[Communication between inhabitants of homes for the aged. Intra- and extramural orientation and differential relationships to life satisfaction and self-experienced abilities to establish human contacts].
To correct stereotyped images of global deficits concerning social life in homes for the aged, we present facts about different aspects of social life in three such homes in Hamburg and analyze the differential relations of these variables to life-satisfaction. By reconstructing the preceding day with the aged subjects, we were able to provide relatively precise behavioral measures of social contact. Per day in the average 3 to 5 hours of the up to 15 hours waking-time were spent with social contacts. These behavioral measures draw a quite differentiated picture of the institutions, which corresponds less to the image, usually ascribed to the specific housing categories, but seems to be more influenced by certain aspects of their social and physical environment. Interesting relations between social behavior and life-satisfaction show up in our population of aged people. While correlations between life-satisfaction and realized contacts with different kinds of partners (eg. friends, relatives, neighbors) are neglectible, the amount of group-contact--either selfinitiated or offered by the administration--shows consistent and rather close connections to different measures of life-satisfaction. If these results could be replicated in consecutive studies, they would imply important practical consequences.
D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment
Kontaktverhalten von Heimbewohnern. Binnen- und Aussenorientierung und differentielle Bezüge zu Lebenszufriedenheit und selbstwahrgenommener Kontaktfähigkeit.