Social service utilization among Asian Indian elderly: Influence of informal support networks

The informal networks of the Asian Indian elderly are in a state of realignment as the social forces mold and shape new realities in their lives as immigrants in the United States. Informal networks and the elderly\u27s utilization of social services, though have received a good deal of attention, less is known about the Asian Indian elderly. This study investigated the influence of informal networks on the service utilization of the Asian Indian elderly living in the New York Metropolitan area. A non-probability purposive sampling of 151 Asian Indian elderly living in the New York Metropolitan area was used to select subjects for this study. As expected, informal support, and multigenerational households, marital status, practice of tradition, and practice of family values were found to be most significant to service utilization. Discriminant analysis showed informal support as the critical variable in transportation service utilization; and length of stay in the United States and multigenerational households in IADL service utilization. The findings were consistent with Litwak\u27s complementary model of linkage between primary groups and formal systems