On Life Satisfaction of Ethnic Minority Older Adults

According to the International Population Reports (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001), our global population, including the United States and other nations, is growing old and aging at an extraordinary rate. Some socio-demographic and psychosocial variables are predictable as contributing factors in the level of life satisfaction among the Korean American and Korean older adults. This study analyzed the data of 776 participants aged 60 and older (390 Korean Americans in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York, USA; and 386 Koreans in Seoul, South Korea) collected by a group administration of the survey and/or an individual interview method. The differences between the two groups are influenced by social, economic, and cultural environments. Above all, this study will be intellectually challenging to students and scholars majoring social work and other social sciences alike, and that it will encourage you, the reader, to question some of your most deeply held assumptions about why older people perceive the way that they think and to better understand the pattern of various factors on their life satisfaction.