Everyday competence and depressive symptoms: social support and sense of control as mediators or moderators?

Depression is common among the elderly members of Hong Kong Chinese society. The objectives of the present study are to assess the relationship between everyday competence and depressive symptoms and to test whether sense of control and social support mediate and moderate the impact of deterioration in everyday competence on depressive symptoms. The respondents were 393 people aged 60 years and older from a cross-sectional study of a representative community sample of the elderly population in Hong Kong and they were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. In multiple regression analyses, we found that everyday competence was significantly and negatively related to depressive symptoms (beta = -0.26, p < 0.01) after we had adjusted age, gender, marital status, years of education, self-rated health status, and number of chronic illnesses. Moreover, both sense of control and social support were mediators in the linkage between everyday competence and depression. However, neither sense of control nor social support moderated the effect of everyday competence on depression. Findings suggest that both sense of control and social support play important roles in the relationship between everyday competence and depression.