Perceptions of elder abuse and neglect and help-seeking patterns among Filipino and Korean elderly women in Honolulu

The design of culturally-sensitive programs related to elder abuse and neglect requires information on how minorities perceive abuse and neglect and when, and from whom, they would seek help. Unfortunately, research on Asian-American perceptions of and help-seeking for elder abuse is limited. An exception is the research by Moon and Williams (1993) who studied several ethnic groups in Minnesota and found that Korean-Americans were less likely than Caucasian and African-Americans to label a scenario as abusive or to seek help, especially from formal sources. The current study used the same methodology to begin exploring how Asian-American groups in Honolulu perceived abuse/neglect and sought help. Unexpectedly, the Filipino and Korean respondents in Honolulu gave responses that were more similar to the responses of Caucasians in Minnesota than to the Korean group in Minnesota. Possible reasons are that Asian-American minorities in Honolulu had better access to culturally-appropriate services than minorities do in mid-western U.S. communities and that members of the Korean and Filipino samples in Honolulu were more acculturated than the Korean sample in Minnesota.