Loss of control is a well-documented human response to hospitalization. The purpose of this study was to construct and test a theoretical model of perceived territorial control among hospitalized adults. Territorial control was defined as the freedom or choice one has in regulating or influencing the objects, activities, and social intereactions within a particular space claimed or identified as one's own. The space of concern in this study was the patient's hospital room. The study focused not on the negative aspects of a loss of control but on the positive outcomes of having a sense of control. A three-stage, multivariate, causal-modeling design was used to estimate the impact of perceived territorial control on state anxiety and satisfaction with care in a convenience sample of 80 Hispanic and Anglo-American males and females between the ages of 18 and 79 who were in the hospital for short-term orthopedic care. Attitudinal, self-report measures were used predominantly. Instruments were constructed to index centrality of territory and territorial control perceptions. Correlational and multiple regression statistical techniques were used to estimate the theoretical model. Tests for violations of the statistical and causal assumptions were performed. Centrality of territory, assistance needs, and the powerful others locus of control significantly influenced patient territorial control perceptions. Temporal duration, internal locus of control, and chance locus of control made no significant impact on perceived territorial control. Patient territorial control perceptions significantly decreased state anxiety and significantly increased satisfaction with care. Perceived territorial control explained 24 percent of the variance in patient state anxiety and 21 percent of the variance in satisfaction with care. An unstaged, empirical test of the model increased the explained variance to 32 percent for state anxiety and 40 percent for satisfaction with care. There was a positive relationship (r = .41) between age and centrality of territory and a negative relationship (r = -.31) between age and state anxiety. The implications were related primarily to continued theory-building and the development of nursing practice theories.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/187768 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | GERBER, ROSE MARIE. |
| Contributors | McCord, Beverly, Van Ort, Suzanne, Cleland, Courtney, MacCorquodale, Patricia |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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