The Relationship between Age and Depressive Symptoms

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to examine competing explanatory and suppression influences on a negative, linear association between age and depressive symptoms. METHODS: Two samples were used: a community sample of physically disabled individuals and a comparison sample matched on age, sex, and area of residence. RESULTS: Fewer economic hardships and fewer experiences of negative interpersonal exchanges among older disabled and nondisabled respondents account for the negative relationship between age and depressive symptoms. Higher scores on a composite measure of religiosity among older disabled adults also account for part of the negative age effect. Conversely, a lower sense of mastery among older respondents in both samples suppresses the size of the negative age slope. DISCUSSION: Findings are discussed in terms of stress process and socioemotional selectivity theories, which predict that personal and social arrangements influence the experience of emotions differentially across the life course.