title: Family relations, social connections, and mental health among Latino and Asian older adults.
abstract: Using a nationally representative sample, we compared Latino and Asian older adults in terms of lifetime and 12-month prevalence of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, anxiety and mood disorders. Given the strong family norms and collectivist cultures shared by the two groups, we also examined whether 12-month prevalence rates were associated with various family relation and social connection variables. The findings showed that older Latinos were almost twice as likely as older Asians to have any anxiety or mood disorders in their lifetime (34.5% vs. 17.7%) and in the past year (14.3% vs. 7.4%). Logistic regressions revealed different predictors of anxiety and mood disorders in the two groups: Family cultural conflict was associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, whereas family cohesion was associated with a lower prevalence of mood disorders. We argue that more research is needed on negative family interactions and their implications for the mental health of older ethnic minorities.
authors: University of Iowa, School of Social Work, Iowa City, IA, USA man-guo@uiowa.edu.
authors: Man
authors: M
authors: Guo
authors: State University of New York at Old Westbury, Health and Society, Old Westbury, NY, USA.
authors: Shijian
authors: S
authors: Li
authors: University of Michigan, School of Social Work, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Jinyu
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: Arizona State University, School of Social Work, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Sun
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000208:ethnology*; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Asian Americans; Latinos; anxiety disorders; family cohesion; family cultural conflict; immigration; mood disorders; older adults