THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CREATIVE POTENTIAL TO LONELINESS IN OLDER WOMEN (PROVISIONS, RELATIONAL).
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 163
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Weiss's (1973) interactional theory of loneliness served as the framework for the study. This descriptive study attempted to identify situational and personal factors that influence the experience of loneliness. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships of social support and creative potential to loneliness in older women.

Respondents consisted of 122 volunteers, between the ages of 65 and 88, from a senior citizen center. Data were generated through questionnaires completed at the center. The sample was delimited to women over the age of 65; to those not widowed within six months; to those not diagnosed or being treated for depression; and those not taking antidepressants or mood elevators to reduce extraneous variation.

The data were analyzed using correlational and multiple regression techniques. The hypotheses were: (a) There is an inverse relationship between social support and loneliness in older women; (b) There is an inverse relationship between creative potential and loneliness in older women; and (c) The combination of social support and creative potential has an interaction effect on loneliness in older women. Ancillary analyses, in the form of research questions, were aimed at those relationships whose predicted directions remained unclear in the literature. The relationships of education, income, and social status to loneliness were examined.

The findings for this sample of older women were as follows: (a) the higher the social support, the lower the loneliness; (b) the higher the creative potential, the lower the loneliness; (c) the higher the education, the lower the loneliness; (d) the higher the social status, the lower the loneliness; (e) objective income was not found to be related to loneliness; (f) education, income, social support, creative potential, and the interaction of social support and creative potential accounted for 47% of the variance in loneliness. However, the interaction did not add to the prediction of loneliness. The hypothesis that stated that the combination of social support and creative potential has an interaction effect on loneliness was not supported.

Additional findings demonstrated significant correlations between satisfaction with living situation, closeness of family, number of children, presence of a confidant, adequacy of income, perception of health problem, and loneliness.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-07, Section: B, page: 2098.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1984.

School code: 0146.