Age and Depression in the Post-Communist Czech Republic

Abstract

Depression increases with old age in the United States. Three sources of stress are thought to account for this relationship: economic stress, poor health, and social isolation. The relation between these sources of stress and depression may be direct or mediated by mastery. This pattern is tested in the 1994 Czech republic. The data from 740 households in the Czech republic provided the 647 women and 554 men included in this analysis. Age is related to the three sources of stress and they are associated with depression. After controls for mastery, the effect of poor health on depression remains strong for both women and men. The relation between economic stress and depression also remains strong for Czech men. It is their sense of deprivation relative to the Communist past rather than absolute economic hardship that is depressing for men. For Czech women, the effect of economic hardship is mediated by mastery. Mastery also mediated the effect of social isolation on women's depression, but for men social isolation was directly as well as indirectly depressing. The discussion ends on the note that the relation between age, economic stress, and depression in the Czech republic may change in the future.