Role Conflict for Aides in a Homemaker Aide Program for Frail Elderly Persons

To determine whether aides in a homemaker program for the frail rural elderly experienced role conflict, the views of clients, aides, and staff were examined by means of an 18-item Likert-type test which assessed the difficulty of an aide in various possible problematic situations. While consensus existed among the three groups on a few items, a significant interaction of clients, aides, staff × item indicated that, for the most part, whether or not a situation was perceived as a difficult problem depended upon who did the rating. What aides saw as a difficult problem situation for themselves often differed markedly from what the staff and clients saw. Clients and staff often differed significantly from one another. This lack of consensus suggests that a direct service worker in a program such as this one might often not only find himself in an uncomfortable situation, but even worse, such a situation will not necessarily be recognized by either the program's clients or staff.