Chi-Squared Test of Independence between Education and Depression.

A number of reputable studies have revealed that depression is one of the main forms of disability in the United States, one of which states that close to 10% of adults in the U.S. demonstrate critical indications of the condition in a given year. Of these studies, their conclusions indicate that the furthering of one’s education offers a level of security against the condition, as various examinations have reported a converse relationship between educational fulfillment and depression. While levels of education are said to be inversely linked to the prevalence of depression, the definitive reason for this relationship, however, seems to be limited and inconclusive at best.

A 2015 study was conducted to explore variations in the level of security offered by higher levels of educational achievement against the development of depression. This study consisted of 11,686 adult study participants who had at some point attended college but were not actively enrolled. For the purposes of this study, participants were categorized into two groups. Group A consisting of those who had a four-year degree or higher, and group B consisting of those who had less than a four-year degree. Using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, study leads observed a link between lower levels of educational attainment and depressive symptoms. These results revealed that signs of depression were less common among those who had at least a four-year degree in comparison to those who had no degree or less educational training.

The same year, another study was executed to further detail the association between lower educational attainment and depression. This study consisted of 24,611 adult participants who resided in the Netherlands. Results of this study indicated that among study participants those who reported lower levels of educational attainment proved to be at an increased risk for battling depression.

Another study proceeded with similarly focused research in 2019, consisting of an arbitrary sample of 26,037 adults who reacted to an online poll inquiring about their levels of educational attainment and different psychological conditions. Of the participants making up the sample for this study (26,037), 5,467 reportedly experienced symptoms of. What’s more, is the study leads to realizing that depression rates for the populace as a whole had increased. Be that as it may, study participants with lower educational fulfillments reliably had the most elevated rates of depression. Also, the rates of both the condition itself and the seriousness of its symptoms continuously intensified after some time for those with lower educational achievement.

The following study goes beyond that of previous studies by going beyond the two categories of those who have more or less than a four-year degree. Instead, the study in question will examine rates of depression across multiple levels of educational attainment. In doing so, it is logical to assume that this will allow researchers to differentiate between the level of effects each level of educational attainment has in order to evaluate the benefits posed to one’s overall mental health. As such, for the purposes of this study, it is predicted that there will prove to be a differentiation between depression rates among the various levels of educational attainment. Because there are two multilevel variables involved, the current study will proceed with the following hypotheses:

H_0: There is no association between Depression rates and levels of educational attainment.

H_a: There is an association between Depression rates and levels of educational attainment.

Rates of depression were determined according to answers retrieved through a yes / no survey with depression rates being determined by making calculations according to those answering affirmatively throughout each educational attainment level over the total number of participants within each given educational attainment level group. The information gathered was qualitative and categorical, thus requiring a nonparametric appraisal. Because this examination is comprised of two categorical variables with multi-levels, a chi-square test was led to decide whether there was a connection between levels of education and depression rates.

Figure 1: Depression Proportions AmongEducation Attainments Levels

Figures 3A and 3B detail evaluation results for both independence and symmetric measurements as revealed by the chi-square test. Upon completion, the degrees of freedom were determined by the total number of educational attainment level categories absent of one and the chi-statistic was revealed to be χ^2= 8.84 with a p-value of p=.065.

Upon initial assessment, data indicates the sample depression rate (19.18%) to be increasingly elevated to that of what is reported by the National Institute of Mental Health is said to be a 7.1% prevalence among all U.S. adults (National Institute of Mental Health, 2017). Being that the purpose of this examination is to identify whether depression rates proved to differentiate between the levels of educational attainment, the depression rate for the U.S. adult populace reported by the NIMH (7.1%) was utilized to survey anticipated values. As such, figures 4A and 4B, detail the chi-square test outcomes according to n the normal qualities of depression rates when analyzed at a prevalence of 7.1% for each level of educational attainment.

The study in question hypothesized that there is an association between Depression rates and levels of educational attainment. Be that as it may, according to the results of the chi-square test for independence, χ^2 (4, N = 1,413) = 8.84, p=.065 (V= 0.079), the study failed to reject the null hypothesis and we can therefore conclude that there is no association between Depression rates and levels of educational attainment. The results also revealed that no significant changes were observed in the depression status as the level of educational attainment increases. However, participants with a high school diploma are most likely to experience depression. Because of this pointing to a failed association between depression rates and levels of educational attainment the H_a would thus be rejected.

Throughout the course of this study, it was revealed that among the 271 participants with depression, a staggering 51% proved to have only completed a high school level education. Be that as it may, this particular populace is overrepresented, consisting of 47.70% of the absolute study sample as a whole. Among the depression rates for participants in the high school drop-out and high school graduate groups, high school dropouts revealed a depression rate of 18.18% with high school graduates concluded with a rate of 20.33%. Both of them proved to be lower than that of their counterparts with an Associate's degree which revealed a depression rate of 26.77%. Results revealed that study participants with an associate’s degree proved to serve as the populace with the most elevated depression rates (26.77%) among the entirety of the educational attainment level categories. These three educational attainment levels and their depression rate percentage results repudiate past discoveries that depression rates decline with higher levels of educational attainment. This could be explained as a result of a poor balance in representation for the group in question, as this sub-sample populace was among the two smallest groups of the study. Further investigations with a more balanced conveyance to represent each level of educational attainment populace would serve to prove these outcomes more definitively. That said, it was revealed that those with rates for those in the high school graduate group (20.33%) proved to be higher than that of their counterparts with a bachelor's degree (16.10%). The negative connection between depression rates and level of educational attainment proceeds into the group of participants holding master's degrees with a reported depression rate of 15.47%.

The finding that there is no significant relationship between depression and education attainment implies that some other factors not considered in this study play an important role and that underlying mechanisms may possibly be accessible to interventions. For example, when the social causation model would be studied in more detail.

This study investigated the relationship between depression and levels of educational attainment. Adopting the Chi-Square test of independence to determine whether levels of educational attainment can determine influences whether a person will become depressed or not. From the results of the chi-square test for independence, χ^2 (4, N = 1,413) = 8.84, p=.065 (V= 0.079), the study failed to reject the null hypothesis which implies that there is no association between Depression rates and levels of educational attainment. The results also revealed that no significant changes were observed in the depression status as the level of educational attainment increases. However, participants with a high school diploma are most likely to experience depression.

Limitations of this study include the lack of consideration for the demographics of study participants such as gender, financial status, nationalities, etc. As it is logical to assume that this leaves room for error by over and under portrayals which could thus negatively impact the results. As such, further examinations should be led with a bigger, more well-balanced populace before the outcomes should be considered generalized. These additional studies should likewise incorporate an examination of member demographics. Furthermore, no data was gathered on the individuals who had finished their Doctorate's degrees which is something that would be worth evaluating in order to see if such patterns proceed.

It is worth noting that a portion of the study participants could have currently been understudies in pursuit of furthering their educational attainment levels, as studies have demonstrated undergrads will in general be more pushed, on edge, and discouraged. This may have in part contributed to altering the outcomes, as this investigation expected participants to be adults who had finished school or their planned education in its entirety. Not to mention, the information was gathered through self-report surveys, which means placing faith in the expectation that members responded in a genuine fashion.

 The results of this investigation neglected to demonstrate that those who attain higher levels of education are in fact less likely to experience depression, as indicated by previous studies. This could in part be explained by the poor-quality populace dissemination of educational attainment levels in accordance with populace sample sizes as this leaves room for various inaccuracies. Future investigations should ensure that all levels of educational attainment are more uniformly conveyed in the examination sample then check to see if the same results remain constant. Lastly, future investigations should likewise seek to determine whether or not other underlining factors among those with higher levels of educational attainment exist that further secures them against depression, for example, gender, race, sexual orientation, financial status, and so on.