Informal Caregiving and Retirement Timing among Men and Women

Abstract

Informal caregiving, or the provision of unpaid, voluntary care to elderly or disabled family and friends, is an increasingly common experience for both men and women in late midlife. The authors examine the ways in which informal caregiving influences the transition to retirement and how this relationship is shaped by gender. Our data are 763 pension-eligible men and women in the 1994-1995 Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study. Results from discrete-time event history analyses indicate that certain types of caregiving shape the timing of retirement but that the association depends on the relationship between caregiver and care recipient and is fundamentally moderated by gender. For example, wives caring for their husbands have retirement odds 5 times greater than women who are not caregivers, whereas husbands caring for their wives are substantially slower to retire. Our evidence suggests that in this sample, caregiving responsibilities lead to increased sex role-typical employment behavior in late midlife.

Retirement timing and grandparenthood: A population-based study on Sweden

“…Family ties may motivate women to retire more than men, as women move more often between family and work obligations (Moen 2016). Indeed, caring for children has been found to motivate retirement among women (Dentinger and Clarkberg 2002;Forma 2009;Henkens and Tazelaar 1997), and grandmothers have been shown to retire earlier than grandfathers in cross-national settings (Van Bavel and De Winter 2013). Overall, grandmothers have been shown to have more frequent contact with their grandchildren and to be more engaged in grandchild care than grandfathers (Albertini, Kohli, and Vogel 2007;Gray 2005;Hank and Buber 2009;Reitzes and Mutran 2004).…”

“…Husbands tend to postpone retirement, as they are often older than their spouses, and wives tend to retire earlier (Ho and Raymo 2009). Moreover, caregiving roles are important in decision-making regarding retirement (Dentinger and Clarkberg 2002). For instance, having a disabled spouse may motivate an early labor force exit but may also postpone a labor force exit, as care occasionally involves economic obligations (Szinovacz and Deviney 2000).…”

Work and Well-Being of Informal Caregivers in Europe

“…In a review of the literature, Lilly et al (2007) conclude that caregiving is generally associated with a moderate reduction in hours worked, intensive caregiving leads to negative consequences for both hours worked and labour force participation. Infrequent caregivers, however, are sometimes found to be less likely to retire (Carmichael and Charles, 1998;Dentinger and Clarkberg, 2002). While most of the analyzed studies rely on cross-sectional data and are thus subject to above mentioned concerns, the results have been largely mirrored by recent longitudinal studies (Heitmueller, 2007;King and Pickard, 2013;van Houtven et al, 2013).…”

Volunteer work, informal help, and care among the 50+ in Europe: Further evidence for ‘linked’ productive activities at older ages

“…Empirical research investigating the relationship between, for example, labor force participation and informal caring (e.g., Dentinger & Clarkberg 2002;Pavalko & Artis 1997) or volunteering (e.g., Mutchler et al 2003Wilson & Musick 2003), produced mixed results, but tend to show a negative association between employment and caring, and a positive one with volunteering. Studies focusing on the role of caring in formal and informal voluntary engagement suggest that caregiving does generally not have a negative impact on the propensity or the intensity of volunteering (e.g., Burr et al 2005;Choi et al 2007;Farkas & Himes 1997).…”