Effects of Adolescent Depression on Academic Self-Efficacy: Moderating Effects of Playground Area per Student Using HLM

초록

Purpose: This study examined the effect of adolescent depression on academic self-efficacy and investigated whether the school physical environment, measured by playground area per student, moderates this relationship. Grounded in Cognitive–Behavioral Theory and Ecological Systems Theory, the study aimed to clarify how individual psychological factors and school-level environmental conditions jointly shape adolescents’ academic self-beliefs. Research design, data, and methodology: Longitudinal panel data from 2018 to 2020 were drawn from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS-2018), following a nationally representative cohort of middle school students. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was employed to account for the nested data structure and to estimate the individual-level (Level 1) effects of depression and the school-level (Level 2) moderating effects of playground area per student on academic self-efficacy. Results: Higher levels of depression consistently predicted lower academic self-efficacy at the individual level. The playground area per student demonstrated a partial moderating effect, which was statistically significant only in the first year of middle school (2018), but not in the subsequent years (2019–2020). Students attending schools with larger playground areas showed a weaker negative association between depression and academic self-efficacy compared with those in schools with smaller playground areas. Conclusions: The findings highlight that adolescent depression exerts a stable and negative influence on academic efficacy and that the physical school environment can play a role—particularly during transitional developmental periods such as the first year of middle school. These results underscore the importance of viewing adolescent mental health not only as an individual psychological issue but also as a product of interactions with the school environment. Expanding school-based physical activity spaces and considering environmental affordances may help buffer the negative academic impacts of depressive symptoms.

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