LONELINESS AND FUNCTIONS OF TELEVISION VIEWING IN OLDER ADULTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 173
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Behavioral.; Mass Communications.; Gerontology.
Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between loneliness and self-reported functions of television viewing among older adults in non-institutional (i.e. residential homes) settings. Substantive factors that affect loneliness and the functions of television viewing: age, gender, race, marital status, socioeconomic resources, health status and type of residence were also investigated.

The sample included volunteers from the population of non-institutionalized older adults living in the San Antonio and surrounding metropolitan area. Subjects were sought through contact with community and church sponsored organizations for older adults, and apartment complexes. Subjects ranged in age from 60 to 87 years of age. Two instruments were used to obtain subject's responses to the study variables of loneliness and functions of television viewing. The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale was used as a measure of loneliness. The mean score was 39.87 (S.D. 10.16) in this study. A Q-sort of thirty-two statements of why persons use television, adapted from Foley (1968) was used to gather data about functions of television viewing. The mean score (5.35) of the items in the withdrawal category was significantly higher (t-value of $-$1.81 with 88 degrees of freedom) for the high-lonely subjects. Although not at a significant level, the social category mean value (4.66) for the low-lonely subjects was higher than the mean value (4.56) for the high-lonely subjects.

Implications of this study for nursing include reconceptualization of the loneliness nursing diagnosis to reflect a balance between solitude and social interaction. Some indicators that might cue the nurse to recognize levels of loneliness were identified as well as the functions that television may serve in older adults' self-care system toward management of loneliness by achieving a balance between solitude and social interaction.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-08, Section: B, page: 4037.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1992.

School code: 0227.