Social Well-Being of Institutionalized Elderly Persons

Abstract

This article describes the development of a scale, the Social Well-Being Scale, to measure the extent to which institutionalized older persons perceive their social needs as being met. For persons over sixty-five years of age, the scale score is not affected by age or sex, but it does distinguish them by race, health, and type of living arrangement. Further, the Social Well-Being Scale predicts the level of psychological well-being.

Windows to their World: The Effect of Sensory Impairments on Social Engagement and Activity Time in Nursing Home Residents

“…-In brief, much of the past work on social involvement has focused on community-dwelling men and women and has measured outcomes such as social ties (Brook et al, 1983) and frequency of contacts with friends and relatives (Willey and Silliman, 1990). In the nursing home setting, Reid and Washington (1984) measured the degree to which the social needs of residents were being met, whereas other evaluation methods have focused on negative social behaviors (Gurel, Linn, and Linn, 1972;Wilkinson and Graham-White, 1980). Mor and colleagues' study (1995) of social engagement addressed the need for a means to measure residents' ability to take advantage of opportunities for social interaction in the nursing home setting.…”

Morale in old age: A review of the evidence

“…Lawton (1972) found no correlation between morale and age (confirmed by several authors, eg Wenger, 1984b;Diener, 1984;Liang and Bollen, 1986), gender or marital status. Using a Social WellBeing Scale with institutionalized elderly people, Reed and Washington (1984) also found no correlation with age or gender. Environmental factors, such as food, neighbours and economic status, were also found to be unrelated to morale (Lawton, 1972).…”

“…The findings of Maddox (1963) and Lawton (1972) suggest that morale may be an unstable measure. It has been suggested that multidimensional measures may be more stable over time than less reliable single-variable measures and that for this reason they may be less appropriate for mea- Maddox, 1963;Blau, 1973;Maas and Kuypers, 1974;Larson, 1978;Chibucos, 1984;Klemmack and Roff, 1984;Reed and Washington, 1984;Cattell, 1988;Parmalee et al, 1991, Bowling and Browne, 1991Levin, 1964Zung, 1967;Holahan and Moos, 1981;Cattell, 1988 Cumming andHenry, 1961;Kutner, 1962;Maddox, 1963;Lehr, 1981;Isshii-Kurtz, 1990 Lowenthal andHaven, 1968;Gubrium, 1972;Blau, 1973;Brown and Harris, 1978;Ho et al, 1988 Gifford andGolde, 1978;Stephens et al, 1978;Lawton, 1980Gubrium, 1972Blau, 1973;Creecy, 1976;Lawton, 1980;Lehr, 1981;Quinn et al, 1984;Wenger, 1990 Stephens et al, Henderson, 1981;Holahan andMoos, 1981 Dowd andLa Rosa, 1982;Scott and Roberto, 1984;…”

“…Low subjective health ratings have also been shown to be related to low morale (Blau, 1973). Reed and Washington (1984) found that wellbeing was associated with health in terms of both level of self-care and degree of mobility. Using multifactorial analysis, Bowling and Browne (1991) have shown that amongst those over 85 health is a greater predictor of emotional well-being (measured using the Life Satisfaction Index and 'Delighted-Terrible' Faces Scale (Andrews and Witney, 1977)) than social network structure.…”

In-Service Training of Professional and Para-Professional Staff Ininstitutions for the Aged

“…For this purpose, observations of the daily routine in six institutions were recorded at various times. Questionnaires were distributed to all residents capable of responding, measuring autonomy and mastery feelings according the scale developed by Lemke and Moos (1987) and well-being according to the scale developed by Reed and Washington (1984). The same questionnaires also were distributed to the residents' families and to selected personnel in the various departments (indeIn-Service Training 589 pendent, frail, and nursing) of each institution.…”