Student Presenter(s): Taylor Narsingh, Danielle Tarpey, Sara Giammarella
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Calma-Roddin
Department: Behavioral Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Many women use oral contraception. In addition, many women experience depression. But is oral birth control related to depression levels in women? Prior research showed both support for and against the relationship between oral contraceptive use and depression in women. We found that, in prior research, the Beck Depression Inventory showed that there is little difference in depression levels between women who use oral contraceptives and those who do not use oral contraceptives. Some other measurements show that there is a correlation between depression and oral contraceptives, but we believe this is because of the different methods that were used. Our goal was to see if there was a difference between depression levels for those who use oral birth control and those who do not use two different surveys: the Beck Depression Inventory and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Our participants are college-aged women, split into two groups based on whether they use oral contraceptives. All women will take the Beck Depression Inventory and the Patient Health Questionnaire. We expect to see a difference in depression levels between the women who use oral contraceptives and the women who do not use oral contraceptives using the Patient Health Questionnaire, but not the Beck Depression Inventory.