Elementos estructurales de la red social, fuentes de apoyo funcional, reciprocidad, apoyo comunitario y depresión en personas mayores en Chile

Abstract

The relation among aging, social support, and depression is a key subject in societies with rising aeging rates, as Chile is. The present piece of research focus on the rol played by psychosociological variables: type of support by source, reciprocity in support by type and source of support, and communitary support. Vaidated and widely used depression and social support scales where applied in a representative sample (n=493) obtained from Arica-Parinacota region, north of Chile. Hierarchichal regression and structural equation model (SEM) are used. Results suggest that partner, and adult sons and daughters constitute the main sources of support (specially emotional and instrumental) against depression. Reciprocity is a key variable to account for the relation between sources of support and depression.