Canonical correlation analysis on death anxiety and depressive symptoms among middle school students in Guizhou province

Objective To explore the correlation between death anxiety and depressive symptoms among middle school students in Guizhou province. Methods Multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling was used to select 5 092 middle school students from three areas in Guizhou province. All the students were investigated with the Chinese Version of Death Anxiety Scale (T-DAS) and middle school students' depressive symptom scale. Data was analyzed in Pearson correlation and canonical correlation analysis. Results The average score of death anxiety and depressive symptoms was (7.28±3.02) and (2.00±0.77), respectively. Death anxiety, stress and agony, time consciousness and cognition were positively correlated with academic associated depressive symptoms. In canonical correlation analysis, three groups of typical variables with statistical significance were observed, with correlation coefficients being 0.212, 0.101 and 0.047 respectively. The canonical variables indicated significant association between cognition and general depressive symptoms. Stress /agony was positively correlated with general-, interpersonal-, and academic-associated depressive symptoms. Conclusion Death anxiety shows significant association with depressive symptoms. This finding helps develop effective intervention strategies for death anxiety through reducing depressive symptoms, which results in mental health promotion among middle school students.