PERCEIVED CAUSES OF DEPRESSION AMONG UNDERGRADUATES OF UNIVERSITIES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Depression is unarguably a global burden which is characterized by persistent sadness, difficulties in eating, sleeping and lack of concentration on a task among other feelings. Depression can be caused by a number of factors that can be broadly categorized under biological, psychological and social factors. This study, therefore, examined; "causes of depression among undergraduates of universities in Kwara State". Descriptive design of a survey type was adopted for the study and multi-stage sampling procedure which comprised purposive, proportional, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to select a total number of 600 undergraduates from the two selected universities in Kwara State. " Causes of Depression Questionnaire (CDQ)", was used to gather relevant data for the study. Upon the analysis for reliability test, the instrument yielded 0.72 test-retest reliability coefficient. Frequency counts and percentages were used to present the respondents' demographic data. The null hypotheses formulated were analysed using t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study therefore, revealed that brain malfunction (brain chemical imbalance), negative thinking patterns, heredity, sexual disorder and death of the loved ones were the leading causes of depression among the undergraduates’ students of universities in Kwara State. The hypotheses tested revealed no significant difference in the causes of depression among undergraduates of universities in Kwara State on basis of gender, religious affiliation and level of their study. Based on the findings, it was recommended that workshops and seminars, among other enlightenment programmes, should be regularly organised by the concerned authorities for the undergraduates’ students on depression and its management strategies. Counsellors should promptly diagnose patients for depression and provide adequate intervention to help the depressed ones among students.