Depression as an illness in children appears to be relatively rare. Depressed mood by contrast is associated with a wide variety of childhood problems, ranging from bereavement and physical illness to stressful life events including school bullying and pressure of schoolwork.

Depressive illness has an equal sex distribution and is usually treated by methods involving the family rather than by individual pharmacological treatments, except in the more severe cases.

Childhood problems such as bed-wetting or school truanting were previously often regarded as masked forms of depression, but are now considered to be separate from depressive illness.