High school students in armed conflict-affected North Wollo, Ethiopia, struggle with lived experiences of depression and academic challenges  – Nature.com 14:21 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

The ongoing armed conflicts in Northern Ethiopia have been terribly damaging to the psychological health and educational trajectories of the students. There is an urgent need to understand the subjective, lived experiences of students dealing with this crisis. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the lived experience of depression and academic challenges among students because of the armed conflict in the North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia. This study used the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach to understand how depression and academic difficulties affect high school students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with students who had screened positive for depressive symptoms, and the transcripts were analyzed through an iterative process of coding, developing themes, and interpretation. Five main themes emerged: the lived reality of pervasive conflict, a generation in despair, armed conflict sowing the seeds of distrust, an urgent need to be heard, and enduring the pain and seeking relief. These themes offer a deep, contextualized view of the students’ inner and outer worlds. This study found a vicious cycle among armed conflict-affected students, in which depression, academic difficulties, and social isolation all reinforce each other. These findings highlight the importance of integrated interventions that address mental health, educational continuity, and community-based resilience to effectively mitigate the compounding impacts of conflicts.

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions on sharing sensitive participant data but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Bahir Dar and the University of Gondar, Colleges of Medicine and Health Sciences, for providing research facilities. We thank study participants for sharing their stories and their valuable contributions to this work.

Funding

This study was funded by the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, EthiopiaMinale Tareke & Biksegn Asrat Yirdaw
  2. Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Science, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, EthiopiaMinale Tareke
  3. Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UKBiksegn Asrat Yirdaw
  4. Department of Psychiatry, College of Health Sciences, Woldia University, Woldia, EthiopiaSolomon Moges Demeke
  5. JSI-Data Use Partnership, Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaAbebaw Gebeyehu
  6. Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, EthiopiaTelake Azale

Contributions

MT conceived the study, collected, analyzed, interpreted data, and drafted the manuscript for important intellectual content. SM collected and interpreted data. MT, BAY, SM, AG and TA critically reviewed the draft manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the publication of the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minale Tareke.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was carried out in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki Principles for medical research ethics41, and Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences Ethical Review Board (CMHSSH-UOG IRERC/3675/2024). After getting permission from schools, all participants provided written informed consent in the Amharic language (with parental consent/assent where applicable). They were informed about their right to withdraw at any time without any disadvantage and the confidentiality issues, except in cases of imminent risk of harm. Each interview took place in a confidential environment and was conducted in the Amharic language by a mental health specialist with more than ten years of experience in psychiatry. He ensured proper clinical judgment in managing participant safety, and no participants exhibited acute distress requiring interview interruption. To protect the identity of the participants, data were anonymized using codes (P01-P10) and kept on computers that are protected by a password and can only be accessed by the research team. The audio recordings were listened to several times to ensure that the written and translated versions from Amharic to English were accurate. Then, the audios were permanently deleted to give the participants the highest level of confidentiality, considering the sensitive nature of the mental health disclosures. A multi-level support system was established to ensure participant safety. All participants were informed of available mental health services. Based on PHQ-9 scores, participants with moderate to moderately severe depression (score 10–19) were referred to school counselors. Participants with severe depression (scores ≥ 20) or a history of suicide attempt were provided referral information to the psychiatric clinic at Woldia Comprehensive Specialized Hospital for specialized care. While participants had elevated depression scores, none disclosed active suicide plans or imminent risk during interviews.

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Tareke, M., Yirdaw, B.A., Demeke, S.M. et al. High school students in armed conflict-affected North Wollo, Ethiopia, struggle with lived experiences of depression and academic challenges. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37463-5

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