Social factors, depression, and aging

Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder in the older population. There is scientific consensus that depression results from social, psychological, biological, and genetic causes. This chapter examines the role of social factors in the distribution, antecedents, and consequences of depression in later life. It discusses issues and controversies in defining depression and methods of measuring depression. Mental health professionals and social scientists have different goals. Reflecting the legacy of labeling theory, social scientists also are aware of the stigma associated with mental illness. Many studies of the relationships between social factors and depression are not based on a specific theoretical paradigm. Numerous social factors are established risk and protective factors for depression in later life. They are described in categories that are widely assumed to represent increasingly proximate antecedents of depression. The relationships between several chronic stressors and depression in late life are studied. The fields of medical sociology and social epidemiology rest on the premise that morbidity and mortality are, to a significant degree, a function of individuals' social structural locations, related social advantage or disadvantage, the stressors that they experience, and the social resources with which they confront disadvantage and stressors. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Linda K. George Sociology