Feeling the squeeze? The effects of combining work and informal caregiving on psychological well-being

Hansen, Thomas; Slagsvold, Britt

doi:10.1007/s10433-014-0315-y

Cited by 47 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Clearly, the availability of more part-time job opportunities in the economy and smoother transitions from full-time to part-time jobs would not make grandparents care for their grandchildren more often. These structural conditions may, however, make grandparental childcare-if grandparents decide to provide it to their grandchildren-a less stressful and more easily manageable experience (see e.g., Morrow-Howell et al 2005; but see also Hansen and Slagsvold 2014). This may apply most strongly in societies in which intense grandparenting is expected as a result of strong familialistic norms and yet in which only limited numbers of part-time jobs exist.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full-time versus part-time employment: Does it influence frequency of grandparental childcare?

Lakomý

Kreidl

2015

Eur J Ageing

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The impact of grandparents' employment on grandparental childcare has been examined repeatedly, but the findings have so far been inconsistent. We contend that these inconsistencies may have resulted from variations in model specification and crude measurement of employment status. Furthermore, we assert that earlier research overlooked gender differences in the ability to combine paid employment and caregiving as well as variations between maternal and paternal grandparents. We also question the causal interpretation of earlier findings that were based on cross-sectional data. We revisit the issue of the impact of the intensity of employment and analyze SHARE data from 19 countries. We find a significant positive association between part-time employment (as compared to full-time employment) and the frequency of grandparental childcare in a cross-sectional sample, but only among paternal grandmothers. Capitalizing on the panel component of SHARE, we use a within-person estimator to show that this association is unlikely to reflect a causal effect of the intensity of labor market attachment on the frequency of the care of grandchildren, but more probably results from omitted variable bias. We argue that grandparents most likely to provide (intensive) childcare are also most likely to adjust their employment in anticipation of caregiving. The paper documents the usefulness of role strain theory among grandparents and highlights that part-time jobs may reduce role conflict and may thus make grandparenting a more easily manageable experience.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full-time versus part-time employment: Does it influence frequency of grandparental childcare?

Lakomý

Kreidl

2015

Eur J Ageing

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“…help with dressing or bathing (cf. Amirkhanyan and Wolf 2003, 2006; Hansen and Slagsvold 2015; Hansen et al 2013; Wolf et al 2015). Providing personal care is more intensive and less routine than help with, for instance, shopping or household chores (Walker et al 1995), and might therefore be expected to be more stressful and more strongly linked to feelings of loneliness (cf.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Providing personal care is more intensive and less routine than help with, for instance, shopping or household chores (Walker et al 1995), and might therefore be expected to be more stressful and more strongly linked to feelings of loneliness (cf. Hansen and Slagsvold 2015; Pearlin et al 1990). Respondents were asked: “During the last twelve months, have you helped someone regularly with personal care tasks, for example, with eating, getting out of bed, getting dressed, bathing, or going to the toilet?”.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France

Broek

Grundy

2018

Eur J Ageing

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We investigate how daughters’ feelings of loneliness are impacted when widowed parents develop health limitations, and when daughters take on personal care tasks in response. Using longitudinal data from daughters of widowed parents drawn from the French Family and Intergenerational Relationships Study (ERFI, 1485 observations nested in 557 daughters), we assess (a) whether health limitations of widowed parents are associated with daughters’ feelings of loneliness regardless of whether or not daughters provide personal care and (b) whether there is an effect of care provision on loneliness that cannot be explained by parental health limitations. Fixed effect regression analyses show that widowed parents’ health limitations were associated with raised feelings of loneliness among their daughters. No significant additional effect of providing personal care to a widowed parent was found. Prior research on the impact of health limitations of older parents on the lives of their adult–children has focused mostly on issues related to informal caregiving. Our findings suggest that more attention to the psychosocial impact of parental health limitations—net of actual caregiving—on adult children’s lives is warranted.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10433-018-0459-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…The protective effects of working may result from the social resources involved in gainful employment, e.g. support received from colleagues or employers (Hansen and Slagsvold, 2015). However, informal caring along with full-time work may also imply a double burden and exacerbate the negative health consequences of caregiving (Schmitz and Stroka, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Caring Alone? Social Capital and the Mental Health of Caregivers

Thiel

2016

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research at DIW BerlinThis series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science.The decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. AbstractThis study analyzes the role of social capital in buffering the negative relationship between informal-care provision and mental health. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and fixed-effect regression models, we show that those individuals who socialize more frequently enjoy better mental health. We also find that stronger social ties moderate the negative association between caregiving and mental well-being. The protective role of social capital appears to be particularly strong for caregivers with high time commitments or those who regularly perform voluntary work. The moderating role of social activities can neither be explained by the caregiver's observed characteristics correlated with social capital, nor by features of the caregiving process. However, the results might be driven by insufficient overlap in covariates between carers and non-carers, and the simultaneity between caring decisions and social activities. We relate our results to recent policy initiatives that aim to improve the carer's well-being. U...

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Feeling the squeeze? The effects of combining work and informal caregiving on psychological well-being

Cited by 47 publications

References 32 publications

Full-time versus part-time employment: Does it influence frequency of grandparental childcare?

Full-time versus part-time employment: Does it influence frequency of grandparental childcare?

Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France

Caring Alone? Social Capital and the Mental Health of Caregivers

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