The caregiving role and the effects of that role on caregivers in the rapidly growing minority, the Korean-American family were examined. Data were gathered by an in-depth, semi-structured interview in conjunction with standardized measures including Cognitive Deficit Scale, Caregiving Involvement Scale, CES-D Scale, and Caregiver Burden Scale to assess the caregiver reactions to the caregiving role. A convenience sample of 30 Korean immigrant adult children or elderly spouses were selected for this study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by the investigator in Korean at each caregiver's home. The interviews were tape-recorded and translated to English for data analysis.

The findings revealed that caregivers with more children left in Korea, family conflict, economic strain, limited family assistance, and an unhappy marriage appeared to have experienced more depressive symptoms. The caregiver's descriptions of the presence of depressive symptoms were consistent with their CES-D scores. Furthermore, family conflict, an unhappy marriage, caregiver health status, assistance from adult children, multiple roles, care recipient cognitive level, caregiver involvement in patient care, and the presence of high depressive symptoms have links to feeling of burden among Korean-American caregivers.