Depression and Socioeconomic Status in West Virginians

Abstract The researchers conducted this study in order to determine the relationship between depression and the different socioeconomic statuses in West Virginians. A survey was posted to various social media accounts as well as a classroom forum and data was collected from thirty three individuals who had a permanent residence in West Virginia. A variation of the Depression Test gathered from Mental Health America was used in the study with added questions regarding socioeconomic status as well as descriptive questions, both of which were summed individually and the data was compared using SPSS. Researchers hypothesized that higher depression rates would show a relationship to lower socioeconomic status. After running data through a Pearson correlation test, the researchers found that depression and socioeconomic status in West Virginians have a negative correlation. Future researchers will be able to use the current study as a bases for their research in order to determine if there are other factors that could be associated with the depression in West Virginians