Impact of Assessor Values on Measurement of Family Care Provided to the Impaired Elderly (Aged, Home Care)
Wilcox, Julie Adamson
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/71491
Description
Title
Impact of Assessor Values on Measurement of Family Care Provided to the Impaired Elderly (Aged, Home Care)
Author(s)
Wilcox, Julie Adamson
Issue Date
1986
Department of Study
Social Work
Discipline
Social Work
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Social Work
Abstract
The study addresses the issue of the influence of values on eligibility decisions in social service agencies. It examines the association between individual values of professionals and their decisions related to the allocation of community services to the impaired elderly.
The context for the research was a statewide home care and day care program. Workers had been found to be inconsistent in their assessment of amount of help available to service applicants from families and other helpers.
The main proposition was that differences in values of workers concerning responsibility for helping the elderly would account for this inconsistency. There were three hypotheses: first, that values concerning family responsibility would affect the rating of help available to clients from families; second, that values concerning community responsibility would affect the rating of help available from community helpers, such as neighbors, religious or membership organizations, and local service agencies; third, that assessors would favor government services over family and community help, and would underrate the amount of help available from family and community.
Assessors were surveyed for their values regarding responsibility for the elderly. They then assessed a client in a videotape case example. The association between responses to the values questionnaire and ratings of available help to the hypothetical client was examined.
The LISREL program on SPSSX was used to test measurement and causal models. Further analysis used multiple regression. Confirmatory factor analysis provided measures of the independent variables.
Associations between values and assessment ratings accounted for less than ten per cent of total variance. Evidence of bias toward underrating of available help was also weak. The conclusion is that values do not substantially explain the inconsistency in the rating of available help.
This finding contrasts with earlier research which has shown that values influence decisions affecting clients of service agencies. An explanation may be that whereas earlier studies examined dichotomous decisions, this study concerns a rating scale which determines degrees of service eligibility, not simply eligibility versus ineligibility. Such a decision may be less onerous, so that workers feel less need to call on their own values to justify its outcome.
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