Coping and Depression Among Community Dwelling Elders

ISBN-13: 9783639038163 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 156 str.

Frances Wilby

Opis

Depression in older adults has been widely studied inthe institutionalized population but less is knownabout independent community dwelling older adults anddepression. This work was designed to learn moreabout how depression impacts community dwelling olderadults, how they cope with depressive symptoms,whether they perceive themselves to be depressed, andhow they view the effectiveness of their copingstrategies. A random sample was taken of 100community dwelling older adults who live in a westerncity in the United States. 27.5% of the samplesuffered from significant depressive symptoms asmeasured by the CES-D indicating that depression is aserious concern for this group. The depressed groupused more emotion oriented coping strategies than thenondepressed group. The nondepressed group used moreproblem solving strategies and fewer emotion orientedstrategies. The depressed group consistently rankedthemselves as less effective in dealing withdepressive symptoms. Men who rated themselves moreeffective also had less depression after controllingfor functional ability. The study has broadimplications for social work practice.

O autorze

Frances Wilby holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of
Utah. She is the Associate Director of the Neighbors Helping
Neighbors program, a program that assists older adults to remain
independent in the community. She is an Assistant
Professor/lecturer at the University of Utah and brings 20 years
of experience to her work.