HASSLES, COPING, AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN AN ELDERLY COMMUNITY SAMPLE - THE ROLE OF MOOD REGULATION EXPECTANCIES

To extend research on the role of expectancy in coping, 96 individuals aged 65 years or older (M = 74.46, SD = 6.28) from non-nursing home residential communities and organizations completed measures of daily hassles, situational coping responses, depressive symptoms, and generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation, defined as beliefs about one's ability to alleviate a negative mood. Scores from the Negative Mood Regulation Scale (S. J. Catanzaro & J. Mearns, 1990) were negatively associated with avoidance coping and depressive symptoms, independent of hassles and coping responses. As in college student samples, active coping was positively related to depressive symptoms, but only when negative mood regulation expectancies were controlled. The relations of hassles and expectancies with coping responses were weaker than those found previously in younger samples.