{"title":"A Malady with No Name: Understanding Experiences of Depression Among Older Hmong Refugees.","authors":"Mai See Yang, Jan E Mutchler","doi":"10.1007/s10823-021-09431-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We interviewed older Hmong refugees in the U.S. to understand how they experience and define depression. Methods. Data were collected in California (N = 20). The study sample included Hmong immigrants aged 55 and over. The qualitative method allowed for an in-depth understanding of events that occurred throughout the participants' life course and how these events impacted depression in later life. Results. The participants' conceptualization of depression was defined with reference to their lived experiences. Three main conceptualizations emerged: behavioral descriptions of depression, mental or emotional descriptions, and physical descriptions of depression. The use of personal examples to describe depression was common. Our findings suggest that this sample's understanding of depression may not be fully captured by conventional measurement and thus more work is needed to develop a measure of depression that aligns with these respondents' descriptions.</p>","PeriodicalId":46921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology","volume":"36 2","pages":"217-228"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10823-021-09431-1","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-021-09431-1","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2021/6/9 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We interviewed older Hmong refugees in the U.S. to understand how they experience and define depression. Methods. Data were collected in California (N = 20). The study sample included Hmong immigrants aged 55 and over. The qualitative method allowed for an in-depth understanding of events that occurred throughout the participants' life course and how these events impacted depression in later life. Results. The participants' conceptualization of depression was defined with reference to their lived experiences. Three main conceptualizations emerged: behavioral descriptions of depression, mental or emotional descriptions, and physical descriptions of depression. The use of personal examples to describe depression was common. Our findings suggest that this sample's understanding of depression may not be fully captured by conventional measurement and thus more work is needed to develop a measure of depression that aligns with these respondents' descriptions.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology is an international and interdisciplinary journal providing a forum for scholarly discussion of the aging process and issues of the aged throughout the world. The journal emphasizes discussions of research findings, theoretical issues, and applied approaches and provides a comparative orientation to the study of aging in cultural contexts The core of the journal comprises a broad range of articles dealing with global aging, written from the perspectives of history, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, population studies, health/biology, etc. We welcome articles that examine aging within a particular cultural context, compare aging and older adults across societies, and/or compare sub-cultural groupings or ethnic minorities within or across larger societies. Comparative analyses of topics relating to older adults, such as aging within socialist vs. capitalist systems or within societies with different social service delivery systems, also are appropriate for this journal. With societies becoming ever more multicultural and experiencing a `graying'' of their population on a hitherto unprecedented scale, the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology stands at the forefront of one of the most pressing issues of our times.