Content area
Full Text
Abstract: The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans' attitudes and practices about death, dying, and bereavement. To this end, three focus groups were conducted with social work graduate students, pastors and religious leaders, and service providers working in the Chinese American community in New York City. The United States is becoming increasingly multicultural, and Chinese Americans are the most rapidly growing Asian American group. Findings from this study revealed that many Chinese attitudes and practices about death and dying are rooted in Asian cultural values such as filial piety, centrality of the family, and emphasis of hierarchy. In addition, strains of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and local folklore are embedded in these death attitudes and practices. Based on themes extrapolated from the focus groups, recommendations are delineated for service providers in order to implement culturally-sensitive bereavement practices.
Key Words: Chinese and death and dying, bereavement, Asian Americans, death attitudes, death rituals
A death attitude is a belief system which is comprised of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components that reflect individuals' attitudes related to death, dying, suicide, bereavement, and euthanasia (Kastenbaum and Aisenberg, 1972). Many assume that death concepts are universal, and therefore, death attitudes and rituals vary minimally throughout the world. However, the experience and expression of grief are shaped by the social context (Rosenblatt, 1988). In Kalish and Reynolds' (1976) study, ethnicity attributed the greatest differences in beliefs about death and not other demographic dimensions such as age, gender, or education. Eisenbruch (1984, pp. 315) argued that descriptions of bereavement practices are often portrayed in a static manner, providing a "frozen picture of a living culture." It is crucial to take these snapshots over a period of time to depict the evolving state of the culture, which can reveal the cultural history of a particular cultural group. This information can be used by service providers to understand the context of their clients grief, symptoms of any atypical grief, and developing interventions that are culturally-sensitive.
The goal of this qualitative research study is to describe Chinese Americans' beliefs and practices regarding death and dying. To this end, focus groups were conducted in order to provide a glimpse into how participants construct a specific experience, how they think,...