Statistical Analysis of Depression and Social support Change in Arab Immigrant Women in USA

Arab Muslim immigrant women come across many anxieties and therefore may become depressed. Many argue that social support from husbands, family, and friends may lower depression. However, changes in social support over time and the effects of such support on depression at a future time period have not been fully addressed in the literature. This work investigated the relationship between demographic characteristics, changes in social support, and depression in Arab Muslim immigrant women who immigrated to the USA. A sample of 454 married Arab Muslim immigrant women provided demographic data, scores on several social support variables and depression at three time periods approximately six months apart. Various statistical techniques at our disposal such as boxplots, curves, descriptive statistics, ANOVA, ANCOVA, simple and multiple linear regression analyses have been used to see how various variables and factors like country of birth, spoken English ability, employment status, education, number of children living with woman, length of time in USA, age, etc., are associated with changes in social support from husband, extended family and friends over time.