Self Esteem and Its Relation to Depression among the Elderly
Abdul Hanid Halit

Abstract
Due to the aging Malaysian population, the issue concerning the elderly has become increasingly important. The elderly are said to have a higher risk to undergo depression compared to other age groups (Boyd & Bee, 2009). Thus this study is conducted to see the correlation between levels of self-esteem and levels of depression among the elderly in nursing homes, Kuantan and the differences by gender. This study consists of respondents aged 60 years old and above, respondents were selected based on the method of purposive sampling 50 respondents out of 83 people in four nursing homes were involved in this study. Beck’s Depression Inventory research tool was used to measure levels of depression and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure the respondents’ self esteem. The data obtained were analyzed using Pearson correlation and T-test. Pearson correlation test results show that there was significant relationship between self-esteem and depression levels, but the relationship is weak where the value of r2 =0.301. T-test results showed no significant difference between self-esteem by gender and level of depression by gender. Based on these findings and several suggestions have been submitted.

Full Text: PDF