Life Satisfaction, Self Esteem and Depression in a Sample of Nigerian Adolescents

Background: A person’s state of mind often affects his/her health and how he/she responds to stress. The level of happiness and life satisfaction in the individual can be assessed by finding out if a person has high amounts of positive emotion, engagement, meaning, positive relationships and self esteem. Present study was therefore aimed at obtaining the levels of life satisfaction, self esteem and depression among Nigerian adolescents.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study design that was carried out in Enugu, south east Nigeria between May and July 2015. The Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Self Esteem Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory version two (BDI-2) and a socio demographic questionnaire were used to access 720 Nigerian adolescents.

Results: About 30% of the respondents indicated not being satisfied with their lives and 32.1% had low self esteem. Also 16.7%, 9.4% and 0.6% had mild depression, moderate depression and severe depression respectively.

Conclusion: This study observed low levels of life satisfaction, self esteem and varying degrees of depression in a sample of Nigerian adolescents. It is recommended that there is the need to introduce regular adolescent counseling and personality assessment for all adolescents.