Childhood maltreatment, late-life depression, and sense of coherence: a structural equation modeling

Abstract

Objectives

Late-life depression is a severe problem leading to adverse consequences in the lives of seniors. Pervasive evidence emphasizes that childhood maltreatment is one of determining factors in late-life depression. The literature suggests a complicated mechanism underlying this relationship. This study aimed to examine whether the sense of coherence (SOC) mediated and moderated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and late-life depression.

Method

This study sample included 237 community-dwelling older adults (aged 60–97) with a mean of 69.23 years and standard deviation = 6.87, from November to December 2019 in Tehran. A face-to-face interview was done, and the data was collected based on a multistage sampling approach and analyzed with the structural equation modeling.

Results

Childhood maltreatment was positively associated with depression while negatively correlated with the SOC in older adults. A low level of SOC was also correlated with symptoms of depression. In addition, the SOC partly mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and late-life depression. However, no moderation effect of SOC was found.

Conclusions

Childhood maltreatment may be linked with late-life depression. Part of this relationship is highly likely indirect, through the effect of SOC, which could inform intervention efforts to promote the level of SOC to alleviate symptoms of depression in seniors.

Keywords:

• Childhood maltreatment
• sense of coherence (SOC)
• older adults
• depression
• SEM
• mental health
• abuse/neglect

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

1 Geriatric Depression Scale

2 Partial Least Square

3 Average variance extracted

4 Composite reliability

5 Hetero-trait-monotrait ratio

6 Variance accounted for