In South Korea, the suicide rate reached the highest level―28.1 out of 100,000 persons―among the OECD member countries as of 2012 and depression has become a social issue that can no longer be neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate individuals'' mental health on the basis of the scores for depression and self-esteem from the Korea Welfare Panel Study (KWPS) and determine their dynamic association with employment status.
This study was conducted using the eighth (2013) and ninth (2014) data from KWPS. To identify the factors affecting depression, the socio-demographic factors, the factors related to mental health, and the contents related to employment, such as changes in the employment condition and employment status, were selected and t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test, Pearson''s correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were used to determine explanatory power, with the demographic factors, the factors related to mental health, and the employment-related factors as independent variables and the current self-esteem as a dependent variable. This study obtained the following results:
1. For depression, a total of 6,749 subjects scored 5.06 in the eighth study and 5.84 in the ninth study on average, 0.78 up over a year. The subjects who were female, who were older, who were less educated, who were in the lower income bracket, who had no spouse, and who scored lower for self-esteem scored higher for depression (p<0.001).
2. Changes in the employment condition had no statistically significant effect on the scores for depression; as for employment status, full-time workers scored lowest for depression, followed by employers, self-employed persons, temporary workers, day workers, and unemployed persons (p<0.001).
3. The suspected cases of depression decreased in number from 580 (8.6%) in 2013 to 555 (8.2%) in 2014 (p<0.001).
4. Depression was significantly negatively correlated with self-esteem and significantly positively correlated with previous depression (p<0.001).
5. The multiple regression analysis found that in Model 1, those who were female, who were older, who had no spouse, who were in the lower income bracket, who had lower total self-esteem, and who scored higher for depression in the previous period tended to show higher levels of depression. Education had no statistically significant effect and explanatory power for all the variables inputted into this model was estimated to be 30.8% (p<0.001). Explanatory power for all the variables inputted into Model 2, which was generated by inputting employment status into Model 1, was estimated to be 30.9%, 0.1% up from Model 1 (p<0.05).
On the basis of these results, depression was significantly correlated with gender, age, income, the presence of a spouse, previous depression, self-esteem, and employment status and research on the factors that can narrow the gap among the variables affecting depression should be conducted and socially supported.