Investigation of university students’ depression

Abstract

Problem Statement: In recent years, the number of university students diagnosed, treated, and given medication for depression has increased. It can be stated that depression is a serious emotional problem for university students because it affects younger and older adults directly and profoundly. It leads to loss of interest and pleasure in ordinary activities, great sadness, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, loss of appetite and sleep, etc. Thus depression decreases the quality of an individual’s life. Purpose of Study: This study was carried out to investigate the depression levels of university students according to their gender, body image satisfaction, residence location types, and academic achievement. Methods: Participants consisted of 440 university students attending Anadolu University, Turkey. Data was collected through the Beck Depression Inventory, the Pleasure of Body Organs Scale, and the Personal Information Questionnaire. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, the independent-samples t test, the two-way ANOVA, and the two-way ANCOVA were used. Findings and Results: It was found that university students who were dissatisfied with their body image were more depressed than those who were satisfied with their body image. Moreover, university students who had a lower academic achievement level demonstrated significantly more depressive symptoms than those who demonstrated high academic achievement. It was indicated that the depression levels of university students did not significantly differ according to gender and residence location types and their interaction, and the same findings for the two factors were obtained when body image satisfaction and academic achievement levels were held constant. Conclusions and Recommendations: Since depression is a major psychological problem for university students, it can be stated that effective psychological help services should be rendered to university students. Thus, to improve coping skills against depression, various programs should be built for increasing their self-acceptance levels, enhancing their communication skills, and improving social relations. In these programs, factors of dissatisfaction with physical appearance and academic issues should be taken into consideration. This study has had some limitations: because of the limited number of participants, the interactions among depression levels and gender, body image satisfaction and residence location types should be examined in larger groups. Qualitative studies can be carried out to get a more detailed picture of university students’ depression