Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of health behavior-related characteristics, self-esteem, activities of daily living, and family support on depression in the community-dwelling elderly. Methods: The participants were 229 elders sampled from Seoul and other five provinces. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and data were analyzed by applying t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression with SAS 8.12. Results: There was a negative correlation between depression, MMSE-K, self-esteem, ADL, IADL, and family support. Depression and health behavior-related characteristics showed a significant difference according to stress level and the reason of stress. Major factors that affected the elders depression were self-esteem, the amount of alcohol drinking, sleeping hours, ADL and the cognition of health status, which explained 59.4%. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, self-esteem and health behavior-related characteristics including alcohol drinking, sleeping hours and ADL were the influencing factors of depression in the community-dwelling elderly. Therefore, effective psychological and physical health promotion methods need to be developed and applied in nursing interventions to prevent depression in the community-dwelling elderly.