern” and "perfectionism". The third-grade students scored higher than second-graders in the area of “problem avoidance". As for emotional adjustment, first-grade students performed better than third-graders in "over-all emotional adjustment", "emotional observation" and "emotional limits". Second-grade students performed better than third- graders in “emotional limits". As for depression tendency, third-grade students scored higher than second-graders in "physiological depression". 2. There are significant differences among genders in junior high schools with regards to students' irrational beliefs, emotional adjustment, and depression tendency. When reacting to irrational beliefs, male students scored higher than female students in the areas of “over-all irrational beliefs" , "high self expectations” , “blame proneness” , “problem avoidance” , “dependency”, “helplessness over past” and ”perfectionism". On the other hand, when dealing with emotional adjustment, female students scored higher than male students both in "emotional limits” and “emotional expression". In the area of depression tendency, female students scored higher than male students in “over-all depression tendency” , “emotional depression" , “cognitive depression” and “physiological depression". 3. There is a significant relationship between junior high school students’ irrational beliefs and their emotional adjustment. The four canonical correlations are presented as follows: (1)When feelings of “emotional irresponsibility” , “anxious over-concern” , “problem avoidance” , “dependency” and "helplessness over the past ”appeared more often, the students' abilities of “emotional management” and “emotional limits" were reduced. (2)When the students' feelings of ”demands for approval”, “frustration reactivity”, “anxious over-concern” and “perfectionism” were higher, their abilities of “emotional observation” and ”emotional management” also appeared to be higher, although their “emotional limits” seemed lower. (3)When junior high school students had higher standards of “self expectations” , “dependency” and “perfectionism” , their "emotional management” ability appeared to be higher, although their "emotional expression” ability was lower. (4)When junior high school students got higher scores in ”frustration reactivity”, their scores in “emotional observation” was lower. 4. There is a significant relationship between junior high school students’ irrational beliefs and their emotional adjustment. The two canonical correlations are shown as follows: (1)When students revealed more "demand for approval” , “high self expectations” , “blame proneness” , “frustration reactivity” , ” emotional management” , ” anxious over concern” , “problem avoidance” ,”dependency” , ” helplessness over past” and “ perfectionism” in their irrational beliefs , the degree of their “emotional depression” , “cognitive depression” , “physiological depression” and “behavioral depression” appeared to be higher. (2)When the students showed more "demand for approval” , “frustration reactivity , "anxious over concern” and "perfectionism", their tendencies in "problem avoidance” and "physiological depression ”appeared to be higher. However, at the same time, their tendency in “behavioral depression” was lower. 5. There is a significant relationship between students’ emotional adjustment and their depression tendency. The three canonical correlations are shown as follows: (1) When junior high school students' "emotional management”, “emotional limits” and “emotional expression” as part of their emotional adjustment were higher, their “emotive depression” , “cognitive depression” , “physiological depression” and “behavioral depression” appeared lower. (2)When the students revealed better abilities of “emotional observation” and “emotional management”, but lower abilities of “emotional limits”, their tendency toward “physiological depression” appeared higher. (3)When the students appeared to have lesser abilities of “emotional management”, and a better abilities of “emotional expression”, their tendency toward "emotional depression" appeared higher, but their “physiological depression” was lower. 6. The degree of Junior high school students' irrational beliefs and emotional adjustment can effectively predict their depression tendency. Finally, the researcher proposes suggested guidance for adolescents and future research.