The relationship between daily activity rhythms and depression in college freshman

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between daily activity rhythms and depression college freshmen. A questionnarie was administered to 226 college freshmen, which contained scales for daily activity rhythms (e.g., keeping early vs. late hours), perceived state of own health, and degree of depression. Path analysis of the variables revealed that the path diagrams for normal-rhythm and confused-rhythm groups were different. In the normal-rhythm group, the daily activity rhythms did not affect depression tendency, whereas in the confused group, daily rhythms had both direct and indirect effects on depression tendency. The results suggest that disturbance in daily activity rhythms causes a depression tendency in college freshmen.