Alienation of Elderly Korean American Immigrants as Related to Place of Residence,Gender,Age,Years of Education,Time in the U.S.,Living with or without Children,and Living with or without a Spouse

Abstract

Dean's Alienation Scale (DAS) was administered to 137 Korean immigrants, aged sixty years or older, who had resided in the United States for at least one year but not more than fifteen years. The study was made in order to determine the relationship of alienation to the independent variables of place of residence (an ethnically homogeneous Korean community in Los Angeles vs. ethnically heterogeneous communities in Oklahoma), gender, age, years of education, time in the United States, living with or without children, and living with or without a spouse. Significant relationships (p < .01) were found between one or more of the subscales of the DAS (powerlessness, normlessness, social isolation, and total alienation) and place of residence, age, time in the United States, and whether living with or without a spouse. Simultaneous regression analyses were performed to determine the relative contribution of the independent variables to each of the subscales.