Comparative Study
| Published:
December 25, 2016
An Empirical Study of Social Support among Depressive and Non-Depressive Elderly People
ABSTRACT
It has been documented that elderly are more prone to psychological problems and depression is the commonest geriatric psychiatric disorders. In fact the elderly in India face a multitude of psychological, social and physical health problems. In a cross-sectional study, it was found that in persons 65 years and older, the perceived adequacy of emotional and tangible support was clearly associated with depressive symptoms. Aim and Objective: This study intends to see the relationship between depression and social support among depressive and non-depressive elderly. Samples and Methods: This study comprised of 60 (30 with depression and 30 without depression) participants of age 60 or above. The sample was selected with purposive incidental sampling technique. Material used: GDS-30 and PGI- SSQ were administered after taking consent. Results and conclusion: Result shows the comparison of means between depressive (case-group) and non-depressive (control-group) as per the scores on Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). The mean score (40.53) of depressive group was lesser than that of non-depressive group (50.30). The t-value (20.373) was found to be statistically significant at 0.01. (p-value 0.000). Conclusion: In brief, the findings of the study show that depressed people perceive lack of social support than non-depressed elderly people. It has been observed that social support is a protective factor from depression in elderly people.
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits
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© 2016 Singh S
How to cite this article:
Singh S (2016), An Empirical Study of Social Support among Depressive and Non-Depressive Elderly People, International Journal of Indian Psychology, Volume 4 (1) DIP:18.01.154/20160401, DOI: 10.25215/0401.154
Received:
October 12, 2016;
Revision Received:
November 14, 2016;
Accepted:
December 25, 2016
Published in
Volume 04, Issue 1, October-December, 2016