Spirituality as a Mediator Between Depressive Symptoms and Subjective Well-being in Older Adults

Abstract

As the population is aging, strategies for helping older people to maintain and promote good health and well-being are needed. This study aims to assess whether depressive symptomatology and spirituality are associated with subjective well-being in older adults when controlled for sociodemographic variables. Furthermore, the mediating role of spirituality in the association between depressive symptomatology and subjective well-being was examined. A total of 250 participants (mean age 75.91 ± 7.60) in this cross-sectional study completed the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, the Zung’s Self-rating Depression Scale, and the Personal Wellbeing Index. Multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were used to analyze the data. Subjective well-being was negatively associated with depressive symptoms and positively associated with spiritual experiences. The indirect effect of depressive symptomatology on subjective well-being via spirituality was 28.7%. The enhancement of spirituality seems to represent one of the relevant interventional strategies in prevention and treatment of depressive symptoms and well-being improvement.

Keywords

spirituality depressive symptoms subjective well-being older adults

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