| Some social workers encountered problems in working with elderly women around decision-making on living arrangement and use of social services. Many are passive, indecisive, and avoid making a choice, or may be uncommitted in implementing decisions.;This research uses Germain's Ecological Systems theory--the person-environment interaction model to conceptualize the relationship of selected variables to the locus of decision-making. It is an ex-post facto exploratory descriptive design, using existing data collected through personal interviews by Caritas-Hong Kong in 1991, with a 5% stratified sample of 2568 self-care elderly women. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were used to test the following hypotheses: (1) The more social support the elderly Chinese women receive, the more likely they will be to make their own decisions on living arrangements. (2) The older the elderly Chinese women, the lower their functional capacity, and the lower their educational and occupational levels, the more likely they will be to have relatives or professionals decide on the use of social services.;The dependent variable is locus of decision-making. The independent variables are social support and functional capacity. Social support is measured by the Social Support Network Inventory (SSNI) (Flaherty, Gaviria and Pathack, 1983) which measures the degree of availability, practical, emotional, reciprocal, and event-related help they received. Functional capacity is measured by a modification of the OARS-Older Americans Resources and Services Multidimensional functional assessment instrument (1975).;The findings show there was a significant relationship between self-made decisions and reciprocal, emotional support, level of education, knowledge of services, mental functional capacity, and age, respectively. Decisions were deferred to professionals when social support was lacking and physical functional capacity had declined. Decisions were made by relatives when available support was absent. Education, emotional, practical, and reciprocal support were all strong predictors of self decision in living arrangements. Interestingly, the best predictors of self-choice in community-based services were reciprocal and emotional support, education, age and mental capacity.;This information provides an understanding of some conditions that enhance the self-determination of these clients, particularly the presence of social support. It provides knowledge for the development of social work interventions which facilitate participation in decision-making. |
