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Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults

BACKGROUND: Hopelessness is a core component of depression. Our information is, however, very limited on ethnic variations in the magnitude of the link between depression and hopelessness. Using a national sample of older adults in United States, we compared Blacks and Whites for the magnitude of th...

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Autores principales: Assari, Shervin, Lankarani, Maryam Moghani
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4854870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27200335
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00082
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author Assari, Shervin
Lankarani, Maryam Moghani
author_facet Assari, Shervin
Lankarani, Maryam Moghani
author_sort Assari, Shervin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Hopelessness is a core component of depression. Our information is, however, very limited on ethnic variations in the magnitude of the link between depression and hopelessness. Using a national sample of older adults in United States, we compared Blacks and Whites for the magnitude of the association between depressive symptoms and hopelessness. METHODS: With a cross-sectional design, we used baseline data of the Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, 2001. Linear regression models were used for data analysis. Depressive symptoms (CES-D) and hopelessness were conceptualized as independent and dependent variables in different models, respectively. Demographic factors (age and gender), socioeconomic status (education and marital status), and health (self-rated health) were covariates. Ethnicity was the moderator. RESULTS: In the pooled sample, higher depressive symptoms were predictive of hopelessness, above and beyond all covariates. We also found significant interactions suggesting that the association between depressive symptoms and hopelessness is weaker among Blacks compared to Whites. In ethnic-specific models, there were significant associations between depressive symptoms and hopelessness among Whites but not Blacks. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms accompany more hopelessness among Whites than Blacks. This finding may explain why Blacks with depression have a lower tendency to commit suicide. Future research should test whether or not Whites with depression better respond to psychotherapies and cognitive behavioral therapies that focus on hope enhancement. This finding may explain differential correlates of depression based on race and ethnicity.
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spelling pubmed-48548702016-05-19 Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults Assari, Shervin Lankarani, Maryam Moghani Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Hopelessness is a core component of depression. Our information is, however, very limited on ethnic variations in the magnitude of the link between depression and hopelessness. Using a national sample of older adults in United States, we compared Blacks and Whites for the magnitude of the association between depressive symptoms and hopelessness. METHODS: With a cross-sectional design, we used baseline data of the Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, 2001. Linear regression models were used for data analysis. Depressive symptoms (CES-D) and hopelessness were conceptualized as independent and dependent variables in different models, respectively. Demographic factors (age and gender), socioeconomic status (education and marital status), and health (self-rated health) were covariates. Ethnicity was the moderator. RESULTS: In the pooled sample, higher depressive symptoms were predictive of hopelessness, above and beyond all covariates. We also found significant interactions suggesting that the association between depressive symptoms and hopelessness is weaker among Blacks compared to Whites. In ethnic-specific models, there were significant associations between depressive symptoms and hopelessness among Whites but not Blacks. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms accompany more hopelessness among Whites than Blacks. This finding may explain why Blacks with depression have a lower tendency to commit suicide. Future research should test whether or not Whites with depression better respond to psychotherapies and cognitive behavioral therapies that focus on hope enhancement. This finding may explain differential correlates of depression based on race and ethnicity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4854870/ /pubmed/27200335 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00082 Text en Copyright © 2016 Assari and Lankarani. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Assari, Shervin
Lankarani, Maryam Moghani
Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title_full Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title_fullStr Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title_full_unstemmed Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title_short Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with More Hopelessness among White than Black Older Adults
title_sort depressive symptoms are associated with more hopelessness among white than black older adults
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4854870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27200335
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00082
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