A Study of Spirituality and Social Support in Relation to Depression Among Adolescents

Purpose of the present investigation was to study the spirituality and social support in relation to depression among adolescents. The sample comprised of 150 (75 male & 75 female) undergraduate students of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Spirituality Scale (Biswas & Biswas, 2006) was used for measuring spirituality, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) was used for measuring social support and Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II, 1996) was used for measuring depression of students. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and t-test were used for analyzing the data by SPSS 16 software. Result showed that there was significant negative correlation between spirituality and depression. Result also revealed that there was significant negative correlation between social support and depression. When gender differences was conducted on same sample, it was found that female students scored significantly higher on spirituality in comparison to male students. Further, it was also found that female students scored significantly higher on two dimensions of social support (i.e., significant others support and family support) in comparison to male students. While male students scored significantly higher on one dimension of social support (i.e. friends support) in comparison to female students. Results also showed that female students scored significantly higher on global social support in comparison to male students. Further it was also found that male students scored significantly higher on depression as compared to female students.