Relationship Between Perceived Neighborhood Environment and Depressive Symptoms in Older Korean Americans: Do Chronic Disease and Functional Disability Modify It? Nan Sook Park University of South Florida Yuri Jang University of Texas at Austin Beom S. Lee and David A. Chiriboga University of South Florida The purposes of the present study were to examine how perceptions by older Korean Americans about their neighborhood environment are associated with depressive symptoms, and to further explore how chronic disease and functional disability modify the relation between perceptions of neighborhood environment and depressive symptoms. The sample included 420 older Korean Americans from the New York metropolitan area. Blocks of independent variables were sequentially entered in regression models on depressive symptoms: demographics, health-related variables (chronic disease and functional disabil- ity), perceived neighborhood environment (ethnic density of Koreans, safety, social cohesion, and satisfaction), and interaction terms between health-related variables and perceived neighborhood envi- ronment. The significant interaction showed that the positive effect of social cohesion on depressive symptoms was particularly great among those with multiple chronic diseases. On the other hand, the impact of neighborhood safety was salient among those without functional disability. Drawing from the ecological perspectives, the study demonstrates that the impact of perceived neighborhood environment on mental well-being is conditional on individuals’ physical health and function. Keywords: depressive symptoms, Korean older adults, perceived neighborhood environment The importance of physical and social environments is widely known, with specific neighborhood characteristics (e.g., neighbor- hood socioeconomics, access to amenities, health services, and crime rate) being associated with various indicators of health and well-being (Beard et al., 2009; Cagney, Browning, & Wen, 2005; Yen, Michael, & Perdue, 2009). Moreover, how individuals eval- uate their own neighborhoods seem to be related to health and well-being (Leslie & Cerin, 2008; Roh et al., 2011). For example, life in a neighborhood viewed as unsatisfactory or unsafe is likely to generate profound psychological distresses (Leslie & Cerin, 2008; Miller & Townsend, 2005; Roh et al., 2011). This influence of neighborhoods may become more salient with aging as some older adults become increasingly reliant on local resources as their physical health and function deteriorate (Aneshensel et al., 2007; Cagney et al., 2005; Ko, Jang, Park, Rhew, & Chiriboga, 2014). However, despite the evidence that older racial/ethnic minorities are more likely to be influenced by neighborhoods environment, relatively little effort has been made to study these vulnerable populations (Kwag, Jang, Rhew, & Chiriboga, 2011; Zhang & Ta, 2009). The existing studies of environmental influences on individual well-being generally use administrative data such as the U.S. Census or local and regional crime statistics. The relatively objec- tive indicators from such sources include the availability of med- ical facilities, transportation services, and shopping places, as well as such population characteristics as racial/ethnic composition of neighborhoods, proportions of residents from different age groups, and neighborhood poverty level (Ko et al., 2014; Kwag et al., 2011; Pruchno, Wilson-Genderson, & Cartwright, 2012; Subrama- nian, Kubzansky, Berkman, Fay, & Kawachi, 2006). Although the relationships between these objective indicators of neighborhood characteristics and individual well-being are not always consistent, a premise underlying all these studies is that neighborhood-level disadvantages profoundly affect individuals’ health and well-being. An alternative or possibly a supplement to the use of adminis- trative data is to assess how individuals themselves perceive and evaluate their neighborhood environment (e.g., racial/ethnic den- sity, safety, social integration, and neighborhood satisfaction). Indeed, the subjective perceptions of neighborhoods by older adults have been shown to consistently predict their health and This article was published Online First February 9, 2015. Nan Sook Park, School of Social Work, University of South Florida; Yuri Jang, School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin; Beom S. Lee, Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, University of South Florida; David A. Chiriboga, Department of Child and Family Studies, University of South Florida. Data collection was supported by a pilot grant (PI—Yuri Jang, Ph.D.) from the Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health (R25MH068502; PI—Martha Bruce, Ph.D.) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nan Sook Park, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, MHC 1400, Tampa, FL 33620. E-mail: nanpark@usf.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Asian American Journal of Psychology © 2015 American Psychological Association 2015, Vol. 6, No. 2, 174 –180 1948-1985/15/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aap0000017 174