THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL SUPPORT, LIFE EVENTS, AND DEMOGRAPHIC-FACTORS ON DEPRESSION AMONG MAORI AND EUROPEANS IN NEW-ZEALAND RURAL, TOWN, ANDURBAN ENVIRONMENTS

Little empirical research has been done in New Zealand into factors as sociated with depression. In all reviewed studies of depression conduc ted in the United States, towns have not been examined separately from rural districts and cities. A sample of 342 New Zealand adolescents a nd adults completed a questionnaire constructed by Bell, LeRoy, and St ephenson (1982) to measure depression, social support, stressful life events, and demographic factors. A three-way analysis of variance (ANO VA) demonstrated significant interaction effects of ethnicity and rece nt life events on depression, but social support did not significantly affect depression nor interact with life events to a meliorate the ef fects of life events on depression. Maori experiencing few life events had higher depression than Europeans with few events. A five-way ANOV A with the effects of area, sex, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic sta tus (SES) on depression showed significant main effects for sex, age, and SES. Area interacted significantly with ethnicity and age. Compare d to similar groups in the rural district and the city, Maori and youn g people in town had significantly higher mean depression scores. Maor i reported significantly more depressive symptoms and stressful life e vents than Europeans in the town but not in the rural or urban environ ments. Young adults had the highest mean depression score, and the old est group the lowest, both in the rural area. Results are discussed wi th reference to the rural, town, and urban environments in New Zealand , and to possible reasons for the weakness of the effect of social sup port on depression. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.