Growing evidence suggests a low engagement in advance care planning (ACP) among ethnic minorities in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from prior research about ACP among ethnic minorities. An extensive literature search was conducted using multiple electronic databases. After applying inclusion criteria, 26 studies were included. Four categories of facilitators and barriers to ACP were identified: (1) Socio-demographic factors, (2) health status, literacy and experiences, (3) cultural values, and (4) spirituality. Socio-demographic factors showed inconsistent findings regarding their association with ACP engagement. Worse health status and knowledge about ACP are common facilitators across ethnic minority groups, whereas mistrust toward the health care system was a barrier only for Blacks. Collectivistic cultural values influenced ACP engagement among Latinos and Asian Americans; however, spirituality/religion played an important role among Blacks. The implications for culturally competent approaches to promote ACP and future research directions are discussed.
Despite the rapid growth of the older ethnic minority population, knowledge about dementia care for this population is limited. This study examined the experience of dementia caregiving among Korean Americans. We conducted four focus groups with 23 family caregivers of older Korean Americans with dementia symptoms and identified eight themes: (a) struggling and overwhelmed; (b) keeping the cultural roles and responsibility; (c) doing it by themselves; (d) family as a source of stress; (e) limited knowledge and misconceptions; (f) learning as they go; (g) undiagnosed dementia and misunderstandings about medical care; and (h) barriers to use of services and need for culturally responsive services. The findings underscore that Korean Americans need dementia caregiver programs that are linguistically and culturally responsive.
Objectives: The Migratory Grief and Loss Questionnaire (MGLQ) was designed to measure the grief experience associated with immigration. This article reports the development and psychometric properties of a Chinese-version of MGLQ. Methods: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood extraction with varimax rotation was conducted to identify the factor structure of the MGLQ. Results: A two-factor solution was identified with Factor 1 representing ‘‘Attachment to Homeland’’ and Factor 2 representing ‘‘Identify Discontinuity.’’ Both factors had excellent internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity as demonstrated by predicted relationships with depression scores. Conclusions: This study supported the validity and the reliability of the MGLQ, demonstrating its utility in assessing the migratory grief experience among immigrants.
Despite the growing number of language minorities, foreign-born individuals with limited English proficiency, this population has been largely left out of social work research, often due to methodological challenges involved in conducting research with this population. Whereas the professional standard calls for cultural competence, a discussion of how to implement strategies for culturally competent research with language minorities is regrettably limited in the social work literature. This article is, to the authors' knowledge, one of the first within the field of social work to tie together unique methodological issues that may arise throughout the research conceptualization, development, and implementation process with this population. Strategies for how to overcome such issues are provided by adapting and expanding on a conceptual framework by Meleis. The incorporation of such research practices with language minorities has the potential to enhance trust and, thus, improve the recruitment and retention of this hard-to-reach population. More important, studies that aim to include such culturally responsive criteria may produce results that have improved validity and, thus, contribute to the advancement of knowledge regarding this population.
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