Prevalence and Risk Factors of Financial Maltreatment in Chinese American Elders in a Southwest Metropolitan Area

Background and Purpose: Financial maltreatment of elders tends to be reported to Adult Protective Services or law enforcement officers less than other types of elder maltreatment as it accounts for 13% to 20% of all maltreatment allegations. Moreover, studies on financial maltreatment are not as common as those on other types of elder maltreatment, possibly due to the difficulties of defining what constitutes or substantializes financial maltreatment. Immigrant elders may be more vulnerable to financial maltreatment due to the specific historical and cultural reasons such as lack of access to or trust of formal services. The fact that about 80% of the older Chinese population was foreign-born and one third immigrated to the U.S. after the age of 60 indicates an influence of Chinese culture on their perceptions of financial maltreatment. This study examined the perceptions of financial maltreatment encompassing financial neglect (i.e., non-doing) and financial exploitation (i.e., wrongdoing) and its risk factors in a group of 325 Chinese American adults age 60 or above living in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Method: This study first used focus group discussions to help understand what comprises financial maltreatment in this population. With the input from three focus groups of 17 older Chinese volunteers and one group of 6 service professionals, survey questionnaires were refined and then delivered through face-to-face interviews to 325 participants (Mage = 75.6, SD = 7.0)  in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Participants were asked whether a family member has committed a specific act or non-act that had cause financial loss on them. Financial exploitation was measured by nine questions (e.g., stealing money); financial neglect was measured by three questions (e.g., not helping with medical bills upon request).

Results: Overall, 9.8% of participants reported at least one financial maltreatment act occurred to them. Specifically, 9.2% reported at least one financial abusive act inflicted on them; and 1.5% reported financial neglect. At bi-variate levels, lower family cohesion, more depressive symptoms, and lower levels of acculturation were related to higher likelihood of financial exploitation; more financial difficulties, lower family cohesion and more depressive symptoms were related to higher likelihood of financial neglect. In multivariate models controlling for all related factors, elders with lower acculturation levels were more likely to experience financial exploitation; those with more perceived financial difficulties and lower family cohesion were more likely to experience financial neglect.

Conclusions and Implications: The percentage (9.8%) of financial maltreatment in this sample was slightly higher than that in a national sample of general elder population (5.2%) (Acierno et al., 2010), suggesting a further need to examine and then address financial maltreatment in Chinese American elder population. The high risk of financial exploitation due to lower acculturation levels suggests a practice focus on those recently immigrated elders. Although the prevalence of financial neglect appeared low (1.5%), it seems to be a distinctive cultural phenomenon worth more research and practice attention. Understanding what is culturally expected financial support of adult children is essential to addressing the financial neglect puzzle in Chinese American elders.