Depressive Symptoms among Final Year Student: A Study of Gender Differences
Simtom Depresi dalam Kalangan Pelajar Tahun Akhir: Satu Kajian Berkaitan Perbezaan Jantina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51200/jpks.v4i1.5274Keywords:
depressive symptoms, gender, student, gejala kemurungan, jantina, pelajarAbstract
The prevalence of depression among university students, especially final year students, is increasing. However, different gender shows a different degree of depressive symptoms. Hence, the researcher studied the significant differences in depressive symptoms among different gender of final year students in University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Kota Kinabalu. Final year students from Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences (FMHS), Faculty of Food Science & Nutrition (FFSN), Faculty of Business, Economics & Accountancy (FBEA), and Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities (FSSH) completed the survey measuring depressive symptoms (Center or Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)) through online. This study using cluster random sampling, and 150 students who had participated (53.3% female and 46.7% male). The mean age of the participants was 23.15 years. The descriptive result showed final year students have a high level of depressive symptoms, which a mean is 36.97 (SD = 12.41). The independent-samples t-test result showed a significant difference between males and females in depressive symptoms (p < .05). These findings are supported by several previous studies and discuss important aspects related to gender roles, especially among university students. The potential explanations for this finding include the physiological factor, personality, and environment factor. The implication of the research’s findings has contributed knowledge to the field of depressive symptoms. Also, the Ministry of Education may give more attention to and help vulnerable students, especially female students. For future research, university students from other states or areas should be included to generalize the result. In conclusion, females are vulnerable to the social setting. Therefore, to decrease the incidence of depressive symptoms in females, the entire society, but not only the people around them, have the responsibility to help females to deal with distress mood.
Kelaziman kemurungan dalam kalangan pelajar universiti, terutamanya pelajar tahun akhir semakin meningkat. Walau bagaimanapun, lelaki dan perempuan menunjukkan tahap gejala kemurungan yang berbeza. Oleh itu, pengkaji mengkaji perbezaan yang signifikan dalam gejala kemurungan antara pelajar lelaki dan perempuan tahun akhir di Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Kota Kinabalu. Pelajar tahun akhir dari Fakulti Perubatan dan Sains Kesihatan (FPSK), Fakulti Sains Makanan dan Pemakanan (FSMP), Fakulti Perniagaan, Ekonomi & Perakaunan (FPEP), dan Fakulti Sains Sosial & Kemanusiaan (FSSK) menjawab soal selidik melalui atas talian yang terdiri daripada soal selidik yang mengukur simptom kemurungan (Center or Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)), dan sokongan sosial (Multidimensional Perceived Social Support (MPSS)). Sampel terdiri daripada 150 orang pelajar (53.3% perempuan; 46.7% lelaki, umur min 23.15 tahun) dan telah dipilih menggunakan persampelan kelompok. Hasil deskriptif menunjukkan pelajar tahun akhir mempunyai tahap gejala kemurungan yang tinggi, yang min adalah 36.97 (SD = 12.41). Analisis Ujian-t pula menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara lelaki dan perempuan dalam gejala kemurungan (p <.05). Penemuan ini disokong oleh beberapa kajian terdahulu dan membincangkan aspek penting yang berkaitan dengan peranan jantina, terutama dalam kalangan pelajar universiti. Penjelasan yang berpotensi untuk penemuan ini merangkumi faktor fisiologi, keperibadian, dan faktor persekitaran. Implikasi dari hasil penyelidikan telah menyumbang pengetahuan kepada bidang gejala kemurungan. Kementerian Pendidikan juga boleh memberikan latihan kesihatan mental dalam program akademik, terutamanya pelajar perempuan. Untuk penyelidikan masa depan, pelajar universiti dari negeri atau kawasan lain harus disertakan untuk meningkatkan generalisasi penemuan. Kesimpulannya, perempuan adalah mudah terdedah kepada gejala kemurungan dalam masyarakat. Oleh itu, bukan hanya orang di sekitar mereka, tetapi seluruh masyarakat mempunyai tanggungjawab untuk membantu perempuan menangani perasaan tertekan untuk mengurangkan kejadian gejala kemurungan dalam kalangan perempuan.
References
Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.96.2.358.
Albert, P. (2015). Why is depression more prevalent in women? Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 40(4), 219–221. doi:10.1503/jpn.150205
Busch, M. A., Mask, U. E., Ryl, L., Schlack, R., & Hapke, U. (2013). Prevalence of depressive symptoms and diagnosed depression among adults in Germany: Results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS1). Federal Health Gazette-Health Research-Health Protection, 56(5–6), 733–739. doi: 10.1007/s00103-013-1688-3
Center for Collegiate Mental Health. (2018). 2017 Annual Report. Penn State University. Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/ccmh/files/2018/01/2017 CCMH_Report-1r3iri4.pdf
Fattore, L. (2015). Reward processing and drug addiction: Does sex matter? Frontiers in Neuroscience, 9(329), 1–5. doi:10.3389/fnins. 2015.00329 Feldman, M. D., Christensen, J. F., & Satterfield, J. M. (2014). Behavioral Medicine: A Guide for Clinical Practice. (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Hankin, B. L., Mermelstein, R., & Roesch, L. (2007). Sex Differences in Adolescent Depression: Stress Exposure and Reactivity Models. Child Development, 78(1), 279–295. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00997.x Heo, E. H., Choi, A. S., Yu, J. C., & Nam, J. A. (2018). Validation of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale among Korean Adolescents. Psychiatry Investing, 15(2), 124–132. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5900392/
Institute for Public Health. (2018). National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017: Key findings from the Adolescent Health and Nutrition Surveys. Institute for Public Health, National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia. Retrieved from http://iku.moh.gov.my/images/IKU/Doc ument/REPORT/NHMS2017/NHMS2017Infographic.pdf
Islam, M. A., Wah, Y. L., Wen, T. T., Claire, C. W. Y. & Abdullah, A. (2018). Factors associated with depression among university students in Malaysia: A cross-sectional study. KnE Life Sciences, 4(4), 415–427. doi:10.18502/kls.v4i4.2302
Kajantie, E., & Phillips, D. (2006). The effects of sex and hormonal status on the physiological response to acute psychosocial stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 31(2), 151–178. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.07.002
Klein, D. N., Kotov, R., & Bufferd, S. J. (2011). Personality and depression: Explanatory models and review of the evidence. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7(1), 269–295. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032210-104540
Kuehner, C. (2017). Why is depression more common among women than among men? The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(2), 146–158. doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(16)30263-2
Kugbey, N., Osei-Boadi, S., & Atefoe, E. A. (2015). The influence of social support on the levels of depression, anxiety and stress among students in Ghana. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(25), 135–140. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/ fulltext/EJ1078530.pdf
Leykin, Y., Torres, L. D., Aguilera, A., & Muñoz, R. F. (2011). Factor structure of the CES-D in a sample of Spanish-and English-speaking smokers on the Internet. Psychiatry Research, 185(1), 269–74. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.04.056
Li, M., Lu, S., Wang, G., & Zhong, N. (2015). The effects of gender differences in patients with depression on their emotional working memory and emotional experience. Behavioural Neurology, 1–8. doi:10.1155/2015/807343
McHenry, J., Carrier, N., Hull, E., & Kabbaj, M. (2014). Sex differences in anxiety and depression: Role of testosterone. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 35(1), 42–57. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2013.09.001
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. (2010). Depression: The NICE Guideline on the Treatment and Management of Depression in Adults. Royal College of Psychiatrists
Oquendo, M. A., Turret, J., Grunebaum, M. F., Burke, A. K., Poh, E., Stevenson, E, Mann, J. J., & Galfalvy, H. (2013). Sex differences in clinical predictors of depression: A prospective study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 150(3), 1179–1183. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2013.05.010
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401. Retrieved from https://conservancy. umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/98561/v01n3p385.pdf?sequence=1
Ritchie, H, & Roser, M. (2019). Mental Health. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health
Rosenthal, M. N., Smidt, A. M., & Freyd, J. J. (2016). Still second class: Sexual harassment of graduate students. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(3), 364–377. doi:10.1177/0361684316644838
Sellgren, K. (2020, April 22). Coronavirus: Students should be able to retake the year. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/education5237 3828
Shamsuddin, K., Fadzil, F., Ismail, W. S. W., Shah, S. A., Omar, K., Muhammad, N. A., Jaffar, A., Ismail, A., & Mahadevan, R. (2013). Correlates of depression, anxiety and stress among Malaysian university students. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 6(4), 318–323. doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2013.01.014
Stevens, J. S., & Hamann, S. (2012). Sex differences in brain activation to emotional stimuli: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Neuropsychologia, 50(7), 1578–1593. doi:10.1016 /j.neuropsychologia.2012.03.011
Tangade, P. S., Mathur, A., Gupta, R., & Chaudhary, S. (2011). Assessment of stress level among dental school students: An Indian outlook. Dental Research Journal, 8(2), 95–101. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3177400/
Van de Velde, S., Huijts, T., Bracke, P., & Bambra, C. (2013). Macro-level gender equality and depression in men and women in Europe. Sociology of Health & Illness, 35(5), 682–698. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01521.x
Wang, H., Lin, S. L., Leung, G. M., & Schooling, C. M. (2016). Age at onset of puberty and adolescent depression: “Children of 1997” birth cohort. Pediatrics, 137(6), e20153231. doi:10.1542/peds.2015–3231
Weissman, M. M, Sholomskas, D., Pottenger, M., Prusoff, B. A., & Locke, B. Z. (1977). Assessing depressive symptoms in five psychiatric populations: A validation study. Am J Epidemiol., 106(3), 203–214. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals. aje.a112455
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Total Views: 24
| 
Total Downloads: 7
