Companionship Therapy with Nursing Home Aged

Intergenerational programming: attitudes of children and perceptions of older adult participants

“…This study provides support for intergenerational programs promoting positive attitudes in children toward the aged when healthy older adults are included in the program. The resiliency of students' attitudes beyond termination of the program suggested in this study lends preliminary support to theories proposed by Aday et al, (1991), Seefeldt et al, (1977a), and Arthur, Donnan, and Lair (1973).…”

“…Of the six studies cited that examined intergenerational programs and older adults' perceptions in non-institutionalized settings, two reported positive responses (Newman & Reiss, 1992;Chapman & Neal, 1990). Of the four studies cited that occurred in institutionalized settings, three reported positive responses Streitfied, 1976;Arthur et al, 1973) while one reported mixed results (Kuehne, 1992). Therefore, these residents were not included in the study.…”

“…While Aday et al, (1991) and others (Seefeldt et al, 1977a;Arthur et al, 1973) indicate that resiliency of attitudes in children can endure beyond termination of intergenerational programs, more longitudinal work needs to be done to outline the direction of students' attitudes over extended periods of time and beyond the programs themselves. If attitudes developed in childhood remain influential throughout the life cycle (Aday et al, 1991;Weinberger, 1979;Jantz et al, 1977;Seefeldt et al, 1977a), longitudinal research on attitudes of children following participation in intergenerational programs needs to be conducted to explore the durability of attitudes through early adolescence, early adulthood, and later adulthood.…”

Counseling Programs for Older Persons: Status, Shortcomings, and Potentialities

“…These include research on intervention strategies such as structured group interaction (Lago & Hoffman, 1978), social interaction (Blackman, Howe & Pinkston, 1976), social skills acquisition (Lopez, 1980), companionship therapy (Arthur, Donnan & Lair, 1973), and increased physical activity (Clark, Wade, Massey, & Van Dyke, 1975), to name a few. Of course, many of the residents of LTC facilities who participated in these studies derived some benefit from the care they received.…”

Influence of a “friendly visitor” program on the cognitive functioning and morale of elderly persons

“…Two investigations have relied on self-report measures of morale. In one investigation, nursing home residents who received 10 weekly visits by undergraduates evidenced reliably greater improvement in morale as measured by the Life Satisfaction Index A (Neugarten, Havighurst, & Tobin, 1961) than persons who were not visited (Arthur, Donnan, & Lair, 1973). In addition, having a different visitor each week was found more effective than having the same visitor for the duration of the project.…”