Correlates of Senior Center Participation and Effective Service Delivery in Connecticut

This study used two sets of existing data, both surveys conducted by the Institute for Social Inquiry for the Connecticut State Department on Aging: 1. One thousand noninstitutionalized adult residents of Connecticut, 60 years of age or older, were surveyed in April and May of 1980 utilizing a modified stratified, random-digit dialing telephone interview procedure. Subjects were asked 189 questions, basically fixed alternative, which related to the needs, attitudes, and behaviors of older adults. The responses to those questions were the basis for addressing the following research question: Do users of senior centers, individuals who have heard of but never used senior centers, and individuals who have never heard of or used senior centers differ on a series of demographic and other variables considered likely to be related to senior center participation or nonparticipation? 2. The total population of senior center directors (169) was surveyed in the spring of 1980 by utilizing a mailed questionnaire procedure. Directors were asked a series of questions, again basically fixed alternative, with the intent of gathering descriptive information on the developmental status of senior centers in Connecticut. The responses to these questions were the basis for examining the magnitude of and the direction of the relationship between directors' educational and vocational backgrounds and their perceptions of their participant population's characteristics, directors' perceptions of their participant population's characteristics and reported user characteristics, directors' perceptions of their participant population's characteristics and programs offered, and the organizational structure of the agency and programs offered.