HAPPINESS AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG DEPRESSED AND NON DEPRESSED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective: The present study is an effort to identify the difference in the level of life satisfaction and happiness in depressed and non-depressed university students.

Research Design:  A comparative study

Place and Duration of Research: Universities of Karachi, 2013, 2014

Sample and Procedure: The participants include 331 students age ranged from 19 to 30 (mean age21.7± 2.7) years, selected from different universities of Karachi, Pakistan. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Scale for Depression (Radloff, 1977), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985)and Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) were administered on the sample. It was hypothesized that there would be a difference in the level of happiness, and life satisfaction among students with and without depression.

Statistics: Descriptive statistics, (t-test for independent sample) was applied to assess the difference of happiness and life satisfaction among depressed and non depressed university students

Results: The results reveals that there is a significant difference in the level of satisfaction with life [t (329) =5.910, p<.001] and subjective happiness [t (329) =2.733, p<.001] among students with and without depression.