Relationship between the Perceived Psychological Wellbeing and Social Engagement among Older Residents: The predicting Role of Caregivers’ Communicative Behaviors

Abstract

The communicative behavior of caregivers plays a pivotal pillar to remaining the older adults in the center of the universe instead of yield to be marginalized or ignored. This descriptive correlational study aimed to investigate the predictive capacity of the caregivers' communicative behavior and examines its correlations to the older adults' perceived sense of psychological well-being and degree of social engagement inside the assisted living facility. A convenience sample of 116 older residents and 56 caregivers was obtained. Five tools were used to conduct this study; (1) Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), (2) Elders' profile structured interview schedule, (3) perceived psychological well-being of the older adults, (4) A revised Index for Social Engagement for longterm care, and (5) Communication problems Observation checklist. The study revealed that more than half (57.75%) of the studied elders had a high level of social engagement inside the assisted living facility and about one-third (32.8%) have a moderate level of perceived psychological wellbeing. The elders' caregivers were having a fair to a high level of communicative behavioral skills when dealing with the older adults inside the assisted living facilities. Also, a strong positive correlation was detected between the caregivers' communicative behavior in relation to the older adults' perceived sense of psychological well-being and degree of social engagement. The present study concludes that the caregivers' communicative behavior was identified to be the independent precursor of the older adults' perceived sense of psychological well-being and social engagement inside the assisted living facility. An on-job communication training program geared toward enhancing the caregivers' knowledge and skills related to effective communication with institutionalized elders is recommended.