Original Article : Longitudinal Relationship between Depression and Self-esteem by Status of Economic Participation

Abstract

Objectives: This study alms to provide basic data necessary for depression policy decision by analyzing depression changes of individuals in the group of employee by the status economic participation (regular, non-regular) in Korea and factors which affect depression changes, and investigating the casual relationship between self-esteem as the most influential factor of depression and depression using the vulnerability model and the scar model. Methods: This study targeted 1,454 people from Korea Welfare Panel Data who responded from the 4rd-year survey to the 8th-year survey excepting respondents who did not response even once. The statistical analysis methods was used autoregressive cross-lagged model of AMOS. Result: One of the results of this study that depression and self-esteem by the status economic participation keeps stabilization as time goes on. Why these results came out, isdepression possesses the characteristics of consistently maintaining without being dependent on external stimulus. In addition, when analyzing the casual relationship between self-esteem and depression using autoregressive cross-lagged modeling, in the both groups of regular employee and non-regular employee, self-esteem``s explanatory power for depression was higher and it supported the vulnerability model. Conclusions: The results of this study imply that the policy on depression should be carefully considered when preparing for interventions targeting employee by the status of economic participation.