Weaving meanings together in an AIDS residence: communicative practices, perceived health outcomes, and the symbolic construction of community.
This study examines the role of communicative practices in the symbolic construction of health and community among residents living in a residential facility for people with AIDS. Questionnaire results show that two types of communicative practices--governance/support and everyday/special--are significantly related to residents' perceived physical and emotional health outcomes, their perceptions of the residence as a community (as opposed to a facility or institution), and their satisfaction with living there. Everyday/special practices reveal the communicative means by which perceived health is socially constructed, while governance/support practices reveal the importance of meta-communication for massaging the issues and tensions that pervade community life, and both sets of communicative practices help explain members' perceptions of the residence as a community and their satisfaction with living there. The study provides additional evidence regarding the constitutive nature of communication as a connecting thread that weaves together individual and collective meanings to help create and sustain such concepts as health and community.
Frey
L R
LR
Department of Communication, University of Memphis, Tennessee 38152-3150, USA. lfrey@memphis.edu
Adelman
M B
MB
Flint
L J
LJ
Query
J L
JL
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology; D003142:Communication; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012112:Residential Facilities