Term of Award

Spring 1986

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Gary McClure

Committee Member 1

Paul R. Kleinginna, Jr.

Committee Member 2

Robert Haney

Abstract

The present study estimated the rates of depression among student users of the Georgia Southern College (GSC) Infirmary and Counseling Center. Each student who visited the Infirmary or Counseling Center during the week of February 22, 1982 was asked to complete a questionnaire which consisted of demographic questions, a personal problems checklist, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI ) (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, ft Erbaugh, 1961), and a self-report measure of depression. The final sample consisted of 223 Infirmary (inf) and 71 Counseling Center (CC) users. Although these two groups of students did not differ on the basis of sex, race, school, grade point average, membership in a fraternity or sorority, veteran status, number of parents living, parental marital status, number of siblings, source of financial support, or religious preference, they did differ significantly (all ps < .05) on the basis of age, year in school, school status, marital status, whether or not the student had children, and residence. Based on the BDI, 24.8% and 35.6% of the Inf and CC users, respectively, could be classified as depressed. A greater proportion of CC than Inf users also rated themselves as depressed. Further analyses identified demographic and stressor (problems checklist) variables that were related significantly to depression rates. Results are discussed in the context of Nagelberg and Black's (1984) study of depression rates among students attending classes at GSC. Results suggest that, while a greater proportion of students who used the Counseling Center were depressed relative to Inf users, men who used the Infirmary may also have been "at risk" for depression.

OCLC Number

1032324304

Copyright

To obtain a full copy of this work, please visit the campus of Georgia Southern University or request a copy via your institution's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) department. Authors and copyright holders, learn how you can make your work openly accessible online.

Download

Files over 10MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "Save as..."

Share

COinS