Relationships Between Perceived Neighborhood Disorder and Depressive Symptomatology: The Stress Buffering Effects of Social Support Among Older Adults

Seungjong Cho

13 citations0/0 files storedSocial Work in Public Health

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Health disparities and outcomes Aging, Health, and Disability Health and Well-being Studies

Abstract

Existing research indicates neighborhood is an important determinant of depressive symptoms. However, this research has several limitations. These include a lack of investigation of older adults’ experiences and of social support as a possible moderator. The current study aims to fill these gaps by increasing knowledge about the relationships between perceived neighborhood disorder and depressive symptoms among older adults. Applying stress process theory, this study investigated the relationships between two subjective indicators of neighborhood stressors – physical and social perceived neighborhood disorder and depressive symptoms. This study also tested whether social support moderated the effects of the neighborhood stressors on depressive symptoms. This study was based on secondary data analysis from the Health and Retirement Study 2016 (N = 3,684; age 50+). This study applied a negative binomial regression in that the outcome was a count variable. The results showed the stress buffering effects of social support were not significant for both perceived neighborhood social disorder and physical disorder. Not as a moderator but as the main effect, lower social support was significantly related to higher depressive symptoms. Having a depression history, lower self-rated health, female, and lower education were also related to higher depressive symptoms. This study contributes to social work practice by addressing older adults’ depressive symptomatology. Findings identified vulnerable older adults to target for interventions based on individual characteristics. Focusing on social support should be a vital component of interventions. Social workers can help older adults maintain and strengthen their social support, with beneficial effects on their depressive symptomatology.

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References

1977The CES-D Scale 1985Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis.1976Social Support as a Moderator of Life Stress 1981The Stress Process 1994Screening for Depression in Well Older Adults: Evaluation of a Short Form of the CES-D 1994Screening for depression in well older adults: evaluation of a short form of the CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale).2012The Truly Disadvantaged 1989The Sociological Study of Stress

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