Zeynep Karataş

By Yasemin Yavuzer and Zeynep Karataş

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between depression, negative automatic thoughts, life satisfaction, number of symptoms, psychologizing, somatizing and normalizing in young adults. The mediator role of life satisfaction in the relationship between negative automatic thoughts and depression especially is the major question of this study. Participants are composed of 115 volunteer teacher candidates from an urban Turkish university. Their ages vary between 21 and 29. The data are collected through Beck Depression Inventory, Life Satisfaction Scale, Automatic Thoughts Scale, Symptom Interpretation Questionnaire and Personal Information Form. As a result, it is seen that the depression scores of young adults do not differ according to gender and according to whether they encountered an event causing stress in the past 3 months or not. Another finding is that five variables (negative automatic thoughts, life satisfaction, number of symptoms, psychologizing and normalizing) are significant predictors in explaining the depression level of young adults. Together, these five variables explain 52% of the young adults’ depression. Another finding of the study is that negative automatic thoughts of young adults make them negatively assess quality of life and this causes the depression levels to increase.

Part of the book: Depression