Some predictors of depression and life satisfaction among blind and visually impaired people

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati odnos socio-demografskih karakteristika, optimizma i pesimizma, samopoštovanja i socijalne podrške s depresivnošću i zadovoljstvom životom kod slijepih i slabovidnih osoba. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 94 osobe oštećena vida. U istraživanju su korišteni: Opći upitnik o socio-demografskim varijablama, Ljestvica procjene socijalne podrške (SS-A; Vaux i sur., 1986; prema Hudek–Knežević, 1994), Skala optimizma-pesimizma (O-P skala, Penezić, 2002) Skala samosviđanja i samokompetentnosti (SLCS-R; Tafarodi i Swann, 1995), Upitnik o simptomima depresije (IDS-SR; Rush, Carmody i Reimitz, 2000) i Skala zadovoljstva životom (Penezić, 2002). Rezultati ukazuju na značajnu negativnu povezanost depresivnosti sa stupnjem obrazovanja, optimizmom, samosviđanjem, samokompetentnošću, podrškom prijatelja, obitelji i suradnika te na značajnu pozitivnu povezanost depresivnosti sa komobiditetom oštećenja vida s drugim bolestima te sa pesimizmom. Nadalje, podaci pokazuju da je zadovoljstvo životom značajno pozitivno povezano sa stupnjem obrazovanja, socio-ekonomskim statusom, optimizmom, samosviđanjem, samokompetentnošću i sva tri izvora podrške, dok je značajno negativno povezano s pesimizmom i depresijom. Na temelju provedene hijerarhijske regresijske analize može se zaključiti da se pomoću sociodemografskih i osobnih varijabli može predvidjeti stupanj depresivnosti, dok suprotno očekivanjima, socijalna podrška ne doprinosi dodatno objašnjenju njezine varijance. S druge strane, osobne i socijalne varijable pokazale su se značajnim prediktorima zadovoljstva životom.The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics, optimism, pessimism, self-esteem, social support with depression and life satisfaction. 94 blind and visually impaired people participated in this study. Instruments that were used are: General questionnaire about sociodemographic characteristics, Social Support Appraisals Scale (SS-A; Vaux et al., 1986; prema Hudek–Knežević, 1994), O-P Scale (Penezić, 2002), Self-liking/Self-competence Scale, (SLCS-R; Tafarodi and Swann, 1995), Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-SR; Rush, Carmody i Reimitz, 2000) and Life Satisfaction Scale (Penezić, 2002). The data show a significant negative correlation between depression and level of education, optimism, self-liking, self-competence, support received from friends, family and co-workers, and a significant positive correlation between depression and comorbidity with other diseases and pessimism. Furthermore, the results show that life satisfaction is significantly positively correlated with the level of education, socio-economic status, optimism, self-liking, self-competence and all three sources of support, while significantly negatively associated with pessimism and depression. Based on the hierarchical regression analysis, it can be concluded that using socio-demographic and personal variables we can predict the level of depression, while, contrary to expectations, social support does not contribute to further explanation of its variance. On the other hand, personal and social variables proved to be significant predictors of life satisfaction