<p> An exploratory study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a group gratitude intervention with 29 permanent residents at a long term care/ skilled nursing facility in improving elder mood, behavior, and well- being over a 3 week time period. The sample included individuals diagnosed with dementia, other cognitive impairment, major depressive disorder, insomnia, and generalized anxiety disorder. The gratitude intervention consisted of asking elders to share what they are thankful for at the dinner table each day. Measures included the Elder Well Being Scale and The Dinner Rating Scale. On both measures, higher scores indicated better functioning. To test the hypothesis that post treatment elder well-being will be significantly higher than pretreatment elder well-being ratings, a one-way ANOVA was conducted. Post-hoc tests revealed a statistically significant increase in Elder Well Being Scale scores. An ANOVA of comparing Dinner Ratings demonstrated a nonsignificant increase over the 3 week experiment. Implications are discussed.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2006. / Adviser: Arnold R. Spokane.