Time series investigation of job-events and depression in computer software engineers

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to conduct an observation of a time series of job-event/life event and depressive symptoms, prospectively. Ten male computer software engineers were observed every two weeks for five months and every following week for two months. In total, one hundred and eighty-one observations were made. A semi-structured interview was conducted to survey the week-unit job-events on each sampling day. The depressive symptoms were measured using Zung's Self-reporting Depressive Scale (SDS). It was found that the events had a significant effect on the SDS raw score. It also showed that the effective time period of the events on depression is within two weeks. With a week-based analysis in a prospective approach, the present study showed the immediate effects of job events or life events on depressive symptoms.