Cultural and Ethnic Perspectives on Enhancing Resilience in Aging

This chapter shows that comprehensive research on resilience and aging would benefit from an examination and inclusion of cultural and ethnic perspectives relevant to older people. It shows the heterogeneity in resilience of older people as well as the cultural and ethnic perspectives in what older people will need addressed to be resilient in their lives. It also reveals that the older individual within a cultural or ethnic group is not a common stereotype, but still much their own person. Health and human service providers who interact with an older person must adjust their responses to that individual by taking into consideration the person’s level of resilience, culture, and ethnicity. More research in cultural and ethno-gerontology is required in order to better understand the diverse aging population and their current resilience and future needs. Forthcoming research on resilience and aging would benefit from a comprehensive and systematic approach by navigating the multi- dimensional perspectives of resilience at the individual, community, and cultural levels for intervention.