Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Deshotels, Tina Hebert
Author's Email Address	thd6573@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
URN	etd-07082004-093625
Title	Engaging a Debate: An Exploration of Depression, Engagement, Stress and Gender in the Nursing Home
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Sociology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Jill Quadagno Committee Chair
Keywords	Depression Engagement Aging
Date of Defense	2004-05-21
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Does engagement impact depression? Five aspects of engagement (an index of social engagement (SEI) “activity time,” “identification with past roles,” “reduced engagement,” and “contact with family and friends”) were used to determine if theories of engagement explain depression in the nursing home. Activity theory suggests high levels of engagement should be related to lower levels of depression. In contrast, as engagement theory suggests high levels of engagement should be related to higher levels of depression. Data from U.S. nursing home residents (n=6,468) were utilized to examine the relationship between engagement and depression to show that neither theory is fully supported across all aspects of engagement. Rather, support was found for exploring a new theory of “stressful aging” in explaining depression in the nursing home. Specifically, results show that stress in the form of negative interactions (“conflict”) and “pain” frequency are better explanations for depression in the nursing home. In addition, the distribution of depression was explored. There has been a notable lack of research on the distribution of depression among the nursing home elderly. Rather, we often assume it is the same in the nursing home as it is in the community. My results show that this is not a safe assumption. Findings suggest that that the nursing home is a unique setting and that it is important to test the relationship between variables of interest rather than assume that it is the same as in the community. Finally, results also show that it is important to consider gender in understanding how engagement impacts depression in the nursing home. Gender differences would have obscured the relationship between engagement and depression if not included. The results confirm that rather than assume that research on the community dwelling aged is transferable to the nursing home setting, research should be conducted on the nursing home elderly as a separate and unique population.
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