Negative life events and depressive symptoms in the elderly: a life span perspective

This study suggests that negative life events may have long-term consequenc es for people's well-being. A community sample of 194 elderly people was in terviewed by means of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Negative Life Events Questionnaire. Depressed mood at old age was related to the reportin g of negative socio-economic circumstances as well as emotional abuse and n eglect during childhood, and to the reporting of negative socio-economic ci rcumstances, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, relational stress a nd problem behaviour of significant others during (late) adulthood. Depress ion scores were especially high when subjects reported the experience of ma ny events during adulthood and late adulthood. On top of this, the interact ion effect between the number of negative life events experienced in childh ood and adulthood indicated that there was a much stronger association betw een the number of negative life events experienced in adulthood and depress ive symptoms in late life, for those who experienced more negative life eve nts in childhood, than for those who did nor. It is suggested that incorpor ating life histories into the diagnostic interview is advisable.