An evaluation of two visiting programs for elderly community residents

While many researchers have asserted that social participation enhances psychological well-being among the elderly, few empirical investigations have studied this relationship by systematically enhancing activities and developing supports for the isolated elderly. In the present study, elderly community residents participated in a network-building visiting program, which reinforced and encouraged involvement in community settings; in a relationship-oriented visiting program, which emphasized empathy and concern; or in a nonequivalent control group. All three groups were administered pre- and postpoint scales on life satisfaction, health, depression, I-E, current and desired social networks, telephone calls, and visitors. Weekly activities and biweekly quality-of-life-ratings were collected on the two experimental groups. At the program's end, the network-building group exhibited directionally higher means on most variables; however, few significant differences were found. Prepoint correlates of current and desired networks emerged as central factors affecting the psychological well-being of participants in this study.