1 TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION ON DEPRESSION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA Fehintoluwa O. Aluko Babcock University 08166205348 alukofe@gmail.com Abstract Depression, a state of moodiness and being aversive to activities, is linked to poor educational fulfillment, hardship at school, drug abuse and suicide among adolescents. The study, therefore, investigated teachers’ knowledge, attitude and perception of depression among students in Oshodi-Isolo District, Lagos, Nigeria. The study employed the cross-sectional type of the descriptive research design. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 222 public secondary school teachers for the study. A validated semi-structured questionnaire (r =0.74) was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and correlation were used to analyze data. Among the teachers, 59 (26.6%) had 6 to 10 years teaching experience and 131 (59%) were females. Low proportion of respondents (N=87; 39.2%) taught Art subjects; 180 (81.1%) were Yoruba and 174 (78.4%) were Christians. Furthermore, most of the teachers (N=176; 79.3%) knew that depression could be prevented and 174 (78.4%) knew that suicide is a possible consequence of depression. Teachers possess high knowledge of adolescent depression (mean=6.66±2.64) while 92 (41.4%) perceived that students who were depressed should not be in school. Also, 85 (38.3%) reported that they do not like teaching dull and inattentive students. They, however, showed positive attitudinal disposition toward adolescent depression (mean=18.28±6.43). Although, 82 (32.9%) perceived the school as the best place to handle or manage depression among adolescents, only 11 (5%) believed they are qualified to counsel students about depression and mental health (mean=18.39±6.28). There were significant relationships between teachers’ knowledge about adolescent depression (r= 0.75; p<0.05) and teachers’ attitudinal disposition towards adolescents’ depression (r= 0.79; p<0.05) and their perceptions. The teachers had high level of knowledge about adolescents’ depression. They also had high perception and positive attitude towards adolescent depression but most of them perceived they were not qualified to counsel students about their mental health. It was recommended that periodic training programmes should be organized for the teachers for improved self-efficacy and capacity to provide appropriate referral services when required. Keywords: Adolescent depression, Teachers’ knowledge, Teachers’ attitude, Teachers’ perception