Family Living Arrangement and Social Adjustment among Three Ethnic Groups of Elderly Indochinese Refugees

Abstract

This study examines family living arrangement and social adjustment in an area probability sample of 258 elderly Indochinese refugees fifty-five years or older in the United States. Data were collected in 1982 from five locations representing the diversity of the Indochinese refugee communities in the United States. Multiple regression analysis was used. The findings reveal that elderly refugees who lived within the nuclear or extended family had a better sense of social adjustment than those living outside the family context. Elderly refugees who lived in overcrowded households and in households that had children under the age of sixteen experienced a poorer sense of adjustment. Ethnicity had no significant relationship with social adjustment. Finally, among six control variables, age had a significant relationship that indicates that older refugees had a poorer sense of adjustment than their younger counterparts.