DEATH AND DYING IN 4 ASIAN-AMERICAN CULTURES - A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Among ethnic minorities, the Asian and Pacific islander (API) American group is the fastest growing, and, as a whole, is quite longevous. Al though there is a significant literature on the history and religious traditions of API cultures, little has been published on death rituals and beliefs of the American descendants of these groups. The purpose of this study was to begin to explore cultural variations in response to the process of dying and grieving among four Asian American populat ions-Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Filipino. To this end, key inf ormants and focus group interviews were conducted with members of thes e ethnic groups, and significant differences among, and within, groups were found. The small size and Hawaiian base of the sample preclude g eneralization of findings to the United States as a whole. However, th is study provides health care workers with information that can increa se their awareness of and sensitivity to Asian American approaches to death and dying.