CONTEXTUAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DISTURBING BEHAVIORS IN INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERS

Data from a longitudinal clinical trial funded by the National Institu te of Aging, testing the effects of staff education and consultation o n restraint reduction in nursing homes, were used to examine disturbin g behaviors in institutionalized elders and to identify related enviro nmental and personal characteristics. Subjects were 586 residents from three well-matched nursing homes. Kayser-Jone's (1989) model on envir onment and quality of life in long-term care institutions served as th e organizing framework. Data on disturbing behaviors from the Psychoge riatric Dependency Rating Scale were factor analyzed. Three factors, A gitated Psychomotor Behaviors, Aggressive Interpersonal Communication, and Expressive Difficulty, emerged from the principal factor analysis and accounted for 35% of the variance. The Kayser-Jones model partial ly explained Agitated Psychomotor Behavior (R(2) = .22). A model compa rison approach indicated that the addition of an organizational variab le, staff mix, significantly increased the amount of variance explaine d over and above that contributed by the personal variables.