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. 2023 Jun 26:14:1183884.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1183884. eCollection 2023.

Childhood adversity and late-life depression: moderated mediation model of stress and social support

Jin-Kyung Lee  1 , Jinhee Lee  2 , Moo-Kwon Chung  1   3 , Ji Young Park  4 , Taeksoo Shin  5 , Kyoung-Joung Lee  6 , Hyo-Sang Lim  7 , Sangwon Hwang  8 , Erdenebayar Urtnasan  9 , Yongmie Jo  3 , Min-Hyuk Kim  2
Affiliations

Childhood adversity and late-life depression: moderated mediation model of stress and social support

Jin-Kyung Lee et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: As life expectancy increases, understanding the mechanism for late-life depression and finding a crucial moderator becomes more important for mental health in older adults. Childhood adversity increases the risk of clinical depression even in old age. Based on the stress sensitivity theory and stress-buffering effects, stress would be a significant mediator, while social support can be a key moderator in the mediation pathways. However, few studies have tested this moderated mediation model with a sample of older adults. This study aims to reveal the association between childhood adversity and late-life depression in older adults, taking into consideration the effects of stress and social support.

Methods: This study used several path models to analyze the data from 622 elderly participants who were never diagnosed with clinical depression.

Results: We found that childhood adversity increases the odds ratio of depression by approximately 20% in older adults. Path model with mediation demonstrates that stress fully mediates the pathway from childhood adversity to late-life depression. Path model with moderated mediation also illustrates that social support significantly weakens the association between childhood adversity and perceived stress.

Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence to reveal a more detailed mechanism for late-life depression. Specifically, this study identifies one crucial risk factor and one protective factor, stress and social support, respectively. This brings insight into prevention of late-life depression among those who have experienced childhood adversity.

Keywords: childhood adversity; depression; moderated mediation; older adults; path analysis; social support; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Path results from childhood adversity to depression (A) simple mediation model, (B) moderated mediation model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Conditional direct and indirect effects of childhood adversity on stress and depression respectively, moderated by the level of social support (A) conditional direct effect of childhood adversity on stress, (B) conditional indirect effect of childhood adversity on depression via stress.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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