Abstract
The relationship between aging and depressive symptomatology remains of interest to professionals who work with older adults; however empirical research results continue to be inconsistent. This research adds to the ongoing discussion, using nationally representative data from the 2010 Health and Retirement Study. The sample includes 19,616 community-dwelling adults who self-identify as Hispanic, non-Hispanic white and African American. Factor Analysis confirmed the 3 expected factors (subscales) in the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D): Depressed mood (depressed, lonely, sad), psychomotor retardation (everything an effort, restless sleep, couldn’t get going), and lack of wellbeing (reverse-coded happy, enjoyed life). Alpha reliability scores were .78 for the total CES-D scale, and .77, .59 and .73 respectively for the subscales. Controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, education level and self-related health (SRH), multivariate regression models were used to assess the association between age-cohort groups (40–54, 55–69, 70+) and depressive symptoms. Results for the total CES-D score showed depressive symptoms decreasing with age. As for the control variables, women, ethnic/racial minorities, non-married and individuals with less education and poorer SRH were more likely to report depressive symptoms than men, non-Hispanic whites, married and individuals with more education and better SRH. Results for the subscales showed the same trends. Depressive symptomatology does not inevitably accompany aging. Although this finding is inconsistent with some recent literature, the size and selection criteria of the 2010 HRS database lend credibility to the results.