Abstract

Two aspects of social support(structural and functional) were examined in associations between physical health and depressed affect among community residing older adults(n=230). Structural support was operationalized as participation in social(organizational) activities; functional support was operationalized as satisfaction with social contacts. Deterioration of physical health predicted lower levels of social participation, but less social participation did not directly predict more depressed affect. Rather, social participation had an indirect effect on depressed affect through its impact on satisfaction with social contacts such that less participation predicted less satisfaction, which in turn, predicted more symptoms of depression. Moreover, functional disability(ADL needs) interacted with social participation in predicting satisfaction with social contacts. That is, less social participation was related to less satisfaction with social contacts when functional disability was relatively low; but when functional disability was high, the level of participation made little difference in satisfaction with social contacts. Thus, higher ADL needs seem to buffer the effects of decreased social participation on satisfaction with social contacts and, in turn, on depressed affect, suggesting that the effects of structural and functional aspects of social support vary according to the level of functional impairment.