Emotional expressivity of university health science students: role of depression and quality of life

Abstract

This study investigated how emotional expressivity of undergraduate students of health sciences is predicted by depression and quality of life in two purposively selected universities with health science related courses in eastern Uganda. It examined the relationships among all variables and analyzed the interactive effect and predictive ability of independent variables. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 240 participants in first, second and third years of study. The study was cross sectional in nature and used a questionnaire method of data collection. Beck depression inventory, Short Form health questionnaire (SF 12), and Emotional expressivity scale for measuring depression, quality of life and emotional expressivity respectively were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using the statical package for social sciences (IBM SPSS version 23). Product moment correlation coefficient, Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analyses were explored to establish relationships among variables, their interactive effects and their predictive ability respectively. Depression was discovered to be negatively related to both quality of life and emotional expressivity, (N = 240, r = -.623, p (.00) < 0.01 and r = -.186, p (.00) < 0.01) respectively but quality of life and emotional expressivity were not related, (n = 240, r = .052, p (.421) > 0.05). A significant difference in effect on emotional expressivity between depression and quality of life with a significant main effect for depression, (F = 1.83, p = 0.02) and no significant effect for quality of life, (F = 1.30, p = 0.19) were found. Depression was found to largely predict emotional expressivity, (Beta = -.25, t = -3.08, Sig. 0.00) compared to quality of life, (Beta = -.10, t = -1.28, Sig. 0.20). In conclusion, since emotional expressivity is negatively related and negatively predicted by depression in both public and private universities, psychological interventions should aim at reducing depression among students in universities as key to enhancing their positive expressivity.