Power of social support against depressive symptoms of older African Americans

Depressive symptomatology is one of the most prevalent mental health problems. About 20% of Americans experience depressive symptoms in their lives (Gotlib & Hammen, 2014). Social support, on the other hand, was proved to be a powerful buffer against depressive symptoms of older adults (Kim & Ross, 2009; Sheiman & Meersman, 2004). Few studies have explored this association exclusively among older African Americans who had a culture of powerful social support. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the effects of different sources of social support (from spouse/partner, children, relatives, and friends) against depressive symptoms among older African Americans. This study analyzed the 2014 Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 187). Depressive symptomatology was operationalized as a count outcome (number of having symptoms; CES-D8 scale). A negative binomial regression model of depressive symptoms showed that higher levels of spousal support were associated with lower level