CONGRUENCE IN RELATIONAL MESSAGES COMMUNICATED TO NURSING HOME RESIDENTS THROUGH NURSE AIDE TOUCH BEHAVIORS (GERONTOLOGY, NONVERBAL, NURSE/PATIENT INTERACTION).
Contributors: University of Michigan.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 181
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Nursing home residents' intepersonal interactions and relationships are largely with nurse aides. When physical care is being given, incongruent relational messages may be sent through the aide's touch and her other nonverbal behaviors.

Congruence, or the match between the meaning of touch and concurrent other-than-touch nonverbal messages, was analyzed in relation to characteristics of the interactants, the environment, and the touch itself. The relationship between congruence and the participants' mutual understanding of the touch was also examined.

Forty-one interactions were collected on videotape as aides helped nursing home residents with a daily procedure. Nurse judges rated 202 randomly selected touches and concurrent nonverbal behavior using the Touch Message Scale, a 5-point Likert-like instrument with 12 items relating to dominance-submission and association-dissociation. Touches were described using a modified Tactile Interaction Indicator (Weiss, 1976) to quantify characteristics including extent, threshold, centrapetality, intensity, intensity variation, action, duration, and sensation.

The mean number of touches per interaction was 12.5, 82% were instrumental, and 62% lasted 5 seconds or less. Verbal comment accompanied 50% of the touches overall, but 80% when the interpersonal relationships were mutually excellent.

Congruence was significantly higher when the touch involved grooming or was more intense. It was also higher when the resident moved with discomfort. It was positively correlated with the aide's years of schooling, but negatively related to communication skills in her training. Congruence was lower when the aide was talking to someone else, and when she had known the resident a longer time.

Contrary to the theory, congruence and mutual understanding did not correlate. Long-standing relationships and validity in interpretive schemes were discussed as possible contributory factors.

Residents, aides and judges saw the majority of touches as associative and dominant, but the interactants often interpreted the same touch as both dominant and submissive. They showed the least mutual understanding on these items, suggesting the relevance of interdependence between aides and residents.

The amount of touching and the variability in meaning of touches indicate the need to heighten awareness of these findings among nursing home staff.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-07, Section: B, page: 2106.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1984.

School code: 0127.