Markers of older widows' trust of nonprofessional home-care helpers

There is little literature about the relationships of older women who live alone and the paid nonprofessional helpers who assist them. Studies of interpersonal trust have focused on the vulnerability of the trusting person and actions of the trusted person. The actions of the trusting person, or empirical indicators of trust, have had little attention. Our purpose was to describe the actions of older women that were indicative of their trust in nonprofessional home-care helpers. In a descriptive phenomenological study of 25 older widows, a subsample of 11 women who had hired nonprofessional helpers reported actions toward the helpers that we deemed markers of trust. The overarching marker of trust was keeping my eyes off of the helper, with five subsidiary markers, including allowing the helper to enter my house at will. Findings extend empirical knowledge about trust, raise new questions about interpersonal theories of trust, and suggest further areas of study.