The Relationship between Caregivers' Dependence Supportive Behaviors and Learned Helplessness among Older Adults at the Assisted Living Facilities

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor Gerontological Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt

2 Assistant Professor Gerontological Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University , Egypt.

Abstract

In assisted living facilities, virtually entire care is delivered to the elders and decisions related to all daily living activities are removed from them. If the caregivers support dependence performances, they will enforce the process of learned helplessness among elders. Aim of the study: Determine the relationship between caregivers' dependence supportive behaviors and learned helplessness among older adults at the assisted living facilities. Design: The study followed a descriptive correlational research design. Setting: Four assisted living facilities affiliated to Alexandria Governorate, Egypt were included. Subjects: Purposive sample of 120 older adults aged 60 years and more and their caregivers (38). Tools: Four tools were used for data collection: 1) Socio-demographic and health profile of older adults structured interview schedule, 2) Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS), 3) Socio-demographic characteristics of older adults' caregivers structured interview schedule 4) Caregivers' dependence supportive behaviors observational check list. Results: The mean percent score of learned helplessness among the studied older adults is 64.93± 14.20 indicating that they had a considerable feeling of helplessness in general. Concerning the studied caregivers, they presented different levels of practice of dependence supportive behaviors which is significantly associated with feeling of helplessness among the studied older adults. Conclusion: positive significant relationship is found between the caregivers' dependence supportive behaviors and learned helplessness among older adults at the assisted living facilities. Recommendations: Gerontological nurses should spread out caregiving process for the older adults further than task-oriented duties to interactive process of caregiving.

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