Social support, Self-esteem and Depression among adolescents in Secondary schools in Kampala

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the relationship between social support, self-esteem and depression among adolescents in secondary schools in Kampala. The objectives of the study were; to examine the relationship between social support and self-esteem, to examine the relationship between social support and depression and to examine the relationship between self-esteem and depression. The study adopted a correlational as its research design where quantitative method was used to gather information for proper analysis and making appropriate inferences, generalizations and conclusions to the population and qualitative method was used so as to capture the information regarding attitudes and behavior hence supplementing information from quantitative sources. The researcher considered a sample size of 216 respondents both male and female where he employed a simple random sampling technique to select the respondents. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents and the analysis was done using SPSS version 21 The study findings revealed that revealed that there is a significant relationship between social support and self-esteem at r= (.188), n=216, p<0.05. The study also revealed that there is a significant relationship between social support and depression among adolescents at (r= .294, n=216, p<0.05). Still, the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and depression (r=.159, n-216, p<0.05). In conclusion, No education system will be effective if it continually emphasizes higher levels of social support and esteem, but fails to address the problem of depression among adolescents. Therefore, stakeholders at all levels should be convinced that social support impacts on self-esteem which also impacts on the mood of adolescents