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  • Title: [Individual aspirations and depression].
    Author: Ferenc M, Zsuzsa P.
    Journal: Psychiatr Hung; 2007; 22(6):443-55. PubMed ID: 18445871.
    Abstract:
    UNLABELLED: The aim of our survey was to reveal the individual aspirations and personal strivings among college students which may play an important role as protective factors in the preservation of mental health, particularly regarding sub-clinical depressive syndromes. 712 college students were involved in the study (545 females and 167 males). The abridged version of Beck's Depression Inventory was used for measuring the severity of depression, while the Aspiration Questionnaire was used to assess the rate of individual aspirations. RESULTS: When estimating the importance of individual aspirations, we found intrinsic aspirations to be predominant for both genders of college students, with a minor shift in individual parameters. While in the case of women, health, social relationships and personal advancement were listed in this order of importance; in the case of men, personal advancement was ranked first, followed by the categories of health and social relationships. Out of the symptoms of depression, social reservation showed the closest correlation with the importance of certain personal strivings, and, within these, with the lack of intrinsic aspirations. Certain symptoms of depression - irrespective of sex - were found to have a very close correlation with the probability of nearly every personal aspiration, as well as with their realisation, and, within these, they were in a stronger correlation with the intrinsic aspirations than with the extrinsic ones (in the case of men, stronger correlation between the probability of every aspiration for depressive syndromes and the realisation thereof were also found to be stronger than in the case of women). When examining the overall correlation between all the three categories of individual aspirations (importance, probability, realisation) in depression, we found that depression showed a close negative correlation with the probability of personal growth and social relationships and the realisation of health; while a positive correlation was detected with the importance attributed to intrinsic aspirations, which explained almost one-fourth of the variances of depression altogether. The depressive syndromes found to be typical of college students (worthlessness, fatigue, hesitation, hopelessness, dissatisfaction) showed a much closer correlation with the importance, probability and realisation of individual aspirations in the case of men than in the case of women. Out of the aforementioned symptoms of depression, individual aspirations had the closest correlation with hopelessness in both genders. While in the case of men, the importance of intrinsic aspirations and the current dissatisfaction with these may lead mainly to the development of hopelessness; for women, the development of the feeling of hopelessness is primarily correlated with an extrinsic aspiration, the importance of wealth and the current lack thereof. As for the rest of the depressive syndromes, the explanatory power of the correlation with individual aspirations was different for women and men.
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