Factors influencing hypothetical care decisions concerning dependent elderly parents

The purpose of this exploratory research was to identify the most significant factors influencing adult children in making a hypothetical choice between institutional versus noninstitutional care arrangements for their dependent elderly parents. A stratified random sample of Baptist churches in North Carolina was utilized, from which a final sample of 115 middle-aged adults was derived. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire in order to test the effects on type of hypothetical care decision of 11 independent variables: the adult child's age, sex, number of dependent offspring, present helping behavior, attachment feelings, employment levels of both the child and his/her spouse, family income, health status, number of living siblings, and number of proximate siblings. Descriptive results of the study indicated that 77% of the sample chose noninstitutional over institutional care arrangements when faced with a hypothetical dependency situation. Stepwise discriminant function analysis found three of the independent variables to be significant discriminators between subjects' choice of the two types of care. Respondents with a larger number of dependent offspring and with better health status were less likely to decide to institutionalize, while respondents with higher income were more likely to decide to institutionalize. Both discriminant analysis and multiple regression analysis were performed on a second dependent variable, likelihood of institutionalization, but neither showed significant results