Introduction: Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by persistent sadness and loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities, for at least two weeks. Objectives 1) To estimate the prevalence of depression among high school students in UHTC field practice area 2) To identify factors affecting depression among them Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study done within 3 months among 423 high school students using Multi-stage sampling. A predesigned pretested semi-structured interviewer based questionnaire and DASS 21 scale was used. The data entry was done in Microsoft Excel and analysis was done using EPI info version 7. Chi square test was used. Results: The prevalence of Depression is 69.7%. Type of family, pressurized to study, parents having a fight, conflicts with family, peer harassment, punishments from parents and teachers, rejection from opposite sex, concern about physical appearance were found to have statistically significant association with depression. Conclusion: The prevalence of this disorder is high where adolescents need support to cope up. Regular parent/teacher meetings and awareness of mental health services available at ARSH clinics among teachers and students is needed.

Depression, DASS 21, High school students