Participation in diverse social activities predicts fewer depressive symptoms

Engagement in a greater number and more diverse activities is associated with higher levels of well‑being. One reason may be that these activities provide opportunities for a variety of social interactions. To examine the importance of the social nature of daily activity, the current study examines the unique association between social activity variety and later depressive symptoms, after adjusting for non‑social activity variety.

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we included 5,160 adults in a cross‑sectional analysis from 2008 and 3,081 adults in a longitudinal analysis spanning 2008 to 2012, all of whom completed questionnaires on social activity participation and depressive symptoms.

Cross‑sectional findings indicated that social activity variety was related to lower severity of depressive symptoms, but not likelihood of having any depressive symptoms, after adjusting for health, sociodemographic covariates, and non‑social activity. Longitudinal results showed that participants with consistently high levels of social activity variety over four years experienced fewer depressive symptoms at follow‑up compared to those with low levels, even after adjusting for baseline depressive symptoms.

Findings suggest that participation in a greater variety of social activities can be a protective factor against the severity of depressive symptoms.