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A Cross-Cultural Comparison and its Implications for the Well-Being of Older Parents
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the concept of filial piety in Chinese culture and American culture and to discuss the relationship between expectations of filial piety and the well-being of older adults. In both cultures, filial piety is a socially approved virtue and contains attributes of respecting, caring for, and loving the parents. The differences include: obedience versus confrontation of parents; limited versus unlimited responsibility to parents; and a difference in the concept of legitimate support. Based on previous literature, the relationship between the expectations of filial piety and parents' well-being was explored, and nursing implications were suggested. Nonetheless, there is no single intervention that could fit all clients from one culture. Nurses need to examine to what extent clients value their culture of origin.
The family is the major provider of care for older adults (Dai, 1995; Linsey, Dodd, & Chen, 1985). Culture specifies the roles and functions of each member in the family and decides who the family caregiver should be and how the care should be given. Filial piety is an important cultural concept that influences family caregiving to elderly parents (Sung, 1995). However, filial piety has been a relatively underexplored topic in gerontological literature. Based on a review of literature, the concepts of filial piety in traditional Chinese culture and American culture are compared and contrasted, and the implications of filial piety for the well-being of elderly individuals are discussed. This article offers valuable information regarding parental care in different cultural contexts for practitioners and researchers.
The concept of filial piety can be addressed from the children's or from the parents' perspectives. "Filial responsibility" refers to the children's perspective, and "expectation of filial piety" refers to the parents' perspective. Filial responsibility is a set of role concepts regarding how a child should treat a parent (Sung, 1992). Filial responsibility is learned through socialization and can be modified continuously throughout an individual's developmental or acculturation process (Yang, Yeh, & Huang, 1988). Expectation of filial piety is the parents' perception of how children should treat them and care for them. Both the children's and parents' perspectives of filial piety may affect the children's performance...