Hope and Depression Levels in Orphan Children at Bagalkot Orphanages: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Orphans in our country face unprecedented psychological & sociological problems, often failing to meet acceptable standards.These children, often homeless, experience emotional problems, social damage, unnecessary tension, & discomfort as they lack affection from adults & fail to meet acceptable standards.Methods: Data were collected using Kay Herth hope scale & depression was measured using CES-D rating scale & using the complete enumeration method, selected 100 orphans living in orphanages in Bagalkot.Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient & chisquare test were used to find correlation & association.Results: The findings show that the majority of 60% of the respondents had great hope, the majority of orphaned children (77%) had severe depression.The results show that the overall mean percentage Hope score of the orphaned children was 0.069 with a mean & SD of 60.69±8.35.Mean orphan children depression score (%) was 0.2875 with a mean & SD of 28.75±5.6.The value of the correlation coefficient (r) of hope & depression of orphaned children is -0.26.Findings show that a negative significant correlation was found between hope & depression of orphaned children.No association was found between Hope & sociodemographic characteristics of orphaned children.A significant association was found between depression & year of study of orphan children (χ2= 0.006; p<0.05), since how many years have you lived in an orphanage for orphan children (χ2=0.0001;p<0.05) & rejection for other variables.Conclusion: This study concluded that most orphaned children have high hope & high levels of depression.This study is effective in identifying hope & depression among orphaned children.