TREATING DEPRESSION BY ENHANCING NURSING HOME RESIDENTS' SELF-ESTEEM.
Contributors: Indiana University.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 110
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Gerontology.
Description: Self-esteem has been linked to depression in the literature, but a treatment for depression using a self-esteem intervention has not been investigated with nursing home residents. All Veterans Affairs Medical Center Nursing Home residents were screened for appropriate mental status and 22 participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group which received the self-esteem protocol, or to a delayed-treatment control group. Self-esteem and depression were measured at pretest, after the fifth session, and at the end of the study. Multivariate data analyses found a lack of significant differences between groups over time. There were also no significant differences between groups (main effect for groups), and no differences over time (main effect for time). A discussion providing possible reasons for the lack of change is presented, and includes (a) characteristics of the subjects, (b) length of nursing home residency, (c) inadequate treatment time, (d) narrow topics for the treatment, (e) insensitivity of the dependent variable measurement instruments, and (f) an invalid theoretical definition for self-esteem.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-07, Section: B, page: 4711.

Thesis (PH.D.)--INDIANA UNIVERSITY, 1996.

School code: 0093.