Care Home Life and Identity: A Qualitative Case Study

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Social Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Transitioning to a care home involves significant changes and losses impacting older adults' well-being and identity.
• Understanding how older individuals perceive and manage their identity within a care home over time is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the effects of care home living on residents' identities.
• To investigate how residents address identity challenges in their daily lives within institutional settings.

Main Methods:

• A multiple qualitative case study approach was employed.
• Data collection included 18 semistructured interviews and 260 hours of observation over one year in three UK care homes.
• Framework analysis, guided by social identity theory, was used for data interpretation.

Main Results:

• Four key themes emerged: changing with age, independence and autonomy, bounded identity, and social comparison.
• The care home environment exacerbated age-related identity alterations, with residents redefining autonomy within institutional constraints.
• Residents without dementia engaged in social comparison with those with dementia to assert a positive identity.

Conclusions:

• Social comparison emerged as an unidentified adaptive strategy in care home literature.
• Enhanced support for residents' identity expression could reduce reliance on social comparison, improving well-being and relationships.