The effects of social support and self-esteem on the development of depressive symptomatology in women with nontraditional professional careers

The effect of social support and self-esteem on the development of depressive symptomatology was assessed in 100 women employed in non-traditional professional (NTP) careers living in the metropolitan Denver area.; As hypothesized, the four groups (High Social Support (SS)-High Self-Esteem (SE), High SS-Low SE, Low SS-High SE, and Low SS-Low SE) reported increasing depressive symptomatology, with the Low SS-Low SE group reporting significantly more depressive symptoms than the three other groups. The effects of (a) reference group on marital status, child status, and job satisfaction, (b) schema type on level of depressive symptomatology, and (c) level of social support conflict on level of depressive symptomatology, were not significant.; Additional analyses revealed that significantly more depressive symptoms were reported by the Low SE group than the High SE group, and similarly, the Low SS group reported significantly more depressive symptomatology than the High SS group.; Among the NTP women in general, and married NTP women, in particular, those with children were significantly older than those without children. In addition, the NTP women who reported being dissatisfied with their jobs reported significantly more depressive symptomatology than those who reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs.