Stress and social support in childhood and adolescence related with depression symptoms in the elderly / Estresse e suporte social na infância e adolescência relacionados com sintomas depressivos em idosos

Abstract

Considering the process of aging as a period connected to social and historical influences, and life experiences that occur during development, it's significant to investigate the variables of other periods from the course of life, which could be implicated in the health of elders. The purpose of this study, however, was to assess the relation amongst social support characteristics and stress during the childhood/adolescence period, and depression symptoms of the elderly. The CES-D scale (Radloff, 1977) and the social support and stress in childhood/adolescence scale from Davis Longitudinal Study on Aging (Aldwin, Sutton, Chiara, & Spiro, III, 1996) were used. The sample consisted of 956 elderly between 60 and 103 years old (M= 72,4; SD= 8,2). Significant connections had been found between stressors and compensatory discipline with depression symptoms, which has been attributed to non-normative characteristics of such variables for the present cohort.

Keywords

• Stress
• social support
• depression symptoms
• aging