Latitude of choice and well-being in institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly

While important positive effects on the psychological and physical well-being of the elderly often result from increased perceived and actual personal control, the literature also reflects many inconsistent findings. The lack of consensus on aging and the psychology of control has been variously attributed to differences in methodology, measurement devices, theoretical assumptions and the impact of moderator variables. To help bring order to this area the present study evaluated the Latitude of Choice model to determine whether Latitude of Choice scores differ across living arrangements, gender or age. Analysis of covariance tests, controlling for measures of education, perceived health and economic satisfaction, yielded significant main effects but no significant interactions. Partial correlations between Latitude of Choice and measures of psychological well-being, for the total sample and each of the main effect samples, were all significant. These findings provide substantive support for the theoretical approach that underlies Latitude of Choice as a measure of personal control of everyday activities and the potential value of personal control as a moderator of well-being in different environments.