Correlation between depression and happiness among Kuwait university students

Abstract

Background

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) has become one of the most widely used instruments for evaluating the severity of depressive symptoms in psychiatric patients and in normal populations. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) has been derived from the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). The OHI follows the design and format of BDI-II, which provided, when reversed, a set of 20 multiple-choice items relevant to subjective well being. Further items were added to cover aspects of happiness and 29 items were retained in the final scale. OHQ was translated into Arabic for the first time in the present study. The aim of the study is to examine the correlation between depression and happiness.

Materials and methods

BDI-II (alpha .87) and the Arabic version of OHQ (alpha .92) were completed by a sample of (380) Kuwait university students (180) males and (200) females with mean age of 22.19 ± 2.8 years old. Pearson correlations were calculated.

Results

Significant (P > 0.01) reverse correlation was found between depression and happiness (r = –54).

Conclusion

Although significant negative relationship existed between BDI-II and OHQ, the coefficient for determination of this correlation shows that nearly only half of depression changes are described and assessed with happiness score! It seems that the two psychometric tools do not completely stand against each other. However, further evaluation of this relationship is needed.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.