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The Role of Religiousness/Spirituality and Social Networks in Predicting Depressive Symptoms among Older Korean Americans

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Abstract

This study (1) examined the effects of religiousness/spirituality and social networks as predictors of depressive symptoms in older Korean Americans and (2) compared the best predictors of depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 200 older Korean Americans residing in the New York City area in 2009. Best-subsets regression analyses were used to evaluate the best predictors of depressive symptoms. Nearly 30% of older Korean participants reported mild or severe depressive symptoms. The best model fit for depressive symptoms involved four predictors: physical health status, religious/spiritual coping skills, social networks, and annual household income. Social networks and religious/spiritual coping skills contributed significantly to the variance of depressive symptoms. Adding additional variables to the model did not enhance predictive and descriptive power. Religiousness/spirituality and social networks are important for coping with life stress and may be useful in developing effective health care strategies in the management of depression among older Korean Americans. Health education and intervention could be framed in ways that strengthen such coping resources for this population. Future research is needed to best guide prevention and intervention strategies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant received by Dr. Roh from the John A. Hartford Foundation for the Dissertation Research. A subset of her dissertation data was utilized for this present study. The authors are grateful to the Korean older adults who participated in the survey and acknowledge Dr. Yuri Jang for her invaluable comments and feedback on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, HSS216, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    Yeon-Shim Lee

  2. Silver School of Social Work, New York University, 1 Washington Square N, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    So-Young Park

  3. Department of Social Work, University of South Dakota, 1400 West 22nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD, 57105, USA

    Soonhee Roh

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA

    Harold G. Koenig

  5. Department of Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    Grace J. Yoo

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  1. Yeon-Shim Lee
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  2. So-Young Park
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  4. Harold G. Koenig
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  5. Grace J. Yoo
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Correspondence to Yeon-Shim Lee.

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Lee, YS., Park, SY., Roh, S. et al. The Role of Religiousness/Spirituality and Social Networks in Predicting Depressive Symptoms among Older Korean Americans. J Cross Cult Gerontol 32, 239–254 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-017-9317-5

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