| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 心理與諮商學系碩士班 === 102 === A Study of the Relationships among Depression, Meaning in Life and Social Support of elderly in Taipei
Abstract
Taipei is one of the significant metropolitan areas in Taiwan and its elderly population has reached 362,605 people (representing 13.50% of the total population in Taiwan) by the end of December, 2013. That is, the city of Taipei has officially entered the development of aging society. Although a variety of planning welfare services and interventions have been planned, most are still focused on basic care needs and safety aspects of life , information related to psychological and sustainable development while improving the care have been significantly neglected. Given that Taiwan has formally become the aging society, the issues of mental health of the elderly should be emphasized in addition to planning for the long-term care for seniors’ services.
As for the older populations, although the government or private organizations have started various psychological health education with emphasis on providing the necessary information, these methods are not completely in line with the needs of the elderly population. It is not certain that these methods can be effective in enhancing their mental health status or can avoid the depressive tendency . Therefore, this study addressed relevant factors in relation to elderly depression to gain further understanding on this issue using a sample of senior participants with the Taipei area. For example, the influence of social support and a sense of meaning to life in relation to depression were examined. By participating in the survey questionnaire Tri-Service General Hospital, located in the Taipei City, Taipei elderly health examination, social support behavior scale , a sense of meaning in life and a short Geriatric Depression Scale Scale were administrated and collected.
The results of this study reported that the support system of the elderly was positive, and the sense of meaning was appropriately presented. In specific, there was a positive relation between constructs of social support and a sense of meaning. Social support was negatively predictive of depression, a sense of meaning (the strongest effect) was negatively predictive of depression, and combined effect was obvious. The implications of this study were expected to promote mental health among the elderly populations, to reduce the prevalence of depression, and to establish possible interventions and polices. The meaning of life can be more in-depth intervention studies in the future on how to reduce the essence of depressive tendency. It is noted that although social support and the meaning of life, can effectively predict depressive tendency, the influence of social support was weakenedas compared to a sense of meaning. Thus, it is possible that social support serves as a mediator rather than a predictor. Future research is encouraged to further examine the role of social support and its impact in the elderly population.
Keywords: elderly, social support, the meaning of life, depressive tendencies
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