title: Effects of family structure information on nurses' impression formation and verbal responses.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of family structure information on how nurses (a) interpreted information, (b) gathered data, and (c) responded to a patient. Nurses were randomly assigned to see one of eight videotaped interviews portraying: married mother, married with no children, divorced mother, divorced with no children, unmarried mother, unmarried with no children, remarried with spouse's children (stepmother), and remarried with no children. The results indicate that the technical aspects of nursing may be affected only in a relatively minor way, but the affective dimensions of nursing care may be more detrimentally influenced by knowing about a patient's family structure.
authors.affiliation: Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Ganong
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coleman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014743:Videotape Recording