NEGATIVE SEXUAL EXPERIENCES AS PREDICTORS OF DEPRESSION AMONG WOMEN
Mgbenkemdi Ejike. H& Aboh Uche J
Department of Psychology
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Agbani Enugu
Email:iamejike@yahoo.co.uk & james.aboh@esut.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
This study investigated negative sexual experiences as predictors of depression among women. A total of 107 participants comprising 62 female nurses and 45 female administrative staff of Federal Neuropsychiatric hospital Enugu using available sampling techniques were drawn for the study. Two sets of instruments were used namely; SES – Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss, Gidyez & Wisniewski, 1987); and CES-D – Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (Rudloff, 1977). A cross-sectional design was adopted; while hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied as a statistic to test the hypothesis which stated that negative sexual experiences would significantly predict depression among women. The result showed that a strong positive correlation was observed between negative sexual experiences and depression among women r(107) = .47at p<.001. Meaning the increase in negative sexual experiences would equally bring about an increase in depression among women. Further, negative sexual experiences accounted for an additional 25.5% (ΔR2= 17.7%) variation in depression and this change in R2was significant, F(10, 96) = 3.29, p<.001) and the relationship between variables were strong(R =.51). However, only negative sexual experiences significantly and positively predicted depression β = .45, t(96) = 4.77, p<.001. It was concluded that the most important predictor of depression among women was negative sexual experiences which predicted strongly and remarkably depression among women. The findings were discussed in relation to pieces of literature reviewed and suggestions made.
Keywords: Negative Sexual experiences, Nurses, Administrative Staff, Depression and women
