IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12105-d924217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Depressive Symptoms and Ageism among Nursing Home Residents: The Role of Social Support

Author

Listed:
  • Dongjuan Xu

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
    School of Nursing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yaqi Wang

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Ming Li

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China)

  • Meng Zhao

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China)

  • Zhenhua Yang

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China)

  • Kefang Wang

    (School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China)

Abstract

(1) Background: Ageism refers to the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against older individuals or groups based on their age. This study investigates the modifying role of social support in the relationship between depressive symptoms and ageism in China; (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 21 nursing homes in Jinan from March to June in 2019. The data were analyzed through a multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear model; (3) The analysis showed that older adults in nursing homes experienced moderate levels of ageism. There were significant interaction effects between depressive symptoms and social support on overall ageism and objective ageism after controlling for covariates ( p < 0.05). As the level of social support increased, the predicted ageism greatly reduced among older adults without depressive symptoms when compared to those with depressive symptoms; (4) Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of identifying strategies to enhance social support and reduce depressive symptoms for nursing home residents. Having positive attitudes toward aging and overcoming negative age-related stereotypes may benefit older adults’ physical and mental health, well-being, and help to promote an age-friendly society.

Suggested Citation

  • Dongjuan Xu & Yaqi Wang & Ming Li & Meng Zhao & Zhenhua Yang & Kefang Wang, 2022. "Depressive Symptoms and Ageism among Nursing Home Residents: The Role of Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12105-:d:924217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12105/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12105/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liat Ayalon, 2018. "Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(5), pages 860-869.
    2. Isla Rippon & Paola Zaninotto & Andrew Steptoe, 2015. "Greater Perceived Age Discrimination in England than the United States: Results from HRS and ELSA," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(6), pages 925-933.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pan, Zhuolin & Liu, Yuqi & Liu, Ye & Huo, Ziwen & Han, Wenchao, 2024. "Age-friendly neighbourhood environment, functional abilities and life satisfaction: A longitudinal analysis of older adults in urban China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liat Ayalon, 2018. "Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(5), pages 860-869.
    2. Anne Cornelia Kroon & Damian Trilling & Martine Selm & Rens Vliegenthart, 2019. "Biased media? How news content influences age discrimination claims," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 109-119, March.
    3. Cobb, Ryon J. & Rodriguez, Violeta J. & Brown, Tyson H. & Louie, Patricia & Farmer, Heather R. & Sheehan, Connor M. & Mouzon, Dawne M. & Thorpe, Roland J., 2023. "Attribution for everyday discrimination typologies and mortality risk among older black adults: Evidence from the health and retirement study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    4. Lotte P. Brinkhof & Sanne de Wit & Jaap M. J. Murre & Harm J. Krugers & K. Richard Ridderinkhof, 2022. "The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Marta Podhorecka & Anna Pyszora & Agnieszka Woźniewicz & Jakub Husejko & Kornelia Kędziora-Kornatowska, 2022. "Empathy as a Factor Conditioning Attitudes towards the Elderly among Physiotherapists—Results from Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-11, March.
    6. Andrew Stickley & Aya Shirama & Tomiki Sumiyoshi, 2023. "Perceived discrimination and mental health in the Japanese general population," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(7), pages 1790-1800, November.
    7. Andrew Stickley & Hans Oh & Ai Koyanagi & Mall Leinsalu & Zui Narita & Bayard Roberts & Martin McKee, 2019. "Perceived discrimination and psychological distress in nine countries of the former Soviet Union," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(2), pages 158-168, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12105-:d:924217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.