Cultural and intergenerational narratives: understanding responses to elderly family members in declining health.
Culture exerts powerful influences on each generations' responses to older members in declining health. Narratives, the stories people tell about their lives, depict the different the ways that the elderly and their children experience their world. Their personal narratives chronicle their connections to culture the past. They also illustrate the ways that the cultural values are transformed to accommodate the present and future. The stories are influenced by immigration, assimilation, development, interpersonal relationships, and life events. These differences between the cultural narratives of the elderly and the following generation are particularly apparent during times of chronic stress. One such situation occurs during chronic illness when the younger generation is called upon to provide for the elderly and chronically ill.
Spira
Marcia
M
School of Social Work, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. mspira@luc.edu
Wall
Jack
J
D000375:Aging; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D017028:Caregivers; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations / Q000208:ethnology*