Psychological Resilience Moderates the Effect of Perceived Stress on Late-Life Depression in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Depression is a disabling mental condition that reduces the quality of life regardless of age and circumstances. Late-life depression may be especially impairing due to its relationship with poor physical and mental health. Repeated or prolonged exposures to stressful events deserve a particular interest among late-life depression risk factors. One factor that may help to cope with these stressful situations is the resilience. The objective of the study was to examine the moderating effect of resilience on the relationship between perceived stress (PS) and depression. A total of 1020 community-dwelling older adults aged from 60 to 101 years (M = 68.5, SD = 6.99) completed the Perceived Stress Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale. A moderation effect has been tested using PROCESS for SPSS. Depressive symptomatology was positively related to PS (r = .598; p < .001) and inversely related to resilience (r = − .444; p < .001). Moreover, the negative impact of PS on depressive symptoms was buffered for individuals with higher resilience (β = − .014; p < .001). The resilience could be an adaptive strategy to cope with stress and reduce depression in community-dwelling older adults.