The Influence of Early Parents' Death on Manifestations of Depressive Symptoms among Young Adults

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of early parents' death on manifestations of depressive symptoms among young adults. One hundred students, consisting of 50 orphans (20 male and 30 female) and 50 non-orphans (20 male and 30 female) drawn from 10 secondary schools in Nsukka area of Enugu State, participated in the study. Each student was individually administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), which is a self-report assessment device consisting of 21 items designed to tap the affective, cognitive, motivational, and somatic symptomatology of depression. A 2 × 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data to test the two hypotheses of the study. Results showed that the orphans reported significantly higher depressive symptoms than the non-orphans (p < .001). There was no significant difference in depressive symptoms reported by male and female subjects. It was concluded from the study that the early loss of both parents through death could predispose an individual to develop some emotional difficulties such as depression later in adult life.

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