Considering the effects of the level of social support and self-esteem as risk factors in the onset and continuation of depression, the purpose of the current study (in addition to studying the demographic items of depression) was to investigate the correlation between depression and level of social support and self-esteem in Iranian university students studying non medical majors.

The study was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic research carried out on the students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2006. Self administered questionnaires on socio-demographic information (age, gender, marital status, and educational level), Eysenk self-esteem scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Cassidy social support scale were randomly given out to students who were selected by multi stage randomized sampling. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 14 using the χ2-test.

1200 students responded to the anonymous questionnaires. A total of 57.2% of the participants had depression (36.3% mild, 14.4% moderate and 6.5% severe). Depression was significantly higher in males, singles and in 25-29-year-old students. Results showed that 9.4%, 18.3% and 72.3% of the participants reported low, moderate and high levels of social support respectively. 1.8% and 6.3% of the participants reported low and moderate levels of self-esteem respectively; while 91.9% reported high levels of self-esteem.

Depression has a higher rate in non-medical university students of Iran than general population. Levels of social support and self-esteem were negatively associated with frequency of depression.