Stressful Life Events and Depression in 60 Year Old Population of Gyeonggi Province : Social Support Can Act as Moderators?

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: 60-year old Korean population has particular life experiences such as Korean War. With this life experience, we aimed to examine the moderating role of social support on the relationship between adverse life events and depressive symptoms in later life. METHODS: The total respondents were 639 people who were 60-year old dwelling in Yangpyung, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. One to one interviews were conducted by experienced research assistants. RESULTS: Examining depression, 14.7% of total population showed 15 or higher geriatric depression scale-shortform-Korea score. 70% did report stressful life events as many as 13. Also, 31.6% of total participants were isolated or at high risk of isolation. Using hierarchical multiple regression models, the results showed that social support moderated the influence of the exposure to stressful life events on depression (R2=0.124, beta=-0.118, p<0.01). The moderating effect was greater in male (R2=0.118, beta=-1.36, p<0.01) than that of female (R2=0.113, beta=-0.115, p<0.01), which is apposite to our hypothesis. CONCLUSION: This finding suggests that social support play critical roles in the stress-outcome relationship among 60-years old population like it was suggested. Since most stressful events are inevitable, it is important to build sufficient social support networks.