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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Care home life and identity
T2 - A qualitative case study
AU - Paddock, Katie
AU - Brown Wilson, Christine
AU - Walshe, Catherine Elizabeth
AU - Todd, Chris
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Background and ObjectivesThe transition to a care home can involve multiple changes and losses that can affect an older person’s well-being and identity. It is not clear how older people perceive and manage their identity within a care home over time. This study explores how living in a care home affects the identities of residents and how they address this in their daily lives.Research Design and MethodsA multiple qualitative case study approach incorporated interview and observational data. Eighteen semistructured interviews and 260 hr of observations were conducted over 1 year with care home residents, relatives, and staff across three care homes within Greater Manchester, UK. Data were analyzed using framework analysis, drawing on the social identity perspective as an interpretive lens.ResultsFour themes were identified: (a) changing with age, (b) independence and autonomy, (c) bounded identity, and (d) social comparison. The impact of aging that initially altered residents’ identities was exacerbated by the care home environment. Institutional restrictions jeopardized independence and autonomy, provoking residents to redefine this within the allowances of the care home. Strict routines and resource constraints of well-meaning staff resulted in the bounded expression of personalities. Consequently, to forge a positive identity, residents without dementia engaged in social comparison with residents with dementia, emphasizing their superior cognitive and physical abilities.Discussion and ImplicationsSocial comparison as an adaptive strategy has previously been unidentified in care home literature. Residents need more support to express their identities, which may reduce the necessity of social comparison, and improve interrelationships and well-being.
AB - Background and ObjectivesThe transition to a care home can involve multiple changes and losses that can affect an older person’s well-being and identity. It is not clear how older people perceive and manage their identity within a care home over time. This study explores how living in a care home affects the identities of residents and how they address this in their daily lives.Research Design and MethodsA multiple qualitative case study approach incorporated interview and observational data. Eighteen semistructured interviews and 260 hr of observations were conducted over 1 year with care home residents, relatives, and staff across three care homes within Greater Manchester, UK. Data were analyzed using framework analysis, drawing on the social identity perspective as an interpretive lens.ResultsFour themes were identified: (a) changing with age, (b) independence and autonomy, (c) bounded identity, and (d) social comparison. The impact of aging that initially altered residents’ identities was exacerbated by the care home environment. Institutional restrictions jeopardized independence and autonomy, provoking residents to redefine this within the allowances of the care home. Strict routines and resource constraints of well-meaning staff resulted in the bounded expression of personalities. Consequently, to forge a positive identity, residents without dementia engaged in social comparison with residents with dementia, emphasizing their superior cognitive and physical abilities.Discussion and ImplicationsSocial comparison as an adaptive strategy has previously been unidentified in care home literature. Residents need more support to express their identities, which may reduce the necessity of social comparison, and improve interrelationships and well-being.
KW - Institutional care/residential care
KW - Qualitative analysis: case study
KW - Qualitative research methods
KW - Identity
KW - Social identity perspective
U2 - 10.1093/geront/gny090
DO - 10.1093/geront/gny090
M3 - Journal article
VL - 59
SP - 655
EP - 664
JO - The Gerontologist
JF - The Gerontologist
SN - 0016-9013
IS - 4
ER -