Abstract: In the paper,  500 students from poor families in higher vocational colleges of Yunnan Prov.ince were taken as samples through stratified random sampling method. The depression of students werediscussed by using the epression Self-Assessment Scale ( SDS) as a measuring tool. The results showthat some students from poor families are suffering from severe depression. The depression rate of studentsin higher vocational colleges is proportional to the grade and age of students, but is not directly propor.tional to their gender, the marital status of their parents , or whether they are the only-child in their family. The study aims to give insights to the causes of depression of college students in Yunnan Province.

Key words: depression, poor students from in higher vocational colleges, current situation research