Harmonizing Beliefs With Realities: Social Support Among Older Puerto Ricans With Disabilities

What is it about?

This study aims to understand the informal social support experiences of older Puerto Ricans with disabilities. Data are based on the translated transcripts of 25 interviews with Spanish-speaking, Island-born Puerto Ricans living in Boston. The discussion of the findings is divided into four sections, which we call "themes," given the type of data analysis used: (1) Making sense of responsibility within valued familial relationships; (2) Conceptualizing friends as family; (3) Finding resolve and meaning despite isolation; and (4) (Not) asking for help. These themes delineate an incongruence between their beliefs and their lived experiences of social support, as well as how this contradiction is sometimes harmonized.

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