The impact of religion, spirituality, and social support on depression and life satisfaction among Korean immigrant older adults.

摘要

This study examined how religious experience, spiritual practice, and social support relate to depression and life satisfaction among 200 Korean Immigrant Older Adults (KIOA), ages 65 to 89 years. The Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality was employed to measure six domains of religiousness/spirituality: daily spiritual experiences, values/beliefs, forgiveness, private religious practice, religious/spiritual coping, and religious support. The Lubben Social Network Scale-Revised was used to measure a broad range of social support. Depression was assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale was used to measure life satisfaction. Lower depression scores were predicted by higher levels of religious and spiritual coping, greater social support, higher income, good physical health, and lower daily spiritual experiences after controlling for demographic variables. The full model of demographic variables, religiousness/spirituality variables, and social support explained 30% of the total variance in depression. Higher social support predicted higher life satisfaction, but none of the religiousness/spirituality subscales predicted life satisfaction among KIOA. In addition, identifying as female, poorer perceived health, lower social support, and old-old age predicted lower life satisfaction in this study. The full model of demographic variables, religiousness/spirituality variables, and social support explained 27% of the variance in life satisfaction.