Factors Predicting Depressed Mood among Victims of Stressful Life Event: The Case of Spouses of Incarcerated Males in Ibadan, Nigeria
Keywords:
Depressed mood, Coping strategies, Social support, Perceived social stigma, Emotional needsAbstract
The occurrence of major life events such as incarceration of a partner signals a period of increased risk of depressed mood and when supportive interventions are lacking it may result from evolution of distress to disorder. This study examined factors predicting depressed mood among female partners of prisoners in Ibadan, Nigeria. A total of 109 female partners of inmates in Ibadan who were selected through purposive sampling techniques participated in the study. The ages of the participants ranged between 20 years to 65years with mean age of 39.47years and standard deviation of 10.03 years. Data collection was through the use of questionnaires. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypothesis. Findings indicate that coping strategies (problem focused and emotion focused), social support, perceived social stigma and emotional needs significantly jointly predicted depressed mood with (R2 = .47, F = (5,103) = 18.92; P <.001). This implies that emphasis should be placed on coping strategies, social support, perceived social stigma and emotional needs as the factors mediating depressed mood among female partners of inmates in this study. However, it was suggested that effective coping mechanism should be adopted in order to handle circumstances that are responsible for expression of depressed mood as this enhance or improve the mental and psychological status of the spouses of incarcerated males and possibly change their perception about depression encountered as a result of the stressful life event.
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