title: Forgiveness, Ego-Integrity, and Depressive Symptoms in Community-Dwelling and Residential Elderly Adults.
abstract: This study aimed first, to investigate the relation between forgivingness and depressive symptoms in elderly individuals and second, to explore whether the developmental task of integrity/despair is a possible underlying process in this relation. Both aims were studied in a sample of community-dwelling elderly individuals as well as in a sample of residential elderly individuals.
  
  
  
  Community-dwelling elderly individuals (n = 280, M = 75.98 years) and residential elderly individuals (n = 205, M = 83.20 years) in Belgium filled out questionnaires on forgivingness, depressive symptoms, and the developmental task of integrity/despair. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediational role of integrity/despair in the relation between forgivingness and depression in both samples. Furthermore, multigroup analyses tested the convergence of the mediational models in the community-dwelling elderly individuals and the residential elderly individuals.
  
  
  
  Forgivingness and depression were negatively associated in both residential elderly individuals and community-dwelling elderly individuals. The developmental task of finding integrity and avoiding despair showed to be a significant mediator in this relationship.
  
  
  
  Framed within a life-span perspective, we showed that the developmental task of finding a balance between integrity and despair is an important intrapersonal mechanism through which forgivingness is related with depressed feelings for residential as well as community-dwelling elderly individuals.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Belgium. Jessie.Dezutter@ppw.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jessie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dezutter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Luther College Decorah, Iowa.
authors.forename: Loren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Toussaint
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leijssen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D061347:Forgiveness; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: Depression; Elderly; Erikson; Forgiveness; Psychosocial crisis