Hardiness mediates the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms in the older adults

Abstract

Healthy aging is an optimal and achievable goal in the late life. The rapidly increasing elderly population all over the world suggests an urgent need and importance to understand how to maintain quality of the late life despite of the late-life changes. One of the issues needs to be concerned among this elderly population would be suicide. Perceived loneliness and depressive symptoms might be some of the reasons behind this phenomenon. They have been found to be positively related to each other and influence the well-being of older adults. Hardiness, as an essential and remarkable component in the way of resilience, might be modifiable resource for adjustment during the late life. This study examined the role of hardiness in the relationship between perceived loneliness and depressive symptoms among the older adults in Hong Kong. A sample of 424 older Cantonese-speaking Chinese participants aged 60 years or above completed a self-reported questionnaire set on perceived loneliness, hardiness, and depressive symptoms. Findings suggested that hardiness was inversely associated with both loneliness and depressive symptoms. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that hardiness partially mediated the positive association between loneliness and depressive symptoms [ = .18, p < .001, BC 95% CI (.10, .27)] with good data-model fit [2(32) = 36.34, p = .27; CFI = .998; TLI = .997; RMSEA = .018; SRMR = .022]. Older adults with higher level of perceived loneliness were more likely to report lower level of hardiness, which in turn, was associated with more number of self-reported depressive symptoms. The current study provides empirical evidence on the role of hardiness in the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms among the older adults. Implications of hardiness training in prevention and intervention program for older adults will be discussed.