The Mediating Role of Resilience between Dyadic Perceived Social Support and Depression at the Older Adults with Disabilities and their Family Caregivers in China: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Extended to Mediation

Purpose: The goal of this study is to investigate the actor and partner effects of perceived social support and depression in older adults with disabilities and their family caregivers and to investigate the mediating role of resilience in the actor and cross-partner effects of perceived social support on depression. Methods: We selected 425 pairs of older adults with disabilities and their family caregiver. We used the Resilience Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to evaluate them. Dyadic data were analyzed by actor-partner interdependence mediation model, we analyzed how perceived social support and depression affected the relationship between older adults with disabilities and their family caregivers at individual and dyadic levels. The mediation function of resilience between perceived social support and depression was also further examined. Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to validate the stability of the results. Results: The perceived social support of the caregivers had an actor effect on their depression, while the actor-actor indirect effect of resilience between the perceived social support and depressive symptoms in older adults with disabilities and their caregivers was significant. The indirect effect of resilience on perceived social support and depression in disabled elders and caregivers had significant cross-partner effects. Conclusion: Healthcare personnel should regard older adults with disabilities and family caregivers as a community, focusing on enhancing social support for both parties in a timely manner. They should develop family-oriented intervention programs to enhance psychological resilience among family members and emphasize dyadic nursing care services and plans to alleviate depression and effectively enhance the quality of life for both parties. (c) 2025 Korean Society of Nursing Science. Published by Elsevier BV. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).