Abstract:

The last 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Pazarcık, and Elbistan-centered earthquakes affected 11 provinces in total. It is estimated that earthquakes that are felt severely cause significant emotional problems as well as intense physical destruction. This study aims to examine the depression levels of adult individuals after the earthquake according to gender, education level, and age range. A total of 458 adult individuals living in Turkey participated in this research. Of the adult individuals in the study group, 326 (71.2%) were female and 132 (28.8%) were male. The questionnaire form prepared via Google Forms was delivered to the study group by snowball sampling method. Skewness and kurtosis values were examined for the normality assumption of the research data. The findings were then analyzed using a t-test and analysis of variance for independent samples. Results, depression levels of adult individuals differed according to gender. Post-earthquake depression levels in women were higher than in men. As a result of another finding, it was revealed that the average depression score of adults aged 18-35 was higher than that of individuals aged 36 and over. In addition, it was determined that the depression scores of university graduates were significantly higher than primary and high school graduates. The findings in this study are expected to contribute to current knowledge of the long-term mental health consequences of natural disasters.

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