Interactions with Friends in a Nursing Home and Residents' Morale

This paper presents the results of a study on the relationships among nursing home residents in terms of their associations, the content and quality of their meetings and visits and its influences on their morale. The random sample included 43 residents from nine different nursing homes. The content and quality of meetings and visits were indicated by structured, open-ended interviews; morale was measured by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (Lawton, 1975; Morris & Sherwood, 1975). Results suggest that many residents have a considerable social network in the nursing home and that they associate with different friends with various interests. Residents' morale was related to visits, content of visits and various aspects of their social network activities. Suggestions regarding the implications of the results for staff members are given. Future qualitative research is suggested to leam more about the quality of various kinds of visits and their impact on residents.