Nativity status and sources of care assistance among elderly Mexican-origin adults

Abstract

Much like other racial/ethnic groups, Latinos are facing challenges to provide needed care to aging adults. Older Latinos underutilize nursing homes and home health care services and primarily rely on their families for assistance. While this general trend has been established, little attention has been paid to nativity differentials in patterns of caregiving for this segment of the aging population. The analyses are based on the latest wave (Wave 7) of the Hispanic Established Population for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly or H-EPESE (2010/2011) a sample of older Mexican-origin adults and their family caregivers living in the southwestern U.S. We examine 629 child caregiver/parent care recipient dyads using bivariate statistics and multinomial logistic regression analyses. The results reveal that while grown children of Mexican-origin elders play a critical role in providing instrumental and financial supports to their aging parents, the burden that the children of foreign-born parents bear is greater. Despite higher rates of disability, Mexican-born elders are more dependent on a child for help and far less likely to call upon other family members, relatives and community based-providers for help than the U.S. born. Given the recent and future growth of older Latinos, intervention strategies will need to focus on nativity status and acculturative processes in the context of caregiving and caregiver burden.

Figure 1. A Heuristic Schematic of the Potential Associations Among Exogenous and Endogenous Variables