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The Salience of Social Relationships for Resident Well-Being in Assisted Living

¹ Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
² Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, Norman.
³ Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

Address correspondence to Debra Street, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Department of Sociology, 430 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260. E-mail: dastreet{at}buffalo.edu

Objectives. We examined how organizational characteristics, transition experiences, and social relationships impact three subjective measures of well-being among assisted living residents: life satisfaction, quality of life, and perception that assisted living feels like home.

Methods. Data were from 384 assisted living residents interviewed for the Florida Study of Assisted Living. Using ordinary least squares and logistic regression we estimated associations between resident well-being and organizational characteristics, transition experiences, and social relationships, controlling for gender, age, education, and physical functioning.

Results. To varying degrees depending on the measure used, higher resident well-being was associated with facility size, facility acceptance of payment from Florida's low income program, and resident perceptions of adequate privacy. Non-kin room sharing reduced life satisfaction, whereas food quality positively affected all measures of well-being. The most consistent findings concerned internal social relationships. Residents with high scores on internal social relationship measures reported more positive well-being across all measures than residents with low scores on the same measures.

Discussion. Individuals have the capacity to form new support networks following a move to assisted living, and relationships formed become more salient to their well-being than the continuation of past relationships or the physical characteristics of the immediate surroundings.