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Pastoral Care for the Spiritual and Mental Health of Elderly Korean American Christians: Confronting Ageism Through Autobiography Groups

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Pastoral Care in a Korean American Context

Part of the book series: Asian Christianity in the Diaspora ((ACID))

Abstract

Korean American elderly immigrants have the highest rate of depression among the five main elderly Asian immigrant groups (Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Korean). Their Confucian cultural identity and orientation lead them to experience more acculturative stresses and identity chaos when they experience racism and ageism because they believe that, based on their old age, they should be respected by others. The dual discrimination of racism and ageism damages their cultural and spiritual identities and their sense of dignity as children of God, and this prevents them from finding and making meaning from their immigrant lives. This chapter explores the negative effects of racism and ageism on this population and suggests pastoral strategies to deal with these effects.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 29.

  2. 2.

    Jamie M. Ferreira, Kierkegaard (Malden, MA; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 152.

  3. 3.

    Beabout, Freedom and Its Misuses: Kierkegaard on Anxiety and Despair (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1996), 87.

  4. 4.

    Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 29–30.

  5. 5.

    Robert N. Butler, “Dispelling Ageism: The Cross-Cutting Intervention,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 503 (May, 1989): 139. Most materials on ageism assert that Butler coined the term ageism in 1969, but he clearly states in this article that the term was coined in 1968.

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Robert N. Butler, “Ageism: A Foreword,” Journal of Social Issues 36, no. 2 (Spring, 1980): 8.

  9. 9.

    Butler, “Dispelling Ageism,” 139.

  10. 10.

    Jody A. Wilkinson and Kenneth F. Ferraro, “Thirty Years of Ageism Research,” in Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons, ed. Todd D. Nelson (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 339.

  11. 11.

    Liat Ayalon and Clemens Tesch-Römer, “Introduction to the Section: Ageism—Concept and Origins,” in Contemporary Perspectives on Ageism, eds. Liat Ayalon and Clemens Tesch-Römer (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 1.

  12. 12.

    Butler, “Dispelling Ageism,” 138.

  13. 13.

    Butler, “Ageism: A Foreword,” 8.

  14. 14.

    Butler, “Dispelling Ageism,” 138.

  15. 15.

    Robert N. Butler, “Age-ism: Another Form of Bigotry,” Gerontologist 9 (1969): 243.

  16. 16.

    Todd D. Nelson, ed. Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), ix.

  17. 17.

    Valerie Braithwaite, “Reducing Ageism,” in Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons, ed. Todd D. Nelson (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 327.

  18. 18.

    Mary E. Kite and Lisa Smith Wagner, “Attitudes toward Older Adults,” in Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons, ed. Todd D. Nelson (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 130.

  19. 19.

    Amy J. C. Cuddy and Susan T. Fiske, “Doddering but Dear: Process, Content, and Function in Stereotyping of Older Persons,” in Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons, ed. Todd D. Nelson (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 3.

  20. 20.

    Cruikshank, Learning to Be Old: Gender Culture, and Aging, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 140.

  21. 21.

    Thomas M. Hess, “Attitudes toward Aging and Their Effects on Behavior,” in Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, eds. James E. Birren, et al. (Boston: Elsevier Academic Press, 2006), 387.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    Cruikshank, Learning to Be Old, 166.

  24. 24.

    John W. Berry, “Acculturation: A Conceptual Overview,” in Acculturation and Parent-Child Relationships: Measurement and Development, eds. Marc H. Bornstein and Linda R. Cote (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2006), 13.

  25. 25.

    John W. Berry, “Stress Perspectives on Acculturation,” in Acculturation: Conceptual Background and Core Components, eds. David L. Sam and John W. Berry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 43.

  26. 26.

    Young-Me Lee, “Immigration Experience among Elderly Korean Immigrants,” Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 14, no. 4 (2007): 403–404.

  27. 27.

    Lee, “Immigration Experience among Elderly Korean Immigrants,” 125–126.

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Kunsook Song Bernstein et al., “Acculturation, Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms among Korean Immigrants in New York City,” Community Ment Health Journal 47, no. 1 (2011): 25.

  30. 30.

    Schwartz et al., “Rethinking the Concept of Acculturation: Implications for Theory and Research,” American Psychologist 65, no. 4 (2010), 241.

  31. 31.

    Ibid, 242.

  32. 32.

    Kane, Green, and Jacobs, “Pastoral Care Professionals in Health and Mental Health Care: Recognizing Classic and Newer Versions of Ageism,” Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling 65 no. 4 (2011): 2.

  33. 33.

    Nan Sook Park et al., “An Empirical Typology of Social Networks and Its Association with Physical and Mental Health: A Study with Older Korean Immigrants,” Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 70, no. 1 (2015): 68.

  34. 34.

    In Korean traditional architecture, Ondol is an underfloor heating system that uses direct heat transfer from wood smoke to heat the underside of a thick masonry floor. In modern usage, it refers to any type of underfloor heating, or to a hotel or a sleeping room in Korean (as opposed to Western) style (Wikipedia 2018).

  35. 35.

    Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 54, 147.

  36. 36.

    Cynthia Kellam Stinson, “Structured Group Reminiscence: An Intervention for Older Adults,” The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 40, no. 11 (2009): 526.

  37. 37.

    James E. Birren and Donna E. Deutchman, Guiding Autobiography Groups for Older Adults: Exploring the Fabric of Life, Johns Hopkins Series in Contemporary Medicine and Public Health (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 14.

  38. 38.

    Birren and Deutchman, Guiding Autobiography Groups, 3.

  39. 39.

    Birren and Deutchman, Guiding Autobiography Groups, 55.

  40. 40.

    James E. Birren and Kathryn N. Cochran, Telling the Stories of Life through Guided Autobiography Groups (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 55–135.

  41. 41.

    Dagmar Grefe, “Combating Ageism with Narrative and Intergroup Contact: Possibilities of Intergenerational Connections,” Pastoral Psychology 60, no. 1 (2011): 101.

  42. 42.

    Ibid, 102.

  43. 43.

    Sheri R. Levy, “Toward Reducing Ageism: PEACE (Positive Education about Aging and Contact Experiences) Model,” The Gerontologist 58, no. 2 (2018): 226.

  44. 44.

    Ibid, 228.

  45. 45.

    Ibid, 229.

  46. 46.

    Ashely Lytle and Sheri R. Levy, “Reducing Ageism: Education about Aging and Extended Contact with Older Adults,” The Gerontologist 59, no. 3 (2019): 581.

  47. 47.

    Butler, “Age-ism,” 244.

  48. 48.

    Grefe, “Combating Ageism,” 103.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Butler, “Dispelling Ageism,” 138.

  51. 51.

    Hess, “Attitudes toward Aging,” 388.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Presbyterian Theological Seminary in America, Santa Fe Springs, CA, USA

    Yong Hwan Kim

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  1. Psychology and Religion, Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA

    Angella Son

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Kim, Y.H. (2020). Pastoral Care for the Spiritual and Mental Health of Elderly Korean American Christians: Confronting Ageism Through Autobiography Groups. In: Son, A. (eds) Pastoral Care in a Korean American Context. Asian Christianity in the Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48575-7_5

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