ABSTRACT
The current study examined whether perceived neighborhood social disorder predicted depressive symptoms among unmarried older women (N = 823) drawn from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study. This study also tested the stress-buffering effect of friends support. A negative binomial regression model showed that higher perceived neighborhood social disorder was associated with higher depressive symptoms. The number of close friends was a significant factor, but no stress-buffering effect of friends support was identified. This study highlights the adverse effect of negative perceptions of the neighborhood social environment on unmarried older women’s depressive symptoms.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.