DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSION LEVELS AMONG FEMALE ADOLESCENTS ATTENDING RURAL AND URBAN SCHOOLS
Introduction and Rationale for the Study
Debertin and Goetz (1994) define rural schools as those located in or near towns with populations of 5,000 residents or less. In their comparison of rural to urban schools, the authors note that enrollment in rural schools is far smaller, as is their funding. Moreover, rural schools are far more likely to draw funds from their states rather than from the federal government. In addition, the authors report that the programs and resources for which the federal government does provide funds are far more likely to be appropriate for large urban schools rather than rural schools. Another difference between rural and urban schools mentioned by Debertin and Goetz (1994) is that teachers in rural schools receive far lower salaries than teachers in urban schools.
There are also health differences associated with rural and urban schools. In this regard, Ricketts, Johnson-Webb and Randolph (1999) point out that health access and service delivery in rural America generally is far more difficult than in urban America. Associated with this is the fact that urban schools tend to offer students far more school-based health and mental health services than rural schools. What this means is that rural schools may find it more difficult to meet not only the academic needs of their students but also their counseling needs for behavioral and/or emotional problems. Consequently, it is possible that differences in the emotional and behavioral problems of students in rural and urban schools might be expected. The purpose of this research is to examine whether these differences obtain in terms of students' level of depression.
Specifically, the research conducted here examines the literature to determine whether female adolescents attending rural schools have significantly different depression levels when compa...