Pathways of Adult Children Providing Care to Older Parents

Abstract

Guided by life course and stress process theory, this study investigated pathways of adult child caregivers' family (caregiving, marital, parenting) and nonfamily (employment) roles. Eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed for 1,300 adult child caregivers. Latent class analysis provided strong evidence for a 4‐class model of caregivers' role pathways. The four pathways were (a) Not‐Married, Early‐Transition to Not‐Working Caregivers (34%), (b) Married, Not‐Working Caregivers (26%), (c) Married, Late‐Transition to Not‐Working Caregivers (23%), and (d) Married, Not‐Working Caregivers with Coresiding Child (17%). Caregivers' background characteristics and contexts predicted pathway membership. Adult child caregivers have structurally diverse life pathways that have implications for theory, research, and practice.

Adult Child Caregiver Health Trajectories and the Impact of Multiple Roles Over Time

“…Study findings provide insight to the long-term patterns of the relationship between caregivers' health outcomes and family and nonfamily roles. Specifically, this seven-wave longitudinal study provides support for the argument that caregiving alone does not contribute to the psychological and physical health of adult child caregivers; marital and employment roles are significant contributors to caregivers' health outcomes across the life course (Barnett, 2013;Chumbler et al, 2004;Marks et al, 2008).…”

“…Barnett (2013), using longitudinal data, found four role pathways of adult child caregivers based on their family and nonfamily roles as well as background characteristics and contexts such as health outcomes. This study revealed that caregivers in married, employed and married, not working pathways had better psychological health than caregivers in not married, not employed pathways; physical health and the caregiving role did not differentiate caregivers' pathways over time, suggesting that caregivers' multiple roles are not affected by physical health over time and roles other than caregiving define caregivers' lives over time.…”

The Transition to Parent Care: Costs, Commitments, and Caregiver Selection Among Children

“…This research has greatly enhanced our understanding of parent care, in particular with regard to parental expectations in selecting a likely and/or preferred caregiver among their children as well as potentially adverse consequences of incongruence between these expectations and subsequent selection of a child as a primary provider (Suitor, Gilligan, Pillemer, & Pruchno, 2012). This work has been complemented by other within-family investigations focusing on the evolution of sibling caregiver networks over time (Szinovacz & Davey, 2007, 2013.…”

“…Two theoretical frameworks provide general orientation for understanding adult children's transition to parent care (see Szinovacz & Davey, 2007, 2013. First, life course theory (Elder, 1994) highlights the family context in which these transitions unfold as well as the importance of linked lives between family members.…”

“…First, although entering this role is commonly recognized as a key transition in later life, most studies provide only cross-sectional, post hoc assessments of parent care (e.g., Henretta, Soldo, & Van Voorhis, 2011;Hogan, Eggebeen, & Clogg, 1993). In a similar vein, existing longitudinal research has mainly focused on "caregiving careers" (Brody, 1985), opening the window of observation only after parent care has already been initiated (Dwyer, Henretta, Coward, & Barton, 1992;Szinovacz & Davey, 2007, 2013. Obviously, these designs do not allow tracing the process of caregiver selection.…”