Differences in depressive symptoms between two samples of children from divorced and stable families in Kuwaiti society.

Abstract
Although divorce is a widespread global phenomenon, it is witnessing a rapid increase in recent decades in Kuwait, according to official statistics. The current study aimed to detect the severity of major depressive symptoms in children from divorced families compared to settled families, as well as to verify whether there is a relationship between the severity of depressive symptoms among children of divorced families due to the gender or age of the child. The sample consisted of 91 pupils (49 males and 42 females), including 46 from divorced families and 45 from stable families, from primary and middle schools in the State of Kuwait. To achieve the goal of the study, the researcher used the an Arabic inventory for screening child depression, which was developed by Ahmed Abdel Khaleq 1993, a measure that has a high degree of reliability and validity, and thus the results of the study can be generalized with a degree of confidence. The results of the study revealed that the severity of depressive symptoms in children of divorced families greater than the severity of symptoms of depression in children of well-settled families. The results also showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between the age of children with divorced families and the severity of their depressive symptoms amounted to 0.42, while the relationship between the age of children and the severity of depressive symptoms was not significant for settled families. The study also found no significance interaction between sex and the family status  effect on severity of depressive symptoms.