This study was conducted to compare depression level and identify the variables that associated with the depression of the middle-aged women in the menopause. The study subjects inducted 289 mothers of college students(4 colleges in 1 university) in Taegu City whose age was between 40 and 59 years old. The instrument used in this study was Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) developed by Beck(1978) and translated into Korean by Lee(1981). The Cronbach alpha index for the reliability of BDI in this study subjects was 0.82. There were significant differences in the age (p<0.00l), marriage period(p<0.00l), the number of children(p<0.00l), support of spouse(p<0.0l) and health status (p<0.05) by menopausal stage. Depression level was higher for the women in the menopausal stage than the women in the premenopausal and postmenopausal stages (F=4.35, p=0.0139). Menopausal stage was associated with the depression level when all the other variables that were significantly associated with depression level were controlled by the ANCOVA (F=4.97, p=0.0076). Seventeen percent of variance of depression level was explained by the support of spouse and health status for the women at the premenopausal stage, 25% was explained by the satisfaction of marriage and family income for the women at the menopausal stage, and 20% was explained by the health status and family income for the women at the postmenopausal stage.