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Australian-Chinese families caring for elderly relatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2012

LIA BRYANT  and
SUZANE LIM
LIA BRYANT*
Affiliation:
Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
SUZANE LIM
Affiliation:
Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Lia Bryant, Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Magill Campus, St. Bernard's Road, Magill, Adelaide 5062, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Caring for elderly relatives has predominately been explored from the standpoint of the needs and experiences of the hegemonic culture in multicultural countries like Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Australia, in particular, has paid scant attention to cultural and linguistically diverse groups in relation to caring for the aged. In this paper we focus on Chinese-Australian families caring for elderly relatives. We explore the traditional value of filial piety which is said to underpin social norms and beliefs about caring for aged parents in Chinese cultures. Specifically we draw on four in-depth interviews with Chinese-Australian care-givers of elderly relatives to identify meanings of filial piety and practices of filial piety. Findings indicate that while filial piety is still an important value in caring for the aged, meanings about how to practise filial piety are changing and vary across families.

Keywords

Australian-Chinese familiescaringfilial pietyageingsocial meanings
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 33 , Issue 8 , November 2013 , pp. 1401 - 1421
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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