Document Type

Paper

Publication Date

4-21-2022

Faculty Mentor

Mora Reinka

Abstract

When young adults have high self-efficacy, they tend to exhibit more resilience to stress and other mental health problems. Additionally, women are reported to experience depression at higher rates than men, which might be explained by potential gender bias in current diagnostic criteria. Our study examined the influence of gender and mental health self-efficacy on depression symptoms as well as the interaction of these two variables on depression outcomes in college aged-students. Participants (N = 58) were tasked to fill out an anonymous Qualtrics survey based on the Gender Inclusive Depression Scale (GIDS; Martin et al. (2013), and an additional question examining participants’ perception of mental health self-efficacy. Our results showed a significant negative correlation between mental health self-efficacy and depression, as well as a non-significant correlation between gender and depression. There was no significant interaction between gender and mental health self-efficacy in predicting depression outcomes. Our results confirm a potential gender bias in previously used depression scales, indicating that gender may not truly be a significant factor in predicting depression. The findings also support previous research indicating that self-efficacy is significantly associated with depression, creating space for future research and potential interventions to reduce depression in college-aged students.

Comments

Presented as part of the Ursinus College Celebration of Student Achievement (CoSA) held April 21, 2022.

The downloadable file is a research poster.

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