This dissertation was to find out how the mediating effect of family support and the moderating effect of self-esteem could influence the relationship between hospitalization stress and depression of middle-aged women inpatients. Specifically, this pa...
This dissertation was to find out how the mediating effect of family support and the moderating effect of self-esteem could influence the relationship between hospitalization stress and depression of middle-aged women inpatients. Specifically, this paper analyzed how hospitalization stress affected middle aged women's depression through mediating effect of self-esteem, how moderating effect of family support influenced on hospitalization stress and depression for women inpatients, and whether family support could change the effect on those relationship through the mediating effect of self-esteem.
It also analyzed how hospitalization stress could be related to depression by the mediating effect of self-esteem in accordance with empirical study material. Survey was conducted among three-hundred women inpatients between age 40-60 in the general ward of H. University Medical Center situated in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do district. SPSS 19.0 was used for basic statistics of correlation analysis, Mplus 4.2 was used for structural equation analysis, and ML method was used for parameter estimation on this study. The result of the survey was as followings:
First, it appeared that hospitalization stress of middle aged women influenced negative effect on self-esteem. It meant when the inpatient stress became higher, the self-esteem became lower. It also appeared that self-devaluation played negative effect on depression. The result of analysis proved that mediating effect of self-esteem played an important role in positive changes of hospitalization stress and depression. Secondly, emotional and relational support did not have much effective moderating effect compared to physical and functional support of their family. That meant when physical and functional support of their family became bigger, it had more positive effect on changes of hospitalization stress and depression. Thirdly, could the mediating effect of self-esteem be changed depending upon the family support (emotional support, relational support, physical support, and functional support.) in relationship between hospitalization stress and depression? The result of the survey showed that hospitalization stress with the mediating effect of self-esteem was more prevalent with depression in the middle aged women patients who had more relational and functional support from their family. However, moderating effect of emotional and physical support was not related to depression. Therefore, conclusion of this study could be made as followings:
First, like any precedent research, it was proved to be significant for counselors to encourage their patients to have positive self-esteem which would result in decrease of hospitalization stress. Secondly, even though inpatients have emotional and relational support from their families, they usually experienced great deal of stress and depression because they worried about medical bills like treatment bills, doctor's fees, and hospital charges. In case of functional support, this researcher found that inpatients could not be involved with small or big matters in the house because it only increased their stress, guilty mind, feeling of helplessness and depression when functional support was shared from the family members. Thirdly, hospitalization should be an experience of healthy separation for inpatients not only physically but also psychologically and emotionally.