이혼과 노년기 성인의 신체건강 - 자존감과 우울감의 매개효과와 성별의 조절된 매개효과

Guided by a life course perspective and a stress theory, this study examined whether the association between divorce and physical health might be explained by self-esteem and depressive symptoms, and whether the mediated associations might differ by gender. The data were drawn from 12th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel (2017). The analytic sample consisted of 3,164 older adults 65 years old or older who were either divorced or married at the time of the survey. For analyses, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were carried out using SPSS PROCESS. Results were as follows. First, the direct effect of divorce on self-rated health was significant. Divorced men and women reported lower self-rated health than their married counterparts. Second, self-esteem mediated the effect of divorce on self-rated health for divorced men and women, whereas no significant mediation effect of depressive symptoms was found. Third, no moderated mediation effects of gender emerged. Overall, the study findings indicate that divorce might have a long-term, potentially cumulative, negative effect on Korean older adults through undermining their sense of self-worth. Yet, no gender difference in the mediating effect of self esteem might suggest a greater decline in prejudice against the divorced women compared to divorced men in Korean society.