Gender Roles, Marital Intimacy, and Nomination of Spouse as Primary Caregiver

Abstract

Using data from a sample of married men and women undergoing treatment for cancer, we tested two potential hypotheses for the unequal representation of husbands and wives as spousal caregivers, including societal gender role norms and emotional closeness in the marital relationship. Multivariate analyses support both hypotheses; wives are only one third as likely as husbands to select their spouses as caregivers, and spouses who name their mates as confidants are three times more likely than those who do not to also name them as caregivers. We conclude that although gender role norms are key to caregiver selection, the intimacy inherent in the caregiving role renders an emotionally close marriage an important criterion to the selection of spouse as caregiver.

Paid and unpaid support received by co-resident informal caregivers attending to community-dwelling older adults in Spain

“…Unlike previous results from North America (Hong 2010), but in agreement with previous results for Finland (Blomgren et al 2008), the results suggest (P value \ 0.1) that spouses have a lower probability of receiving paid support than distant relatives in Spain. This is accounted for by the lower degree of commitment and intimacy of distant relatives in comparison to spouses (Allen et al 1999). The results also suggest that when controlling for other relevant factors, spouses tend to receive more hours of paid support than do children caregivers.…”

Caregiver satisfaction with out-patient oncology services: utility of the FAMCARE instrument and development of the FAMCARE-6

“…A survey of 742 women in midlife in New Zealand found that 12% were involved in the care of another person with a chronic health disorder, and about a third of the carers were supporting more than one person [16]. Wives are only one third as likely as husbands to select their spouses as caregivers [17]. In a US study of terminally ill populations, 72.1% of the care givers were women, and primary care givers were family members in 96.0% of cases [1].…”

Anxiety, Depression And Burnout Levels In Caregivers Of Stroke Patients In A Rehabilitation Hospital

“…[21][22][23] Young caregivers receive less social support than their older counterparts, which is also associated with an increased caregiving burden. [24] Women, especially younger ones, perceive caregiving negatively compared with older men, and they report experiencing more psychological difficulties, even when factors such as the health status of the patient and the level of caregiving were under control. [25,26] As confirmed in many studies, including that performed by Marques et al, [27] the presence of chronic disease increases symptoms of anxiety and depression in caregivers.…”