Differential Associations of Sex, Age, and Marital Status with Depressive Symptoms Across IFLS-4 and IFLS-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37287/ijghr.v8i5.2657Keywords:
age, depression symptoms, marital status, sexAbstract
Previous studies in Indonesia have reported a relatively high prevalence of depressive symptoms, with variations observed based on characteristics and timeframes; consequently, the relationship between these characteristics and depressive symptoms may differ across survey periods. This study aims to analyze the relationship between gender, age, marital status, and depressive symptoms using data from waves 4 and 5 of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). Method: This cross-sectional study used data from IFLS-4 (2007) and IFLS-5 (2014). A total of 29,965 respondents from IFLS-4 and 31,441 respondents from IFLS-5 were included in the analysis. Depressive symptoms were categorized as normal or having depressive symptoms. The datasets were merged and analyzed using Stata. Chi-square tests were used for bivariate analysis of categorical variables, and binary logistic regression was used for independent variables with multiple categories. In IFLS-4, sex/gender (p = 0.458), age (p = 0.126), and marital status (p = 0.703) were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms. In contrast, all three variables were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in IFLS-5 (p < 0.001). In IFLS-5, females represented a higher proportion of respondents with depressive symptoms than males (55.23% vs. 44.77%), respondents aged 14–20 years represented a higher proportion of those with depressive symptoms than those without symptoms (14.29% vs. 10.67%), and respondents who had never married were more frequently represented among those with depressive symptoms (25.63% vs. 18.18%). The discrepancy between the two survey waves is an important finding.
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