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Article
Causal Attributions of Dementia among Korean American Immigrants
Journal of Gerontological Social Work (2010)
  • Sang E. Lee, San Jose State University
  • Sadhna Diwan, San Jose State University
  • Gwen Yeo, Stanford University
Abstract
To better understand conceptualizations of dementia, this study explored causal attributions of dementia among 209 Korean Americans, using a self-administered questionnaire in Korean. Findings show that Korean Americans endorsed various causal attributions. Factor analysis yielded 3 dimensions of their attributions including psychological, physical/environmental, and cognitive/social. Bivariate analyses showed that younger age and higher education were related to more physical/environmental attributions, and younger age was related to more cognitive/social attributions. The study provides an understanding of causal attributions of dementia that practitioners need to understand to provide culturally competent practice and highlights a need to customize public education messages by specific ethnic groups
Keywords
  • Dementia,
  • causal attributions,
  • Korean Americans,
  • culture,
  • explanatory model
Disciplines
Publication Date
2010
DOI
10.1080/01634372.2010.515290
Citation Information
Sang E. Lee, Sadhna Diwan and Gwen Yeo. "Causal Attributions of Dementia among Korean American Immigrants" Journal of Gerontological Social Work Vol. 53 Iss. 8 (2010) p. 743 - 759 ISSN: 0163-4372
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sadhna_diwan/3/