Comparison in Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Insomnia, and Suicidal Behavior among the Unemployed Graduate Job Seekers in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

The objective of this study was to compare the level of depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, and suicidal behavior among unemployed graduate job seekers in Bangladesh. This study employs a cross-sectional design, utilizing a quantitative technique. A questionnaire survey was conducted to get primary data from 416 unemployed graduate job seekers through in-person and online surveys using Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) scales. This study used the Independent Samples t-test and ANOVA for statistical analyses to determine significant difference. This study found that unemployed graduate job seekers in Bangladesh frequently face stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia due to financial threats, hardships, and distress in student life. In addition, women have a higher level of depression (severe), anxiety (severe), stress (moderate) and suicidal thoughts than men. Moreover, those unemployed jobseekers that didn’t have a friendly environment in the family have experienced depression (severe), anxiety (severe), stress (moderate), clinical insomnia (moderate severity)and suicidal thoughts. Findings depict that those who are engaged, married, and divorced or widowed had a higher level of depression, anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts than those who were single. The study will assist policymakers by providing evidence on mental health condition of the graduate students so that they could designing welfare policies for them.