earticle

영어

This study has investigated elderly women’s interest in appearance, life satisfaction and depression and causal relations among them. For this, data on 286 aged women living in Gwangju have been analyzed using SPSS 15.0 and AMOS 7.0. The following results were obtained. First, elderly women’s interest in appearance was high when they were young, practiced a religion and had a spouse. Second, elderly women’s life satisfaction was high when they were young, practiced a religion and had a spouse, or if they were getting financial aid from their child or the government when they were living alone. Third, a statistically significant difference has been observed in elderly women’s depression in terms of age, educational background, religion, existence of spouse, type of residence and how to raise money to meet living expenses. Among the target subjects, 35.3% were suffering from depression. Fourth, elderly women’s interest in appearance had a positive effect on life satisfaction but negative effect on depression. In addition, their life satisfaction had a negative effect on depression. Fifth, life satisfaction had a mediating effect on the relationship between interest in appearance and depression. Therefore, reducing elderly women’s depression with diverse appearance change programs which are designed to respond to their interest in appearance and improve their mental health is suggested.