Domestic Abuse in Later Life: Cultural Considerations

Do cultural values play a role in defining what is considered abusive behavior? Are members of some cultural groups less willing to report abuse or accept services? Do cultural groups have different perceived roles for elders in their communities? Are family members expected to provide care for their aging parents? Are aging parents expected to provide support (emotional and financial) for their adult children?

Professionals must understand how cultural differences affect community members’ definitions of abuse and what services victims may be willing to accept. A new research review on the topic, prepared by Bonnie Brandl of the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life/Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Loree Cook-Daniels, then consultant to the National Center on Elder Abuse, examines twelve articles published between 1989 and 2000 that reported on studies of how different cultural groups in the United States are affected by elder abuse.

The twelve studies were:
Anetzberger, G. (1998). Psychological Abuse and Neglect: A Cross-Cultural Concern to Older Americans. Understanding and Combating Elder Abuse in Minority Communities, Archstone Foundation, 141-151. [CANE File No. N4692-17]*

Brown, A. (1989). A Survey on Elder Abuse at One Native American Tribe. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 1, No. 2, 17 - 37. [CANE File No. G3232-11]*

Griffin, L. (1994). Elder Maltreatment Among Rural African-Americans. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Vo. 6, No. 1, 1 - 27. [CANE File No. I3691-14]*

Hudson, Margaret F. and John R. Carlson. (1999a). Elder Abuse: Its Meaning to Caucasians, African Americans, and Native Americans. Tatara (ed.), Understanding Elder Abuse in Minority Populations, 187-204. [CANE File No. N4678-12]*

Hudson, M. et al. (1999b). Elder Abuse: Some African American Views. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(9): 915-939. [CANE File No. K4205-13]*

Le, Q. (1997). Mistreatment of Vietnamese Elderly by Their Families in the United States. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 9, No. 2, 51-62. [CANE File No. J4079-7]*

Moon, A. and Benton, D. (2000). Tolerance of Elder Abuse and Attitudes toward Third-Party Intervention Among African American, Korean American and White Elderly. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 8(3/4), 283-303. [CANE File No. K4162-15]*

Moon, A. and Evans-Campbell, T. (1999). Awareness of Formal and Informal Sources of Help for Victims of Elder Abuse Among Korean American and Caucasian Elders in Los Angeles. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 11(3): 1-23. [CANE File No. H4214-12]*

Moon, A., and O. Williams. (1993). Perceptions of Elder Abuse and Help-Seeking Patterns Among African-American, Caucasian American and Korean-American Elderly Women. Gerontologist, 33, 386-395. [CANE File No. H3282-10]*

Otiniano, M. et al. (1998). Hispanic Elder Abuse. Archstone Foundation Understanding and Combating Elder Abuse in Minority Communities, 194. [CANE File No. N4696-7]*

Sanchez, Y. (1999). Elder Mistreatment in Mexican American Communities: The Nevada and Michigan Experiences. Tatara (ed.), Understanding Elder Abuse in Minority Populations, 67-77. [CANE File No. N4669-8]*

Tomita, S. (1999). Exploration of Elder Mistreatment Among the Japanese. Tatara (ed.), Understanding Elder Abuse in Minority Populations, 119-139. [CANE File No. N4672-13]*

Brandl and Cook-Daniels prepared very brief analysis of the findings, and articulated just a few of the possible implications. These sections of their article are reprinted below.

GENERALIZED FINDINGS

Four studies compared perceptions by members of different racial and ethnic groups about behavior that constituted elder abuse and found significant differences in the definitions (Moon, 2000; Hudson, 1999a; Anetzberger, 1998; Moon, 1993). Moon found Caucasian elders were more likely to tolerate verbal abuse and Korean Americans more likely to tolerate financial exploitation than her other studied populations (Moon, 2000). Hudson found that Native Americans rated behaviors as more abusive than African Americans, who rated items more severe than did Caucasians (Hudson, 1999). Anetzberger found that European Americans and Puerto Ricans differed from Japanese Americans and African Americans on whether psychological neglect was worse than psychological abuse. This study also found differences between older and younger members of the same ethnic groups (Anetzberger, 1998). Moon found that Korean Americans were more tolerant of abuse than African Americans or Caucasian Americans (Moon, 1993). Hudson (1999b) found that while minority elders agreed with elder abuse professionals’ definitions most of the time, there were some discrepancies between what the elders defined as abuse versus what the professionals said.

One potential reason for the different definitions of abusive behavior is that cultures have a range of expectations about the responsibility of grown children and elders to provide care, financial assistance, and emotional support to one another (Sanchez, 1999; Tomita, 1999; Anetzberger, 1998; Griffin, 1994; Moon, 1993; Brown, 1989).

In general, most of the participants in these studies were reluctant to report abuse (Moon, 2000; Sanchez, 1999; Tomita, 1999; Otiniano, 1998; Le, 1997; Moon, 1993). Moon (2000 and 1999) found that Korean American elders were also more likely to blame the victim for elder abuse, which could affect willingness to report, and were less likely to know of an agency to which they could report. Some study participants were more likely to report abuse if they defined the behavior as abusive, but still often would not report (Moon, 1993). The research indicates that some reasons for non-reporting include shame, embarrassment, not wanting to create conflict in the family, and protecting the community. Some participants expressed willingness to talk to family members rather than professionals (Sanchez, 1999; Moon, 1993).

Moon (2000) suggested that because of ethnic differences around abuse definitions, ethnic-specific approaches to public outreach and educational efforts may be more effective than a general approach.

POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS

Existing research indicates that background and cultural values impact how an older person will define abuse. Professionals need to recognize these differences when doing public awareness to discuss prevention, reporting and services. Victims may see some behaviors as normal within their culture and not consider asking for help.

Given the percentages of older persons who say they will not report abuse to authorities but who may talk with family members, training on domestic abuse in later life is needed for the general public. Heightened awareness will give more lay people the tools needed to talk with older people about abuse, available services and safety planning.

More research is needed to examine cultural differences and how to build on the strengths of communities. Future studies should include examining differences and similarities among racial/ethnic groups as well as focusing on populations such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons and religious communities. Research is also needed on the effectiveness of culturally specific services.

MORE DETAILS

The research review itself also contains a discussion of the limitations of studies on domestic violence in later life and a chart that briefly summarizes each article’s author(s) and year of publication, sample size and demographics, type(s) of abuse covered, and selected findings, often in quotes and always with an associated page number.

The article is currently published on the Web in two formats: html (which creates what looks like a web page) and .pdf, which can only be opened and read with an Adobe Acrobat reader (available free from the website). The National Center on Elder Abuse is also developing a printed version of this and several other research reviews; AAR will let its readers know how to obtain a copy when it’s available. For now, the articles are available on the WordBridges website:

Culture
www.WordBridges.net/ElderAbuse/Research/2002-09-05R.html (html) or
www.WordBridges.net/ElderAbuse/Research/2002-09-05R.pdf (Adobe Acrobat format)

*NOTE:
CANE - The Clearinghouse on Abuse and Neglect of the Elderly - is the nation's largest computerized collection of elder abuse resources and materials. Single copies of articles in its holdings can be ordered from CANE for $.20 per page. The digits following the hyphen in the file number indicate how many pages the article has.

CANE
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University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716.

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