A Gender Based Comparison of Depression Between Married and Unmarried Young Adults

Abstract

The aim of present research was to find out the differences of depression level between married and unmarried young adults as well as their gender based comparison. After detailed literature review it was assumed that: (1) Married and unmarried young males and females will score different on the measure of depression. Sample of 108 participants including 52 married (27 males; 27 females) and 52 unmarried (27 males & 27 females) were utilized. Their age range was between 19 to 35 years and mean ages for married males ( =26.93; SD=4.531) and married females ( =27.63; SD=4.877) and for unmarried males ( =27.59; SD=4.245) and unmarried females ( =26.81; SD=4.608). The educational level of all participants was at least 12th grade. Siddiqi Shah Depression Scale (Siddiqui & Shah, 1997) was administered to assess level of depression. Results indicated married peoples ( =21.24) scored lower on depression as compare to unmarried people ( =27.19). lower mean scores were found in married males ( =17.41) as compare to married females ( =25.07) and unmarried females ( =24.41) as compare to unmarried males ( =29.96). It might be concluded that among young adults it is likely that married life lowers the depression among young males but cause an increase among young females.