ABSTRACT
This chapter examines diversity in intergenerational family and social support patterns that affect caregiving of older African Americans, American Indians, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and persons of Hispanic origins. It should be noted, however, that much of the literature available to date has focused on African Americans and Hispanics, America’s largest racial and ethnic minority populations. The informal support network of the racial and ethnic minority, particularly the family, has been the fulcrum of their social integration. African American social support and caregiving patterns have been examined largely through cross-sectional survey research designs that compare elderly blacks with other racial or ethnic groups. Caregiving relationships among American Indian elders in the Southwest were demonstrated by their greater involvement in childcare than that of whites or Hispanics 60 years of age and over. Research that challenges the assumed benefits and consequences of large and cohesive family support systems among racial and ethnic minority elders is beginning to emerge in the literature.
