A DESCRIPTIVE CORRELATIONAL STUDY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADULT PSYCHIATRIC PATIENT ROLE STRAIN AND VIOLENCE IN AN INPATIENT SETTING.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This descriptive study explored the relationship between psychiatric inpatient role strain and violence, and the relationship of demographic, diagnostic, and treatment variables to role strain and violence.

Review of the literature suggested two major conceptual positions had guided scientific thinking about inpatient violence. The importation theory maintained the patient brought to the inpatient setting certain values, attitudes, and behavior patterns conducive to violence, such as youth, poor verbal skills, violence history, and severe psychopathology. The second position proposed that violence was a product of the coercive, regimented hospital social structure.

The conceptual framework proposed that violence as a coercive influence mode could be understood within the context of role theory and adult socialization. Role, an integrative concept, unified elements of the individual and environment, as the inpatient role is shaped by values, attitudes, and behaviors the individual brings to the treatment setting as well as interactions and role socialization attempts within the setting. Role strain, a subjective state of distress, was the extent to which a patient failed to meet therapeutic and social living expectations of the inpatient role. Violence, the behavior which threatened or accomplished harm or destroyed property, was viewed as a coercive influence mode used by the patient to reduce role strain.

The correlational, hypothesis-testing design explored the relationship of age, education, verbal ability, and psychopathology to role strain; the relationship between role strain and violence; and the effects of a violence history and psychotropic medication on the relationship between role strain and violence. Also, reliability and validity estimates of the Psychiatric Patient Role Strain Scale and the Behavioral Rating Scale were conducted concurrently with the study.

Findings suggested verbal ability and psychopathology were significantly correlated with role strain; age and education were not. Role strain and violence were highly correlated. A violence history intervened significantly in the relationship between role strain and violence; psychotropic medication approached significance. Regression analyses indicated verbal ability and psychopathology explained 37.28% of the variance in role strain; and role strain, violence history, and psychotropic medication explained 46.45% of the variance in violence.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: B, page: 2496.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1984.

School code: 0034.