Elderly suicide risk in family contexts: A critique of the Asian family care model

Abstract

The 'three generation residence' and children's enormous support for the elderly in Asian countries has been viewed as a cultural asset in current international discourse on elderly care. The study uses suicide rates to challenge this view. The results indicate that suicide data, especially from Taiwan, are consistent with the counter argument that Asian elderly are currently very vulnerable in their socially constructed total dependence on children - actually sons and daughters-in-law. The nature of the culturally and politically produced powerful myth of the three generation family in modern Asian countries is also discussed.