The Relationship of Employment Status,Social Support,and Life Events with Depressive Symptomatology among Married Turkish Women

The present study investigated the predictive power of employment status, husband's and friends' social support and number of life-events on the levels of depressive symptomatology as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory among married Turkish women. Husband's support and number of life-events appeared as significant predictors of depression, whereas employment status did not. The results also showed that subjects reporting negative life-events rated by external judges to be relatively independent of individual perception had higher depression scores than subjects not reporting any of these events. The results were discussed with reference to the status of women in Turkey and the possible socio-cultural variables that might have contributed to the differences between the results obtained from Turkish and Western samples.