Examination of Resident Abuse in Assisted Living Facilities in the United States, 2011 (ICPSR 34575)

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Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

The purpose of the study was to:

• Examine resident abuse from staff report by direct care workers in a nationally representative sample of assisted living settings;
• Expand the scope of our understanding of resident abuse by including medication abuse in assisted living settings; and
• Use the data collected to examine: a. rates of abuse; b. the association of external organizational, and internal factors with resident abuse; c. direct care worker characteristics associated with abuse; d. resident characteristics associated with abuse; e. leadership characteristics associated with abuse; f. the inter-correlations of different types of abuse; and, g. resident-to-resident abuse.

Study Design View help for Study Design

To obtain information, administrators of assisted living facilities were asked if they were willing to complete the questionnaire (Six data files, n=1,376 : About Your Facility Data, Staff Abuse Perceptions Data, Resident Safety Data, Resident to Resident Abuse Data, Leadership Data, and Demographics Data). An incentive gift card of 25 dollars was used. The administrator questionnaires were anonymous, but facility ID codes were included on each survey.

Second, administrators were asked if they would be willing to distribute the questionnaire to direct care workers (Three data files, n=12,555: Staff Abuse Data, Resident to Resident Abuse Data, Demographics Data). An example direct care worker questionnaire was sent to administrators so that they could examine the content. Researchers requested that they distribute the survey to all full-time and part-time direct care workers on all shifts. Direct care workers who completed the questionnaire received a twenty dollar incentive gift card. The direct care worker questionnaires were also anonymous, but the facility ID codes were included on each survey.

Administrators from participating facilities were mailed prepackaged direct care worker questionnaires. This consisted of sealed envelopes containing: the questionnaire, a letter describing the study, and a postage-paid return envelope. Follow up reminder mailings and emails were used for the administrators.

Sample View help for Sample

For the purposes of this research, an assisted living facility is defined as a long term care setting that typically provides residents for activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. There was no national data source that lists all of these types of facilities. Using state listings from websites, researchers identified approximately 21,000 of assisting living facilities. A random sample of approximately seven percent (n=1,500) of these eligible assisted living facilities were selected from all 50 states.

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Universe View help for Universe

All administrators and direct care workers at all assisted living facilities in the United States in 2011.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

The Administrator questionnaire data is split across six data files:

• About Your Facility Data (n=1,376 and 37 variables) includes variables on number of beds, characteristics of current residents, current staffing levels, and self-score on abuse prevention;
• Staff Abuse Perceptions Data (n=1,376 and 29 variables) includes variables asking administrators about staff behavior towards residents such as yelling, pushing, bullying, not giving food or medications, and unwelcome touching;
• Resident Safety Data (n=1,376 and 39 variables) includes variables on safety measures in place at the facility, how errors and mistakes in resident care are handled, staff involvement in the safety procedures and changes, a self-score for resident safety;
• Resident to Resident Abuse Data (n=1,376 and 23 variables) include variables on the behavior between residents including yelling, hitting, bullying, stealing, and unwelcome touching;
• Leadership Data (n=1,376 and 21 variables) includes variables on the leadership style of the facility administrator; and
• Demographics Data (n=1,376 and 8 variables) includes demographic variables such as gender, age, race, education level, and time as administrator at the current facility.

The Direct Care Worker questionnaire data is split across three data files:

• Staff Abuse Data (n=12,555 and 62 variables) includes direct care worker reported incidents of abuse by other staff toward residents including yelling, threatening to stop care, purposely not providing food or medication, stealing from residents, unwelcome touching and unwelcome discussion of sexual activity;
• Resident to Resident Abuse Data (n=12,555 and 23 variables) includes direct care worker reports of resident on resident abuse include arguing, throwing things at another resident, bullying, stealing, pushing and unwelcome touching; and
• Demographics Data (n=12,555 and 11 variables) includes demographic variables for direct care workers such as gender, age, education level, race, primary language and how many resident the respondent had cared for in the past three months.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

A total of 12,555 direct care workers returned the questionnaire, for a response rate of 81 percent. A total of 1,376 assisted living facility administrators returned the questionnaire, for a response rate of 84 percent.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

Several Likert-type scales were used.

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2016-05-20

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None.

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