Single parenting a risk factor for depression In adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to find out the level of Depression among adolescents, living in single parent family. It was hypothesized that the adolescents with single parent due to; Death, Divorce, Separation and Lack of physical presence would have more depression as compare to adolescents living with both parents. Sample of the present research consists of 240 adolescents, 120 males and 120 females, ranging from 12 to 17 years of age. Short Demographic Information Form (DIF) use to select the required groups and Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), was used to assess the level of depression among the adolescents. For the purpose of statistical analysis “One way Analysis of Variance” (ANOVA) was applied to determine the differences between both parent group and subcategories of single parent groups. SPSS-17.0 was used to calculate statistics. The results showed the significant differences [F (4, 235) = 23.375, p<.05] in level of depression between adolescents living with both parent and single parent groups.