Depression and self-esteem of middle-aged and elderly single household: Focus on comparison to the multiple household

Abstract

Background/Objectives: As various types of middle-aged and elderly single household increased, it requires research about influential factors to their life satisfaction. Especially, there are numerous researches about the aged single household, but researches about emotional factors of middle-aged and elderly single household is very insufficient. As the comparison between the depression and self-esteem of single and multiple household could accurately apprehend characteristics of single household and be the foundation of political system preparation in accordance with its influential factor, it is very significant. This study aims to conducted comparative research on influential factors to depression and self-esteem of middle-aged and elderly single household. Methods/Statistical analysis: This study used KOWEPS 2017 data. In this study, total 3,595 middle-aged and elderly from age 45 to 64 among the survey targets in 2017 were selected and sorted out to single or multiple household. The independent variables are depression and self-esteem. The scale of depression is CESD-11 composed of 11 questions. Scale of self-esteem is Self-Esteem Scale developed by Rosenberg composed of 10 questions. The data was processed through SPSS WIN 23.0 program to conduct descriptive statistics analysis, T-Test and multiple regression analysis. Findings: The result of t-test conducted to apprehend difference between the depression and self-esteem of middle-aged and elderly single household and multiple household. After all, having a single person’s mood and self-esteem lower than that of a multi-family means that it is more likely to experience emotional difficulties. the result of multiple regression analysis conducted to apprehend influential factors to depression of middle-aged and elderly single household and multiple household. In the middle-aged, single- households and multi-family depression, both subjects had a significant impact on working and economic conditions. Since the middle-aged in society are considered to be the subjects of work, working and economic income conditions through jobs can be an important criterion for determining the quality of life for middle-aged people. The result of multiple regression analysis result conducted to apprehend influential factors to self-respect of middle-aged and elderly single household and multiple household. In multiple household that the perception of working ability, economic activity, total cost of living found to be factors affecting self - esteem. It can be judged that the economic activities of the middle-aged have a great influence on preserving the quality of their own lives. Improvements/Applications: Current single household policies focus on the aged and youth generation. There is no exclusive department on middle-aged and elderly single household and relevant policies are very insufficient. In this circumstance, there is a need to understand that realistic measures for the middle-aged and elderly single household with high depression and low self-esteem compared to multiple household is the most essential preventive approach to those who will become the aged generation.