Purpose: This study was done to compare factors predicting depressive symptoms in single and married employed women.
Methods: A comparative study using a cross-sectional survey design was used. The participants were 373 single and 355 married women. Measurements used for this study were demographic and work-related characteristics, physical conditions, self-efficacy, stressful life events, and depression. The SAS 9.1 program was used for descriptive statistics, x2 test, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and stepwise- multiple regression.
Results: Single employed women (SEW) had higher scores for stressful life events than married employed women (MEW), but there was no difference in depression between the groups. In examining the factors predicting depression, stressful life events and self-efficacy explained a portion of the variance in depression for both groups. Family monthly income and working hours were significant variables for SEW, while satisfaction with marriage and role as wife was significant for MEW.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the mental health of MEW is not worse than it is for SEW, and they do not suffer from multi-role strain. Although different variables explained depression for these women, family-related factors are especially important to MEW