The Comparative Study of Married Couples' Marital Adjustment and Depression Levels

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to study the relationship between the depression levels and the marital harmony of the married couples. Studying the effects of demographic variables on on marital harmony and depression is another purpose of this study. The researcher of this study worked with a total of 348 individuals, 178 women and 170 men, gathering demographic and socio-economic variables with survey conducted by the researcher. To examine the harmony of the married couples Marriage Adjustment Scale, to examine for the depression levels of couples Beck Depression Scale applied. The survey is limited with those couples living in orlu, a town within the territory of Tekirdag City, Turkey participants'ages were between 26 to 55. According to the results of the study, gender and education level of participants have a significant effect on their depression level, ages of couples, marriage duration, ages of couples at that they were married, the type of marriage whether marriage after a friendship or an arranged marriage does not have any significant effect on depression levels of couples. Whereas being in a big or an elementary family, the number of child in the family, having a permanent job or not, income level, the frequency of fulfillment of expectations related to care and respect of the couples to each other, the level of the family arguments have a significant effect on the level of depression. The results obtained after those statistical analyses are discussed in relation to the literature and all those studies in the field.