Table 1 Socio-demographic and other individual characteristics of undergraduate sample

 Gender

  Male

1439

30.9

  Female

3207

69.0

Faculty of Study

 Arts and Education^a

1189

25.6

 Law

613

13.2

 Management and Finance

1025

22.0

 Medicine

615

13.2

 Science

683

14.7

School of Computing

524

11.3

 Year of study

  1^st year

1936

41.6

  2^nd year

1236

26.6

  3^rd year

834

17.9

  4^th year

530

11.4

  5^th year^b

114

2.5

Age

 Mean = 22.18 years (SD = 1.46)

  18- 20 years

515

11.1

  21- 23 years

3336

71.7

  24 and above

791

17.0

Place of residence while going to university

 Home

1743

37.5

 Hostel

1396

30.0

 Rented place

1184

25.5

 Home of friend/ relative

271

5.8

 Other (or more than two of the above)

51

1.1

Province of residence(longest duration)

 Western province (province to which the University belongs)

2159

46.4

 Other provinces

2462

52.9

Ethnicity

 Sinhala

4265

91.7

 Tamil

189

4.1

 Sri Lankan Moor

146

3.1

 Burgher, Malay, Other

46

1.0

Religion

 Buddhist

4048

87.1

 Hindu

157

3.4

 Islam

151

3.2

 Roman Catholic

215

4.6

 Other

73

1.6

 Problem in vignette experienced by family/ friends

  Yes

1695

36.5

  No

1773

38.1

  Don’t know

1053

22.6

Problem in vignette experienced personally

 Yes

1510

32.5

 No

2525

54.3

 Don’t know

325

7.0

Screening positive for Major Depression as per the PHQ-9

 Yes

401

8.6

 No

4249

91.4

Recognition of problem in vignette as ‘depression’

 Recognised

790

17.0

 Not recognised

3728

80.2

Recognition of problem in vignette as a mental health-related problem; but psychiatric terminology not used

 Recognised

2341

50.3

 Not recognised

2177

46.8