Correlates of perceptions of elder’s suffering from depression

Abstract

The study investigated social work students’ perceptions of elders as depressed and suffering (N= 156). Four predictor variables were identified from a standard regression analysis that account for 32% of the model’s adjusted variance: (a) perceptions of elders as vulnerable, (b) perceptions about elders as oppressed. Overall, respondents perceived elders as being depressed, vulnerable, members of an oppressed group, abusive of substances, and only moderately resilient in response to mental health services. Implications are discussed for social work education.

Keywords

• Elders
• ageism
• mental illness
• depression