Gratitude and longing: Meanings of health in aging for Puerto Rican adults in the mainland.
Puerto Rican adults in the United States mainland live with socioeconomic and health disparities. To understand their contextual experience of aging, we interviewed participants in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study. Through a Thematic Analysis we identify themes and tensions: normalization and acceptance of aging; gratitude; the importance of aging within social networks; longing to return to Puerto Rico at older age. We address the tensions between 'acceptance' and fatalismo as a cultural belief, and a function of structural barriers. The experience of aging is discussed in the context of Puerto Rico's history and continued dependence on the United States.
Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, USA i.todorova@neu.edu.
Irina L G
IL
Todorova
Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, USA.
Mariana T
MT
Guzzardo
Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, USA.
Wallis E
WE
Adams
University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA.
Luis M
LM
Falcón
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology
age; critical health psychology; ethnicity; illness; qualitative methods