The role of environmental awareness and support networks in Hispanic elderly persons' use of formal social services

Abstract

A significant issue in Hispanic kinship research is determining the importance of source and frequency of informal support, frequency of quasi-formal support, and the amount of environmental awareness in relationship to the utilization of formal social services by the Hispanic elderly. This study examines the relationships among awareness of environmental information; background characteristics; and quasi-formal, informal, and formal social support systems of the Hispanic elderly. The results indicate that environmental awareness was the strongest direct predictor of formal services use, followed by need, family income, and ethnicity. Structural variables such as source and frequency of support were important in explaining how the Hispanic elderly acquire their knowledge about the environment. Moreover, the old/old and young/old elderly appear to have different avenues of instrumental support.