A Preliminary Model of Older Women's Depression

California State University Northridge, Northridge CA

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Abstract

The specific aims of the proposed community-based geriatric study are to: 1) identify the rates and unique dimensions of depressive symptomatology among ethnically diverse older women, 2) test the preliminary reliability and validity of a new geriatric stress measure, and 3) test a preliminary model explaining older women's depressive symptomatology. The sample will be comprised of approximately 230 ethnically diverse elderly women residing in Los Angeles County who will be individually assessed utilizing an extensive clinical battery. The proposed recruitment strategies and assessment procedures have been successfully used in the PI's PILOT SCORE research that laid the foundation for this study. The proposed theoretically- and empirically-based stress tool attempts to fill a gap in the psychometric ethnogeriatric literature by targeting culturally relevant factors such as providing caregiving, being geographically distant from family members and friends, and experiencing financial and/or emotional stress following the loss of a spouse. The PI's new geriatric depression model is based on Ryff, Singer, Dienberg Love, and Essex's (1998) conceptualization of resilience, on two theoretical models, i.e., Gatz's (1998) model of mental health and Hobfoll and Wells's (1998) model of conservation of resources during older age, as well as on the latest gender-related and ethnically relevant literature. Structural equation modeling procedures will be utilized to test such a model. It is hypothesized that the proposed stress tool is a reliable and valid instrument, and that the new depression model is valid, thereby explaining a significant amount of variance in the depressive symptomatology of the older women recruited. The long-term objectives of this project are to contribute to the growing epidemiologic body of geriatric mental health and produce a depression model on which to base the development of accurate risk profiles and effective mental health interventions for neglected minority elderly populations. Additionally, once further refined, the new stress instrument will be made available to health professionals working with elderly patients. There are no short geriatric stress screeners currently available;therefore, the creation of a quick theoretically- and empirically-based measure of this kind is needed, to avoid burdening older patients with cumbersome measures when assessing their stress symptomatology within a generally fast-paced medical setting.