Chao-Chi Wang
Telehealth and Home care Center of MacKay Memorial Hospital, Taiwan
Title: The relationship of religiosity toward life satisfaction and depression among elder population in Taiwan
Biography
Biography: Chao-Chi Wang
Abstract
The issues on aging have been drawing attention since Taiwan became an aging society. Literature on those issues to date were more physiologically rather than psychologically focused therefore this study attempted to fill the void by probing the role of religiosity in alleviating the impact of aging related stressors on life satisfaction and depressive moods among elderly people in Taiwan. The purposes of this study were to analyze the current states of religiosity, life satisfaction, and depressive mood in a nationally representative sample of the elderly people in Taiwan, and to investigate the buffering effect of religiosity on alleviating the impacts of stressors on life satisfaction and depressive moods, as well as to draw the implications for practices from the results of this study. This research employed a cross-sectional design with secondary analyses using the data from Taiwan Longitudinal Study of Aging (TLSA), including descriptive and bi-variance, and multi-variate hierarchical regression statistics through SPSS version 22.0. The results showed a positive effect on religiosity in buffering the stressors toward depressive moods but not in alleviating negative impact of life stressors on life satisfaction when demographic variables and main effects were controlled. The results also showed that life satisfaction was higher in cases with less physical pains, IADL difficulties, and lower religious or spiritual trust while more severe depressive moods were found among those having more IADL and ADL difficulties, physical pains, and higher religious trust. The academic and clinical application principles were also purposed based on study results.