Perceived control, self-reinforcement, and depression among Asian Americanand Caucasian American elders

This study investigated the role of perceived control and self-reinforcemen t in depression among community-dwelling elders from different ethnic backg rounds. The first purpose of this study was to determine the extent to whic h the behavioral competencies of self-reinforcement and perceived control c ovary with and predict depression scores among 205 elderly individuals (77 Asian American and 128 Caucasian American). The second purpose was to exami ne possible cultural differences in depression, self-reinforcement, and per ceived control scores. It was found that self-reinforcement predicted depre ssion for the total sample and each ethnic subsample concurrently and 5 mon ths later Perceived control predicted depression concurrently and subsequen tly for the Caucasian elders only. Implications for the multicultural asses sment of depression among the elderly are discussed.