The roles of gratitude and spirituality on the relationship between stressful life events and depression

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the world that can negatively affect the functionality of a person's job, school, family life and relationships in many ways. One of the main factors that cause people to be depressed is exposure to stressful life events. The aim of this study is to determine the roles of gratitude and spirituality levels in the relationship between stressful life events and level of depressive symptoms. Within the scope of the research, 291 people were reached via the internet using purposive sampling method. The Life Events Scale (LES), Appreciation Scale (AS), Spirituality Scale (SC) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to the participants. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was found that as stressful life events increased, the level of depressive symptoms increased, and as gratitude and spirituality increased, the level of depressive symptoms decreased. In addition, it seems that the level of gratitude decreases as stressful life events increase. At the last stage of the hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that low economic situation and increasing stressful life events had a predictive effect on increasing the level of depressive symptoms; and increasing age and gratitude were found to have a predictive effect on decreasing the level of depressive symptoms. As a result of the mediation analysis, it was found that gratitude level partially mediated the relationship between stressful life events and level of depressive symptoms. As a result of the moderator analysis, it was found that the level of spirituality does not have a moderator role in the relationship between stressful life events and level of depressive symptoms. The current research is thought to be an important step towards more effective use of gratitude and spirituality in the treatment of depression and preventive studies.