Working with Chinese American families

This chapter focuses on unique stress and coping experiences of Chinese American family caregivers from a cultural perceptive. Drawing on data from in-depth qualitative interviews of 22 Chinese American family caregivers over a one-year period, this chapter discusses salient stressors in Chinese American family caregivers, as well as their coping strategies across disease stages. Implications for health and social service professionals are to acknowledge a common model that explains the stress and coping experiences from different ethnic groups, and to address cultural elements (e.g., emphasis on family cohesion) in their practice with Chinese background families with a dementia relative.