Social Support and its Relationship with the life events stress
and Depression in a Sample of Patients
The study aimed to investigate the relationship of social support
in both the life events of stress and depression in a sample of male
and female Saudi depression patients, as well as the role of the two
variables (social support and stressful life events) as independent
variables in predicting depression (dependent variable). The study
also aimed to identify the differences between the average scores of
males and females among depression patients on the study variables
(social support and stressful life events). The study was based on the
comparative descriptive approach. The study sample consisted of 80
patients with depression from the Saudis (40 males and 40 females),
34 patients from Jeddah Mental Health Hospital (20 females - 14
males) and 40 patients from the Mental Health Hospital in Taif (18)
Females - 22 males) and 6 patients from the Psychiatric Department
at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Makkah (4 females), aged between
24-60 years. The study was based on the following tools: social
support measure (developed by the researcher), Questionnaire of
events of stressful life; translated by (Hassan Abdel Muti, 1994),
Beck's measure of depression (Fateem, 1999), and the
appropriateness of tools and their suitability for the Saudi
environment and its psychometric efficiency were verified in several
ways. The results of the study showed a statistically significant
positive correlation at the level of (0.01) between the events of
stressful life and depression in a sample of depression patients.
There was also a negative correlation and a statistically significant
function at (0.01) between social support and depression in a sample
of depression patients. There was also a negative correlation between