SOCIAL SUPPORT, SELF ESTEEM AND RELIGIOCITY AS PREDICTORS OF DEPRESSION AMONG YOUTHS

SOCIAL SUPPORT, SELF ESTEEM AND RELIGIOCITY AS PREDICTORS OF DEPRESSION AMONG YOUTHS IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF IBADAN, OYO STATE)

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The term depression among Nigerian youths cannot be mentioned without being attached with social support, self-esteem and religiosity as its determinant.
Depression can be said to be a state of being sad. It is a grave mood swing or disorder that negatively influences how one thinks, feels about everything and
behaves. It has a slight disparity from normal sadness, clinical depression, also called major depressive disorder, is consistent and largely comes between or
interrupts the proper life functioning, Alien 1976. Depression among youths is a serious issue and cannot be ignored. Untreated depression or its symptoms can last for weeks, months or years.
Putting together the genetic, chemical, biological, psychological, social and environmental factors will definitelygive rise or birth to disorder, Aseltine 1973.
Depression is most times a sign that some mental, emotional and physical aspects of a person’s life are not in good shape. Other sicknesses like Chronic
illness, heart disease or cancer may be accompanied by depression.
Some of the symptoms of clinical depression include; frequent depressed mood, nearly every day, Markedly diminished interest or fun in activities most of
the day, nearly every day, Changes in appetite that result in weight losses or gains unrelated to dieting, Changes in sleeping patterns, Loss of energy or
increased fatigue, Increased alcohol or drug use, thoughts of suicide, etc.
Depression is a conventional, frequent psychiatric problem youths face and is linked with functional state of being diminished, suicide, and psychiatric
medical condition, and also future academic failure, marital diiculties
and failure, unemployment, substance abuse, and legal problems, etc. Depression is
a great harm to human health and a threat to the society that is why research has concentrated on pointing out risk factors for this threat. A powerful
perspective is that deficiencies in social support maximize the risk for depression. Moreover, the concept or idea that a person is accepted and valued in one’s
interpersonal environment encourages self- esteem, confidence, and eicacy,
which surround depression. The stress-buering model stresses that social
support mollifies the link between stressful life events and depression. Deficiencies in perceived support have foreseen future rise and growth in depressive
symptoms among youths. Research works that evaluated both parental support and peer support discovered that only the former showed expected eects.
Based on our everyday experience, we have discovered that people who have low self-esteem are more likely to feel sad, betrayed, lonely, and dejected,
rejected. In accordance to this, numerous theories of depression insists that self-esteem plays a major role in the etiology of depressive disorders, and
operational definitions of depression include low self-esteem as a possible symptom. Over the years, we have known that self-esteem and depression are
related based on verification. People with low self-esteem are more likely to be depressed, both clinical levels and the lower forms of depressed act, and
depressed people are also prone to feel worthless, incompetent, and ineective.
Religion to some people is the feelings, acts, and experiences, of individual men in their seclusion, so far as they arrest or grasp themselves to stand in relation to what they perceive as divine.

SOCIAL SUPPORT, SELF ESTEEM AND RELIGIOCITY AS PREDICTORS OF DEPRESSION AMONG YOUTHS