ABSTRACT
This chapter uses a unique data set of Mexican-origin family caregivers and their parents to explore the issues. It presents new data that allow us to shed light on the validity of the common claim that the Latino family is uniformly solid, unified, and altruistic. Latino family members currently provide nearly 80 percent of at-home long-term care, a higher percentage than for African Americans and non-Latino whites. The chapter employs a new survey of caregivers of native and foreign-born individuals of Mexican origin aged 80 and older in the United States, the Hispanic Established Population for Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE), to address limitations in past research on the role of immigrant families in late-life caregiving. It finds the US-born report less traditional values than early-life immigrants and late-life immigrants report on average the most traditional values. The chapter examines the role of the Hispanic family in late-life caregiving.
