Depression Level in Women as a Function of Age at Marriage

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to understand whether the age of marriage is a determinant of predicting depression in women in later life. It is hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in the level of depression experienced by women who get married before the age of 18 and women who get married after the age of 18. In order to measure the level of depression the Siddiqui-Shah Depression Scale (1992) was administered on a sample of 60 married women out of which 30 were married before the age of 18 and the remaining 30 were married after 18 years of age. All these women belonged to the middle socio-economic status. The age range of the participants was between 18 to 40 years with a minimum of one year of marriage to a maximum of 20 years. The average age of the participants at the time of marriage was calculated to be 18.8 years and each participant had an average of 2 kids. For statistical analysis of the data the t-test was calculated and the results obtained were found to be non significant (P = 0.546) which explained that the age of marriage is not a determinant of predicting depression in females