Family Supports in Later Life: Does Ethnicity Make a Difference?1

A lack of conceptual clarity has hampered research on ethnicity and family supports in later life. Ethnicity has been variously conceptualized as: culture; inequality; and traditional ways of thinking and behaving. Each conception leads to a distinctive model of aging in ethnic families. The implications of these conceptions are discussed. It is argued that the dimensions of culture, structure, and behavior must be kept conceptually and …