Perceived social support, Malevolent Maternal Representations, and older adults' Depressed Mood

We explored the associations between Malevolent Maternal Representations (ORI; Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, Schaffer, & Wein, 1992) and levels of Depressed Mood among 147 community dwelling Israelis; older adults (ages 70-83) in good health, functioning well, and not requiring any form of assisted living. Depressed Mood was measured by the CES-D (Radloff, 1977) and the DACL (Lubin, 1965). High Malevolent Maternal Representations were associated with high levels of Depressed Mood; low perceived social support was found to mediate the association between high Malevolent Maternal Representations and high Depressed Mood. Findings suggest the clinical importance of perceptions of available social support for the study of older adults' mental health.