The Changing Meaning of Family Support Among Older Chinese and Korean Immigrants

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Our objective in this study was to examine how family social-support expectations have changed among older Chinese and Korean U.S. immigrants. METHODS: Fifty-two Cantonese- and Korean-speaking immigrants older than 60 years participated in eight focus groups. Transcripts were translated into English. Themes were developed based on a coding structure and compared to past research. RESULT: Participants discussed changed perspectives of family social support and the need to integrate both American and Chinese or Korean culture, thus becoming bicultural. Three distinct perspectives of family emerged: (1) participants felt they had become peripheral family members, (2) parents were no longer authority figures in families, and (3) participants were more independent. Finally, participants described how factors such as a changed economic environment, living alone, and extending their social network beyond family, promoted a move to biculturalism. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that the integration of two cultures, or biculturalism, is an indicator of successful adaptation to immigration later in life; older Chinese and Korean immigrants are adjusting to living in the United States and blending multiple cultures simultaneously. Thus, acculturation frameworks implying a linear process may not be theoretically valid as ethnic identity, particularly for those who immigrate to different countries, changes over the life course.

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