Beyond familism?: Familism as explicit motive for eldercare among Mexican American caregivers

This research explored eldercare among Mexican American primary family caregivers from Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas and suggests that it is premature to dismiss familism as a continuing and central influence on the lives of Mexican American family caregivers.

Abstract

This research explored eldercare among Mexican American primary family caregivers from Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Although these caregivers expressed feelings of burden, their ethnocultural values of familism placed burden in a broader cultural context in which caregiving was also viewed as an affirmation and fulfillment of core Mexican American cultural values. Mexican American familism includes expressions of family solidarity, ethnocultural determinants of informal caregiving, distrust of culturally alien institutions (particularly nursing homes), and a desire to care for the elderly within the family context regardless of the personal cost or consequences. In contrast to recent research, these findings suggest that it is premature to dismiss familism as a continuing and central influence in the lives of Mexican American family caregivers.