Abstract
This article reports the development of a tool for the measurement of Situational Control of Daily Activities (SCD) in an institutional setting for the elderly. Specific items for the SCDA were derived from the analysis of field notes from an exploratory study Content validity was established by a panel of judges. Test‐retest reliability for 20 subjects was .96. Intercoder reliability (among the investigator and two independent coders) was 1.0 for the overall category of “self‐” or “other‐” determination for each respondent and .98 for categorization by activity for the respondents. Factor analysis of 79 subjects revealed the presence of two factors in the structure, Factor I, Control of Socializing and Privacy, and Factor II, Control of Physical Care. Further work is needed to refine the items and then the tool should be tested with larger samples.