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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Loneliness and depression in independent living retirement communities
— risk and resilience factors | | Author(s) | K B Adams, S Sanders, E A Auth |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 8, no 6, November 2004 |
| Pages | pp 475-485 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Loneliness ; Depression ; Evaluation ; Retirement communities ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Socio-emotional selectivity theory posits that as individuals age, they desire less social stimulation and novelty, and tend to select close, reliable relationships to meet their emotional needs. While residence in congregate facilities affords social exposure, it does not guarantee access to close relationships, and loneliness may result. This article uses the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the UCLA Loneliness Scale to examine loneliness and depressive symptoms for older Americans aged 60-98 living in two retirement communities. Depression was predicted by being older, the number of chronic health conditions, grieving a recent loss, fewer neighbour visits, less participation in organised social activities and less church attendance. Grieving a recent loss, receiving fewer visits from friends, and having a less extensive social network predicted loneliness. In addition, loneliness scores explained about 8% of the unique variance in depression scores, suggesting it is an independent risk factor for depressive symptoms. Suggestions are made for tackling loneliness in older people as a means of preventing more serious health consequences.(RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-041216205 A |
| Classmark | DV: ENR: 4C: ROA: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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