Asian American women caring for elderly parents

In Asian American families, women caring for elderly parents are at risk when family and cultural obligations conflict with acculturation factors and employment. This descriptive correlational study investigated the relationships between resources and strategies used and perceived health in Chinese and Filipino American women caring for elderly parents. Meleis's theory of role integration, Lazarus and Folkman's theory of cognitive appraisal, and Antonovsky's health-generating theory of stress were integrated with Pearlin's model of caregiver stress to examine the relationships between stressors, resources, and outcomes of caregiving. Twenty Asian American women, 10 Chinese and 10 Filipino, participated in the study. Instruments included The Jalowiec Coping Scale, The Lewis Coherency Scale, Total Role Investment Scale, Stress and Satisfaction Scales, Affect Balance Scale, and the Cantril Ladder. Findings support the possibility that satisfaction from caregiving can help to balance caregiver stress and that a sense of coherence may contribute to positive health outcomes in family caregivers.