Depression and Life Satisfaction Essays

Depression and Life Satisfaction Essays Depression and Life Satisfaction Essay Depression and Life Satisfaction Essay The correlation between depression and life satisfaction for older adults was examined using questionnaires. Four hundred and one older adults (age 65 and above) filled out two questionnaires that assessing depression and life satisfaction, as well as two irrelevant questionnaires that were used to prevent from guessing the hypothesis. As hypothesized, significant negative correlation was found between depression and life satisfaction for older adults. However, the strength of the correlation was quite low. This might due to the inadequate use of questionnaires or participants’ characteristics. Keywords: depression, life satisfaction, older adults Effect of Depression on Life Satisfaction for Elderly Population People who are suffering from depression tend to have a negative view of life. Consequently, they generally have lower level of life satisfaction as well. Previous research has suggested a strong negative correlation between depression and life satisfaction. That is, as one gets more severe in his depression symptoms, his overall life satisfaction will decrease dramatically. For example, in one study conducted by Headey, Kelley and Wearing (1991), the participants completed a series of questionnaires assessing their general life satisfaction, positive affect, anxiety and depression. They found that â€Å"one of the well-being (psychological) dimension, life satisfaction, is quite strongly and negatively correlated with a distress (psychological) dimension, depression; life satisfaction and depression are near opposites† (p. 63). This result was not only limited to one study. In the early studies, Frisch, Cornell, and Villanueva (1989) also obtained significant negative correlations between life satisfaction and depression. Furthermore, Frisch et al. explored the underlying process of the relationship between depression and life satisfaction. They suggested that depression was a combination of negative self-evaluation and hopelessness, which in turn were â€Å"based on repeated failures to fulfill aspirations and meet personal standards in highly valued areas of life (life dissatisfaction)† (p. 92). Recent research suggested that one of the most susceptible groups to depression was the elderly population. According to Socio-emotional Selective Theory (Carstensen, 1992), as individuals age, they desire less social stimulation and novelty, and tend to select close, reliable relationships to meet their emotional needs. However, since access to close relationships was not always readily available for elderly people, loneliness might be a result. Consequently, there was a potential risk of developing depression. Additional research supported this theory. In his study of elderly and depression, Alexopoulos (2005) argued â€Å"psychosocial adversity, including economic impoverishment, isolation, caregiving, and relocation, tended to contribute in psychological changes, thereby further increasing susceptibility to depression or triggering depression in already vulnerable elderly individuals† (p. 1961). Both arguments were plausible in explaining the reason why older adults were the easy target of depression, and they also led us to a question – was the correlation between depression and life satisfaction for elderly population just as strong and negative as the general population? We have to recognize that the elderly population is somewhat different from the general population. Most people who comprise this group have accomplished their careers and start enjoying the relaxing later years of their lives. After all, it is time to taste the fruit of their labor. Therefore overall, elderly individuals should have more sense of achievement and therefore a higher level of life satisfaction than general population. However, as discussed before, the elderly group is also more likely to be vulnerable to depression. The deterioration in health, loss of established interpersonal relationships, and a sense of weakened control over one’s life, all could be the contributions to depression (Chao et al. , 2006). In addition, the decrease in energy and slow-paced life style may also make some elderly people feel hard to cope with. Under these unique circumstances, will depression still exert a strong influence on the perception of life satisfaction, or the feeling of achievement will override the feeling of loneliness? The current study explores possible relationship between depression and life satisfaction for older adults. Specifically, it is hypothesized that for older adults, higher level of depression is strongly associated with decreased life satisfaction. Method Participants Four hundred and one older adults (177 males, 224 females, Mage = 72. 98 years, age rage: 65. 23 – 94. 24 years) were recruited from doctor’s offices during their routine physicals in Ontario, Canada. The participants were predominantly White (92. 3%), with some Black (7. 7%) patients as well. One percent of the participants were disabled either physically, visually or audibly. In this case, the surrogate of the disabled participant could assist him to complete the study. The rest of the participants were relatively healthy and no participant was having a major health concern. Almost all of the participants (99. 1%) lived either in a house or an apartment, with only 0. 9% lived in board and care home, or other arrangements. A majority of the participants (87. 1%) were retired or were homemakers. Nonetheless, there was still a considerable proportion of participants (12. 0%) working at either a full or part time job. The participants and their surrogates were both compensated with 10 dollars for their participation. Materials and Procedure Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) Short form developed by Andresen et al. , (1994) was used in assessing depression in this study. The original CES-D comprised 20 items measuring the current level of depressive symptomatology, with emphasis on the affective component, depressed mood. The scale demonstrated a very high internal consistency for general population (? = . 85) and psychiatric patient population (? = . 90), as well as adequate test-retest reliability (correlation range: . 45 . 70). CES-D Short form consisted 10 out of 20 items from the original scale that was aimed to test for reliability and validity among well older adults. Items without high correlation to the total score or items deemed redundant by high correlations to each other were eliminated to form the 10-item version. The response to the CES-D ranged from 1 (rarely or none of the time) to 4 (most or all of the time), and the total was calculated by summing across items and dividing by the total number of items (10). Patients who had a total of 10 or higher on the CES-D were classified as possessing a high number of depressive symptoms. Life Task Participation/Satisfaction Questionnaire developed by Harlow Cantor (1996) was used in assessing participants’ level of life satisfaction. The first part of the questionnaire, Participation, comprised 33 activities that fit into 8 clusters: social activities (e. g. informal visiting with friends or neighbors); mass communication use (e. g. reading books); building knowledge (e. g. reading professional publications); home activities and hobbies (e. g. home repair or maintenance); artistic activities (e. g. playing or singing with musical group); activities outside home (e. g. ttending sporting events); service activities (e. g. community service); and games (e. g. board games with others). Participants indicated the extent to which the participated in these activities on a four point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (frequently). In the second part of the questionnaire entitled Life Satisfaction. Participants indicated their level of satisfaction on a five point sca le in the following eight areas: paid work, hobbies and recreation, marriage, children, friendships, community service activities, participation in cultural activities and religion, where 1 = extremely satisfying and 5 = not at all satisfying. Finally, in the last part of the questionnaire, Prior Life Satisfaction, participants indicated how satisfied and important they felt with each of the following domains: occupational success, family life, friendships, richness of cultural life, and service to society. The response was recorded a five point scale, where 5 = Extremely satisfied / Extremely important and 1 = Not at all satisfied / Not at all important. Procedure CES-D and Life Task Participation/Satisfaction Questionnaire, along with two other irrelevant questionnaires were administered to the patient and his surrogate at the same time in the doctor’s office after the patient finished the physical examination. The purpose of the irrelevant questionnaires was to prevent the participants from guessing the real hypothesis. If the surrogate was absent, a copy of the questionnaires would be mailed to him with detailed instructions (e. g. how to fill out the questionnaire and how to mail it back). If the patient was unable to physically complete the questionnaires, his surrogate could record his response for him, but could not complete the questionnaire for the patient. There was no time limit on completing the questionnaires and the patient and his surrogate were not allowed to communicate. At the end of the study, both patient and his surrogate received a compensation of 10 dollars. Results Six participants’ partial data were missing and therefore excluded from the analysis tests for those variables of CES-D. The dimensionality of the 10 items from the CES-D short form was analyzed using principal axis factoring analysis. The scree plot indicated that the CES-D short form was one-dimensional. This result was consisted with what CES-D designed to emphasis on – depressed mood. All the correlations were greater than . 30 except for one item: â€Å"sleep was restless† (r = . 189). This item differed in content from the other nine items in that sleeplessness was not exactly a depressive mood, but more of an outcome of depressed mood. Based on the result, this one item assessing the outcome of depression was eliminated from the scale. All the item-total correlations for the revised nine-item scale were greater than . 0. The revised scale was retained the name â€Å"Depressive Mood† to reflect the content of the items. The internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed for Depressive Mood scale using coefficient alpha. Value for coefficient alpha was . 78, indicating satisfactory reliability. Similarly, the dimensionality of the eight items from the Life Satisfaction part of Life Task Participation/Satisfaction Questionnaire was analyzed using principal axis factoring analysis. Based on the scree plot, two factors were rotated using Direct Oblimin rotation procedure. The rotated solution yielded two interpretable factors, satisfaction with personal life and satisfaction with interpersonal groups. No items loaded on both factors. The internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed for Life Satisfaction scale using split-half coefficient. For the split-half coefficient, the scale was split into two halves such that the two halves would be as equivalent as possible. In splitting the items, we took into account whether items assessing the satisfaction of personal life or the satisfaction of interpersonal groups. One of the halves included items â€Å"how satisfying is paid work,† â€Å"how satisfying is community service, â€Å"how satisfying is culture,† and â€Å"how satisfying is religion,† while the other half included items â€Å"how satisfying are hobbies,† â€Å"how satisfying is marriage,† â€Å"how satisfying are children,† and â€Å"how satisfying are friendships. † Values for split-half coefficient was . 52, indicating a low internal consistency. Note that for Life Satisfaction scale, eight indicated â€Å"not applicable. † Therefore in factor analysis and reliability test for Life Satisfaction scale, the data of the participants who indicated â€Å"not applicable† were excluded. The reason why they were excluded was because an indication of eight could be a large influence on the mean and therefore the results would be misleading. More than half (68. 1%) of the participants’ data were excluded for this reason. The results shown above were based on 128 (31. 9%) valid cases. Pearson Correlation coefficients were computed between two items: CES-D total for patients and total life satisfaction for patients. The test was based on 393 participants, with eight participants excluded from the analysis due to their missing data. The result of the correlation analyses was significant, r(391) = -. 1, p = . 0125. This result suggests that there is a negative correlation between depression and life satisfaction. However, the relationship between these two variables is weak. Discussion The finding from the current study indicated that for older adults, there was a significant negative correlation between depression and life satisfaction, despite the relationship was weak. It supported the hypothesis of higher level of depression would be associated with decreased life satisfaction. However, the finding failed to support the hypothesized strength of the relationship. This result was consistent with the findings of Headey et al. (1991) in terms of direction, but not strength. This might indicate that the questionnaires used in this study were not fine enough to discover a high correlation between the two variables in reality. A replacement of one or both of the questionnaires could be taken into account in future studies exploring the relationship between depression and life satisfaction. The low correlation might also due to the characteristics of the participants. For example, the participants were predominantly (92. 3%) White and almost all of them were living independently. Consequently, a replication of the study to other ethic groups was necessary before generalizing the finding to other populations. Similarly, almost all the participants (99. 1%) lived independently in a house or an apartment. Therefore, a replication of different living arrangements could be conducted as well. The result of the current study supported that an increase in life satisfaction could result in a decrease in depression. This might gain some insight into the treatment for depression for older adults. That is, the treatment for depression could be directed towards increasing in life satisfaction. For example, engaging in extensive social interactions or employment could make one feel fulfilled and satisfied, and therefore decreased the likelihood of developing depression. Previous research supported this implication. A study conducted by Aquino, Cutrona, and Altmaier (1996) suggested that social support, as well as participation in paid and volunteer work, were significantly and positively related to life satisfaction within elderly populations, with volunteering activities â€Å"significantly related to higher levels of social support. In summary, the current study yielded partially similar results to previous research. That is, there was a negative correlation between depression and life satisfaction for older adults, but the relationship was weak. Therefore in general, life satisfaction seemed to be a good indicator of signs of depression for both general population and elderly population. Furthermore, future research could explore whether gender difference will affect th e direction or strength of the relationship.