Personal space preferences of hospitalized adults

The questions addressed in this study were whether hospitalized adults' personal space preferences (PSP) differed between the hospital and home setting and whether these patients assigned different PSP to a nurse, doctor, family member, or stranger. The effects of age and sex of the subjects were also examined. Sixty subjects (30 men and 30 women) meeting selected criteria participated. The figure-placement technique (Little, 1965; Guardo, 1976) was used to measure PSP. Data were analyzed using a four-factor ANOVA (age X sex X role X setting) with repeated measures on the last two factors. Main effects were found fer setting, F(1,54) = 11.54, p less than .001, and role, F(3,162) = 112.95, p less than .0001; no other variables approached statistical significance. The major findings indicated that preferred distances in the hospital were smaller than in the home and that in both settings the family member was placed closest to the "self" silhousette followed by a doctor, nurse, and stranger, respectively.