Abstract
At some point in our adult lives, most of us will face challenges of caregiving. For many, the issue will come up several times, either when we need to be cared for by others or when a parent, spouse, sibling or adult child becomes ill or disabled and needs care. National studies estimate that currently 44 million, or 21% of the adult population, representing 21% of U.S. households, are providing unpaid care to an ill or disabled adult (AARP 2005). The need for informal, unpaid care work has grown in recent decades and is expected to continue to grow with an aging population. For example, between 1987 and 1998 the population 65 and older increased from approximately 28 to 34 million. Corresponding with this increase, the number of individuals providing care rose from 7.8 to 22% of adults (Wagner 1997). The need for care has been tempered by declining rates of disability, but there is some evidence that disability rates may be on the upswing because of increasing rates of obesity (Lakdawalla et al. 2004). Informal (and unpaid) care is also a critical component of the U.S. health care system, particularly long-term care. Among those needing long-term care, 40% rely solely on informal, unpaid care and 25% use a combination of informal and formal care (Uhlenberg and Cheuk 2008).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
AARP. 2005. “Caregiving in the United States.” AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving. Washington, D.C.
Abel, Emily. 1986. “Adult Daughters and Care for the Elderly.” Feminist Studies 12:479–98.
Amirkhanyan, Anna A. and Douglas A. Wolf. 2006. “Parent Care and the Stress Process.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 61B:S248–55.
Aneshensel, Carol S. 2009. “Toward Explaining Mental Health Disparities.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50:377–94.
Aneshensel, Carol S., Leonard I. Pearlin, Joseph T. Mullan, Steven H. Zarit, and Carol J. Whitlatch. 1995. Profiles in Caregiving: The Unexpected Career. San Diego, CA: Academic.
Angel, Ronald J. and Jacqueline L. Angel. 2006. “Diversity and Aging in the United States.” Pp. 94–110 in Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, edited by R. H. Binstock and L. K. George. New York: Academic.
Becker, Gary S. 1991. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chesley, Noelle and Phyllis Moen. 2006. “When Workers Care: Dual-Earner Couples’ Caregiving Strategies, Benefit Use, and Psychological Well-Being.” American Behavioral Scientist 49:1248–69.
Couch, K.A., M.C. Daly, and Douglas A. Wolf. 1999. “Time? Money? Both? The Allocation of Resources to Older Parents.” Demography 36:219–32.
Davey, Adam and Maximiliane E. Szinovacz. 2008. “Division of Care Among Adult Children.” Pp. 133–59 in Caregiving Contexts: Cultural, Familial, and Societal Implications, edited by M. E. Szinovacz and A. Davey. New York: Springer.
Day, Jennifer Cheeseman. 1996. Population Projections of the United States, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1993–2050. Current Population Reports, Series P25-1104. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C.
Epel, Elissa S, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Jue Lin, Firaus S. Dhabhar, and Richard M. Cawthon. 2004. “Accelerated Telomere Shortening in Response to Life Stress.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101:17312–15.
Freedman, Vicki A., Eileen Crimmins, Robert Schoeni, Brenda Spillman, Hakan Aykan, Ellen Kramarow, Kenneth C. Land, James Lubitz, Kenneth G. Manton, Linda G. Martin, Diane Shinberg, and Timothy Waidmann. 2004. “Resolving Inconsistencies in Trends in Old-Age Disability: Report from a Technical Working Group.” Demography 41:417–414.
Gerstel, Naomi and Sally K. Gallagher. 2001. “Men’s Caregiving: Gender and the Contingent Character of Care.” Gender & Society 15:197–217.
Glazer, Nona Y. 1990. “The Home as a Workshop: Women as Amateur Nurses and Medical Care Providers.” Gender & Society 4:479–99.
Gornick, Janet C. and Marcia K. Meyers. 2003. Families that Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Green, Sara Eleanor. 2007. “We’re Tired, Not Sad: Benefits and Burdens of Mothering a Child with a Disability.” Social Science and Medicine 64:150–63.
Harrington Meyer, Madonna. 2000. Care Work: Gender, Class, and the Welfare States. New York: Routledge.
Hong, Jinkuk and Marsha Mailick Seltzer. 1995. “The Psychological Consequences of Multiple Roles: The Nonnormative Case.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 36:386–98.
Ingersoll-Dayton, B, Margaret B Neal, and Leslie B. Hammer. 2001. “Aging Parents Helping Adult Children: The Experience of the Sandwiched Generation.” Family Relations 50(3):262–71.
Johnson, Richard W. 2008. “Choosing Between Paid Elder Care and Unpaid Help From Adult Children: The Role of Relative Prices in the Care Decision.” Pp. 35–70 in Caregiving Contexts: Cultural, Familial, and Societal Implications, edited by M. E. Szinovacz and A. Davey. New York: Springer.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., J. R. Dura, C. E. Speicher, O. J. Trask, and R. Glaser. 1991. “Spousal Caregivers of Dementia Victims: Longitudinal Changes in Immunity and Health.” Psychosomatic Medicine 53:345–62.
Kingson, Eric R. and Regina O’Grady-LeShane. 1993. “The Effects of Caregiving on Women’s Social Security Benefits.” The Gerontologist 33:230–9.
Kossek, Ellen Ernst. 2005. “Workplace Policies and Practices to Support Work and Families.” Pp. 97–115 in Work, Family, Health and Well-Being, edited by S. Bianchi, L. Casper, and R. King. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lakdawalla, D., J. Bhattacharya, and D. P. Goldman. 2004. “Are the Young Becoming More Disabled? Rates of Disability Appear to be on the Rise Among People Ages Eighteen to Fifty-Nine, Fueled by a Growing Obesity Epidemic.” Health Affairs 23:168–76.
Manton, Kenneth G. and XiLiang Gu. 2001. “Changes in the Prevalence of Chronic Disability in the United States Black and Non-Black Population Above Age 65 from 1982 to 1999.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98:6354–9.
Marks, Nadine F. 1998. “Does it Hurt to Care? Caregiving, Work-Family Conflict, and Midlife Well-Being.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 60:951–66.
Mills, C. W. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moen, Phyllis and Erin L. Kelly. 2007. “Flexible Work and Well-Being Study, Final Report.” University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Moen, Phyllis, Julie Robinson, and Donna Dempster-McCain. 1995. “Caregiving and Women’s Well-Being: A Life Course Approach.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 36:259–73.
Moen, Phyllis, Julie Robison, and Vivian Fields. 1994. “Women’s Work and Caregiving Roles: A Life Course Approach.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 49:S176–86.
National Alliance for Caregiving and American Association of Retired Persons (NAC/AARP). 1997. “Family Caregiving in the U.S.: Findings from a National Survey.” National Alliance for Caregiving and American Association of Retired Persons (NAC/AARP), Bethesda, MD.
National Center for Health Statistics. 2009. Health, United States, 2008 With Special Feature on the Health of Young Adults. National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD.
Pavalko, Eliza K. and Kathryn A. Henderson. 2006. “Combining Care Work and Paid Work: Do Workplace Policies Make a Difference?” Research on Aging 28:359–74.
Pavalko, Eliza K. and Julie E. Artis. 1997. “Women’s Caregiving and Paid Work: Causal Relationships in Late Midlife.” Journal of Gerontology: Psychology and Social Sciences 52:S170–9.
Pavalko, Eliza K. and Shari Woodbury. 2000. “Social Roles as Process: Caregiving Careers and Women’s Health.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41:91–105.
Pearlin, Leonard I. 1989. “The Sociological Study of Stress.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 30:241–56.
Pearlin, Leonard I., Carol S. Aneshensel, and Allen J. LeBlanc. 1997. “The Forms and Mechanisms of Stress Proliferation: The Case of AIDS Caregivers.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38(3):223–36.
Pearlin, Leonard I., Joseph T. Mullan, Shirley J. Semple, and Jeremy Skaff. 1990. “Caregiving and the Stress Process: An Overview of Concepts and Their Measures.” The Gerontologist 30:583–91.
Reynolds, S. L., Y. Saito, and Eileen M. Crimmins. 2005. “The Impact of Obesity on Active Life Expectancy in Older American Men and Women.” The Gerontologist 45:438–44.
Robison, J., Phyllis Moen, and D. Dempster-McCain. 1995. “Women’s Caregiving: Changing Profiles and Pathways.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 50B:S362–73.
Ruhm, Christopher J. 2005. “How Well Do Government and Employer Policies Support Working Parents?” Pp. 313–325 in Work, Family, Health and Well-Being, edited by S. M. Bianchi, L. M. Casper, and R. B. King. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Schulz, R, A. T. O’Brien, J. Bookwala, and K. Fleissner. 1995. “Psychiatric and physical Morbidity Effects of Dementia Caregiving: Prevalence, Correlates, and Causes.” The Gerontologist 35:771–91.
Schulz, Richard, Paul Visintainer, and Gail M. Williamson. 1990. “Psychiatric and Physical Morbidity Effects of Caregiving.” Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 45:P181–91.
Seltzer, Marsha M., David M. Almeida, Jan S. Greenberg, Jyoti Savla, Robert S. Stawski, Jinkuk Hong, and Julie L. Taylor. 2009. “Psychosocial and Biological Markers of Daily Lives of Midlife Parents of Children with Disabilities.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50:1–15.
Silverstein, Merril, Stephen J. Conroy, and Daphna Gans. 2008. “Commitment to Caring: Filial Responsibility and the Allocation of Support by Adult Children to Older Mothers.” Pp. 71–91 in Caregiving Contexts: Cultural, Familial, and Societal Implications, edited by M. E. Szinovacz and A. Davey. New York: Springer.
Singh, Gopal K. and Mohammad Siahpush. 2002. “Ethnic-Immigrant Differentials in Health Behaviors, Morbidity, and Cause-Specific Mortality in the United States: An Analysis of Two National Data Bases.” Human Biology 74:83–109.
Spillman, Brenda C and Kirsten J. Black. 2005. “Staying the Course: Trends in Family Caregiving.” AARP Public Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
Spillman, Brenda C and Liliana E. Pezzin. 2000. “Potential and Active Family Caregivers: Changing Networks and the ‘Sandwich Generation’” The Milbank Quarterly 78:347–74.
Stoller, Eleanor Palo and Casey Schroeder Miklowski. 2008. “Spouses Caring for Spouses: Untangling the Influences of Relationship and Gender.” Pp. 115–31 in Caregiving Contexts: Cultural, Familial, and Societal Implications, edited by M. E. Szinovacz and A. Davey. New York: Springer.
Stryker, Sheldon and Anne Statham. 1985. “Symbolic Interaction and Role Theory.” Pp. 311–78 in The Handbook of Social Psychology, edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson. New York: Random House.
Tarlow, Barbara J., Stephen R. Wisniewski, Steven H. Belle, Mark Rubert, Marcia G. Ory, and Dolores Gallagher-Thompson. 2004. “Positive Aspects of Caregiving.” Research on Aging 26:429–53.
Thoits, Peggy. 2006. “Personal Agency in the Stress Process.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 47:309–23.
Thoits, Peggy A. 1987. “Negotiating Roles.” Pp. 11–22 in Spouse, Parent, Worker: On Gender and Multiple Roles, edited by F. J. Crosby. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Thoits, Peggy A. and Lyndi N. Hewitt. 2001. “Volunteer Work and Well-Being.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42:115–31.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2008. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2009. Washington.
Uhlenberg, Peter and Michelle Cheuk. 2008. “Demographic Change and the Future of Informal Caregiving.” Pp. 9–34 in Caregiving Contexts: Cultural, Familial, and Societal Implications, edited by M. E. Szinovacz and A. Davey. New York: Springer.
Wagner, Donna L. 1997. “Comparative Analysis of Caregiver Data for Caregivers to the Elderly 1987 and 1997.” Bethesda, MD: National Alliance for Caregiving.
Wakabayashi, Chizuko and Katherine M. Donato. 2006. “Does Caregiving Increase Poverty Among Women in Later Life? Evidence from the Health and Retirement Survey.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 47:258–74.
Waldron, Ingrid, C.C. Weiss, and Mary Elizabeth Hughes. 1998. “Interacting Effects of Multiple Roles on Women’s Health.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 39:216–36.
Whitlatch, Carol J., Lynn F. Feinberg, and Douglas S. Sebesta. 1997. “Depression and Health in Family Caregivers.” Journal of Aging and Health 9:222–43.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pavalko, E.K. (2011). Caregiving and the Life Course: Connecting the Personal and the Public. In: Settersten, R., Angel, J. (eds) Handbook of Sociology of Aging. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7374-0_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7374-0_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7373-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7374-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)