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Depressive Symptoms Among African American and White Older Adults

Departments of ¹ Aging and Mental Health
² Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, Tampa.

Address correspondence to Yuri Jang, PhD, Department of Aging and Mental Health, Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 1439, Tampa, Florida 33612. E-mail: yjang{at}fmhi.usf.edu

Guided by a stress and coping model, we explored determinants of depressive symptoms among community samples of older African Americans (n = 255) and older Whites (n = 452). We gave focus to the effects of demographic variables, physical health constraints (chronic conditions and functional disability), and psychosocial attributes (sense of mastery, religiosity, social support, and satisfaction with support), along with their interactive roles. We identified lower education, greater functional disability, lower sense of mastery, and poorer satisfaction with support as common risk factors for depressive symptoms in both groups; in contrast, the effects of age, gender, and religiosity were race specific. In addition, we obtained significant interactions among predictor variables in each group, identifying risk-reducing and risk-enhancing factors within each group.