Functional impairment and depressive symptoms in older adults: Mitigating effects of hope.

OBJECTIVES: We examined trait hopefulness and its component subscales of agency and pathways as potential moderators of the association between functional impairment and depressive symptoms, hypothesizing that hopefulness would buffer this association. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, interview-based. METHODS: Older adult, primary care patients (N= 105; 62% female) completed measures of cognitive functioning, functional impairment, medical illness burden, trait hope, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Functional impairment was significantly positively associated with depressive symptoms and dispositional hope total score moderated this relationship. Independently, the pathways subscale was a significant moderator and agency neared significance, yet their interaction was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults with functional impairment appear to benefit from agency and pathways; either subcomponent alone or their additive effect can activate hopefulness. Facilitation of infrastructure (pathways), primarily, and self-efficacy (agency), secondarily, may be important strategies for reducing depressive symptoms in elderly patients with functional impairment

Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Beliefs About Women Managers

This paper presents preliminary evidence on the internal consistency and validity of a scale designed to measure the degree to which one believes women managers experience a greater number of obstacles and more critical judgments about their work performance as compared to managerial men (the Stereotype Beliefs about Women Managers scale; SBWMS). Survey data from 1,337 managerial and nonmanagerial men and women employed by a large manufacturing organization revealed that the 6-item scale possessed a single factor. Significant mean group differences and correlations between the SBWMS and a number of organizationallyrelevant measures provide good preliminary support for the scale’s validity