Physical self-efficacy, perceived physical status, and depressive symptomatology in older adults

Perceptions of physical, general, and social self-efficacy were assessed in 200 residents of a retirement village. The subjects were administered the Depression Adjective Checklist (Lubin, 1967a) and the CES-D Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977) and were asked to rate their physical status (number of health problems, number of monthly physician visits, and health and activity levels). Pearson correlations suggested strong relationships between the self-efficacy measures and depressive symptomatology. Most important, physical self-efficacy was seen to be the strongest predictor of depressive symptoms, much stronger than the objective physical status variables.