Abstract
Depression is a critical public health concern impacting employees’ mental health, productivity and organizational performance, and it is becoming prevalent, especially among employees who are not satisfied with their jobs as a result of job roles, schedules, poor working conditions and poor remunerations. However, the roles of job satisfaction and age in workplace depression are not well understood. This study examined the prevalence of depression and its relationship with job satisfaction among employees in Ondo, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 176 employees selected from law enforcement agencies, academics, banking sectors and health workers using convenience sampling technique. The participants’ age range was 22-59 years, with a mean of 38.05 and a standard deviation of 8.61. The job satisfaction and depression dimensions of the Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were used to collect data for the study. Data were analyzed with Pearson correlation and multi-group mediation analysis in IBM SPSS Version 28.0. The result showed the prevalence of severe depressive symptoms as 4.0% while normal and mild depression were reported as 42.6% and 37.5%, respectively. The results revealed a significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and depression r(175)= -0.184, p=0.01} while age (r = 0.101; P < .05) had a significant positive relationship with depression among residents of Ondo city in Ondo State. The study concluded that job satisfaction and age had a significant relationship with depression among professionals in Ondo, Nigeria. Increasing job satisfaction appears effective in mitigating depression symptoms in employees, emphasizing the need for mental health support and job satisfaction improvement initiatives within organizations. It is recommended that there should be rigorous education on the symptoms of depression and the ways to manage it among the populace, and the government should work out effective palliative measures to reduce the economic hardship faced by the people.