Loneliness & Depression among Old Aged People

In the present research an attempt was made to study the relationship between loneliness and depression among old aged people. The study was carried on by formulating hypotheses that (a)-There would be significant difference between loneliness and depression level of old aged people (b)-There would be positive correlation between loneliness and depression. For empirical verification of these two hypotheses a study was conducted on 60 old aged people of Patna and its neighboring places, by employing incidental-cum-purposive sampling technique. Their age ranged from 60 to 75 years. The UCLA Loneliness Scale was used for measuring loneliness. In order to check the level of depression in old aged people, Hindi adaptation of Beck’s Depression Inventory was applied. For the analysis of the obtained scores t-ratio and co-efficient of correlation were computed. The result confirmed all the hypotheses. The findings on the whole indicated that there is significant difference between loneliness and depression level of old aged people. Positive correlation between loneliness and depression level was also observed by the researcher. The findings of the present research reveal that loneliness plays an important role in determining depression among old aged people. Depression level can be reduced by reducing loneliness among old aged people.