Social Well-Being of Institutionalized Elderly Persons

Abstract

This article describes the development of a scale, the Social Well-Being Scale, to measure the extent to which institutionalized older persons perceive their social needs as being met. For persons over sixty-five years of age, the scale score is not affected by age or sex, but it does distinguish them by race, health, and type of living arrangement. Further, the Social Well-Being Scale predicts the level of psychological well-being.