Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive research were to examine the relationships between factors related to expect for caring, attitude to care, motivation in caring, interested in caring, and value in caring and social support for older persons in osteoarthritis. Subject consisted of 110 family members of older people with osteoarthritis from general hospital and central hospital in upper southern region. The simple random sampling technique was applied. Data were collected using seven instruments: demographic data, social support, expect for caring, attitude to care, motivation in caring, interested in caring, and value in caring questionnaires. The instruments were tested for content validity by a panel of experts. The reliability of instruments were .89, .83, .74, .91, .90 and .92 respectively. Data were analyzed using Contingency Coefficients. Major findings were as follows : 1. The social support of older persons in osteoarthritis were at high level (X̅ = 4.21, SD= .89) 2. The expectation for caring, attitude to care, motivation in caring, interested in caring, and value in caring were positively significant related to social support in older persons with osteoarthritis at the level of .05( r= .563,r= .478, r= .615, r=.620, and r=.448 respectively )