Ethnicity and Aging: Research and Conceptual Issues.
For the past two decades, social gerontologists in North America have recognized important ethnic variations in the experience of aging (Morgan, 1981, p. 207). Silverman and Barnett (1979) have described the conceptual dilemma underlying the interpretation of ethnic variation as the problem of "sameness" and "difference." Anthropologists have illustrated the variability of the experience of aging according to cultural context. Others have argued that old age, a "universal human challenge, brings with it similar problems and perceptions regardless of variations in social context" (Bengstrom, 1979, p. 10).
The history of academic interest in ethnicity and aging was instigated not so much by the revelations of anthropology, but rather by political activism, primarily of black and Hispanic groups in the 1970's (Morgan, 1981, p. 207). At that time, minority groups claimed that social programs for the elderly "were geared exclusively to the white elderly with the assumption that they require a different array of services" (Bengston, 1979, p. 13).
The political origin of ethnicity and aging has generated two themes which dominate the history of academic inquiry into these subjects. The first is the theme of inequality and disadvantage, which is implied by the concept of "minority" and is also a focus of minority-group activism. The second is a related concern that theory and research must produce policy-relevant applications. Policy-relevant knowledge addresses minority claims that their elderly receive inappropriate or inadequate social services.
Despite establishing a deliberate goal, researchers have yet to generate a reliable body of policy-relevant knowledge about ethnicity and aging. In the past decade, important research has developed on such subjects as social supports, cultural factors, health status, and socioeconomic status among the ethnic elderly. For...