Culture-Relevant Functional Performance Assessment of the Hispanic Elderly

Abstract

Because the Hispanic population is growing, there is a need for a reliable and valid functional assessment that is not culturally biased for white North Americans and that incorporates culture-relevant tasks for this large minority group. The Assessment for Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) (Fisher, 1993) is a unique evaluation tool that appears to meet that need. The AMPS consists of two scales (motor and process) that are assumed to be universal taxonomies that are free from cultural bias. This study was designed to investigate whether four Hispanic-culture-relevant tasks could be added to the AMPS as task choices and whether the AMPS could be used as a sensitive cross-cultural assessment for Hispanic elderly.

Hispanic older adults performed two Hispanic-culture-relevant tasks and two culture-free tasks. Both goodness-of-fit among tasks and the performance of Hispanic subjects compared with North American subjects who had performed the same culture-free tasks were evaluated. The results indicated that (a) the Hispanic subjects' response patterns were consistent with response patterns of the North American subjects, and (b) the four Hispanic-culture-relevant tasks showed the same psychometric characteristics as previously established AMPS tasks. These findings support the potential to further develop the AMPS as a sensitive cross-cultural assessment for the Hispanic elderly.

Keywords

culture function IADL

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amrhein

P. C.

Stelmach

G. E.

, & Goggin

N. L.

(1991). Age differences in the maintenance and restructuring of movement preparation. Psychology and Aging, 6, 451–466.

Andrich

(1988). Rasch models of measurement. Sage University paper series pm quantitative applications in the social sciences, 07–068. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Becerra

R. M.

, & Shaw

(1984). The Hispanic elderly: A research reference guide. New York: University Press of America.

Botwinick

(1984). Aging and behavior, 3rd ed. New York: Springer.

Csikszentmihalyi

, & Rochberg-Halton

(1981). The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. Boston: Cambridge University Press.

Dickerson

A. E.

, & Fisher

A. G.

(1993). Age differences in functional performance. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 47.

Fisher

A. G.

(1990). Assessment of motor and process skills (research edition 5). Unpublished test manual. Chicago: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Fisher

A. G.

(1993). Assessment of motor and process skills (research edition 6.2). Unpublished test manual. Fort Collins, CO: Department of Occupational Therapy, Colorado State University.

Fisher

A. G.

(1994). Development of a functional assessment that adjusts ability measures for task simplicity and rater leniency. In Wilson

(Ed.), Objective measurement: Theory into practice (Vol. 2), 145–175. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

10.

Fisher

A. G.

(1993). The assessment of IADL motor skills: An application of many-faceted Rasch analysis. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 47, 319–329.

11.

Fisher

A. G.

Liu

Velozo

C. A.

, & Pan

A. W.

(1992). Cross-cultural assessment of process skills. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 46, 876–885.

12.

Hale

Smith

Myerson

, & Poon

(1988). Age, variability, and speed: Between subjects diversity. Psychology and Aging, 3, 407–410.

13.

Hambleton

R. K.

(1989). Principles and selected applications of item response theory. In Linn

R. L.

(Ed.), Educational measurement (pp. 147–200). New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing.

14.

Hess

T. M.

, & Slaughter

S. J.

(1986a). Aging effects on pro-type abstraction and concept identification. Journal of Gerontology, 41, 214–221.

15.

Hess

T. A.

, & Slaughter

S. J.

(1986b). Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults. Psychology and Aging, 1, 202–207.

16.

Hopkins

H. L.

, & Tiffany

E. G.

(1983). Occupational therapy—a problem solving process. In Hopkins

H. L.

, & Smith

H. D.

(Eds.), Willard and Spackman's occupational therapy (6th ed., pp. 92–99). Philadelphia: Lippincott.

17.

Kastenbaum

(1985). Psychological aspects. In Maguire

G. H.

(Ed.), Care of the elderly: A health team approach. Boston: Little, Brown.

18.

Kausler

D. H.

(1982). Experimental psychology and human aging. New York: Wiley.

19.

Levy

L. L.

(1986). Sensory changes and compensation. In Davis

, & Kirkland

(Eds.), The role of occupational therapy with the elderly. Rockville, MD: American Occupational Therapy Association.

20.

Lunz

M. E.

, & Stahl

J. A.

(1990). Judge consistency and severity across grading periods. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 13, 425–444.

21.

Linacre

J. M.

(1988). FACETS: Computer program for many-faceted Rasch measurement. Chicago: MESA Press.

22.

Linacre

J. M.

(1989). Many-faceted Rasch measurement. Chicago: MESA Press.

23.

Magalhaes

L. C.

Fisher

A. G.

, & Bernspång

(1993). [Developing the AMPS as a cross-cultural assessment]. Unpublished raw data.

24.

McCracken

(1987). Culture and consumption among the elderly: Three research objectives in an emerging field. Aging and Society, 7, 203–224.

25.

Puglisi

J. T.

Park

D. C.

Smith

A. D.

, & Dudley

W. N.

(1988). Age differences in encoding specificity. Journal of Gerontology, 43, 145–150.

26.

Rogler

L. H.

Cortes

D. E.

, & Malgady

R. G.

(1991). Acculturation and mental status among Hispanics: Convergence and new directions for research. American Psychologist, 46, 585–597.

27.

Salthouse

T. A.

(1985). A theory of cognitive aging. New York: Elsevier Science Publishing.

28.

Salthouse

T. A.

, & Prill

K. A.

(1987). Inferences about age impairments in inferential reasoning. Psychology and Aging, 2, 43–51.

29.

Simon

J. R.

, & Pouraghabagher

A. R.

(1978). The effect of aging on the stages of processing in a choice reaction time task. Journal of Gerontology, 33, 553–561.

30.

Spirduso

W. W.

(1980). Physical fitness, aging and psychomotor speed: A review. Journal of Gerontology, 35, 850–865.

31.

Stelmach

G. E.

Armhein

P. C.

, & Goggin

N. C.

(1988). Age differences in bimanual coordination. Journal of Gerontology, 43, 18–23.

32.

Teresi

J. A.

Cross

P. S.

, & Golden

R. R.

(1989). Some applications of latent trait analysis to the measurements of ADL. Journal of Geronotology, 44, 196–204.

33.

Welford

A. T.

(1984). Psychomotor performance. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 4, 237–273.

34.

Woollacott

Shumway-Cook A.

, & Nashner

L. M.

(1986). Aging and posture control changes in sensory organization and muscular coordination. Aging and Human Development, 23, 97–115.

35.

Wright

B. D.

, & Masters

G. N.

(1982). Rating Scale Analysis. Chicago: MESA Press.

36.

Wright

B. D.

, & Stone

M. H.

(1979). Best Test Design. Chicago: MESA Press.