Relationship satisfaction of couples and self-esteem in a patient with depression at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Abstract

Background: Couple Relationships can be both supporter and stressor for patients with depression which may impact on both clinical outcomes of depressive symptoms and self-esteem. However, there is no previous study that specifically examines couple relationships/ relationship satisfaction in patients with depression as well as its impact on self-esteem of depressivepatients.

Objectives: To examine the level of couple relationship satisfaction and the level of self-esteem, as well as the predictors in patients diagnosed with depression.

Methods: The subjects were recruited from Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital during October 2023 - February 2024. The inclusion criteria were 1) age≥18 years; 2) was diagnosed with “depression” (any diagnosis categories in DSM-5/ICD-10 by self-identified); 3) currently in romantic relationship for at least 3 months. The measurements used were 1) Personal data questionnaire; 2) Relationship assessment scale (RAS)-Thai version; 3) The Rosenberg’s self esteem scale (RSE)-Thai version; and 4) Beck depression inventory - IA (BDI-IA) Thai version.

Results: There were 113 patients with depression recruited in the study. The Average RAS score was 3.6 (SD = 0.6), and most of them (49.6%) having a low level of self-esteem from RSE. Interestingly, RAS score was not significantly correlated with RSE score. From multiple linear regression analysis, we found that 3 factors namely; 1) frequency of conflicts within 3 months (β= - 0.503); 2) age (β= - 0.300); and 3) impact of love relationship on depression (β= - 0.274) could be together,predict 45.0% of the variables of RAS score, whereas only severity of depressive symptoms (β= - 0.610) predict (37.3%)of the variables of RSE score when controlling for other variables.

Conclusion: Most depressed patients were having moderate to high level of couple relationship satisfaction whereas having a low level of self-esteem. Relationship satisfaction in depressed patients is not related with level of self-esteem.