The Relationship of Caregiving to Work Conflict and Supervisor Disclosure With Emotional, Physical, and Financial Strain in Employed Family Caregivers

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether employed family caregiver reports of caregiving to work conflict (CWC) are associated with emotional, physical, and financial strain, and whether organizational factors, including supervisor disclosure and caregiver-friendly workplace policies, attenuate these effects. Method: We examined 369 full-time employed caregivers of adults aged 50 years and above from the 2015 AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving population-based study, Caregiving in the United States, using ordinary least squares hierarchical regression and moderation analyses. Results: Regression analyses showed that caregiver reports of more CWC, in addition to disclosure of caregiving, were associated with greater emotional, physical, and financial strain after controlling for demographics and caregiving stressors, and workplace policies did not attenuate strain. Neither disclosure nor policies moderated the impact of CWC on caregiver strain. Discussion: Results suggest the importance of workplace strain in the caregiving stress process and suggest that disclosing caregiving responsibilities to supervisors should be closely examined.

Keeping carers from the “precariat”: availability of carer-friendly workplace policies for employees with adult and elder care responsibilities in Quebec

“…In Quebec, Tremblay et al (2013) findings amongst Quebec employers showed that the issue was still far from being as well-known as work-family issues related to parenting, with many managers believing that offering some degree of flexibility is enough to satisfy carer employees' needs. Recent findings indicate a lack of formal human resources (HR) policies specific to adult and elder care within workplaces, leading to a reliance on benevolent supervisory discretion (Murphy and Cross, 2018), while there is evidence that disclosing one's caring responsibilities to a supervisor increases emotional, physical and financial strain for employed carers (Templeman et al, 2019) and might contribute to stigma around the use of CFWPs (Ramesh et al, 2017). There is thus an apparent need for formal adult and elder care policies in workplaces which protect employed carers.…”

“…This may mean that small employers are more willing to find solutions on an informal basis for employed carers. The problem is that informality entails certain downsides, such as stigma, reliance on supervisory discretion and invisibility of care in the workplace (Murphy and Cross, 2018;Templeman et al, 2019), which is why formal measures are important for carers (Concilivi, 2021). There may be greater access to elder care resources through an EAP in large organizations.…”

“…As our results show, many employers in Quebec observed that employees had missed work or that their productivity had declined due to caring responsibilities. About 1 in 4 managers reported that they had seen employees quit their job altogether to provide care, which suggests that carers have to make a choice between their work and the person they care for, especially women (Lightman and Link, 2021), pushing more of them toward the precariat (Standing, 2013(Standing, , 2014 and exposing them to significantly reduced well-being (Gaugler et al, 2018;Templeman et al, 2019). Our results thus support recent research findings pointing that women face important opportunity costs and indicate the existence of a "poor caregivers" social subclass of women in Quebec, as was observed in Spain (Martinez-Lopez et al, 2021), in the absence of decent compensation for the care work (Tucker and Vosko, 2021).…”

“…There is a large room for improvement regarding this type of support services, which may not be costly. Presently, carer leaves as well as flexible work arrangements (which are usually the types of CFWPs studied and which are sometimes used interchangeably for CFWPs) are not enough in and by themselves to fully support carers (Templeman et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2018). It is crucial to pursue the development of CFWPs to keep carers employed (e.g.…”

“…Berglund et al, 2015). Moreover, conflicts between care and work represent a major cause of reduced well-being on its own for carers (Gaugler et al, 2018), as it is associated with greater emotional, physical and financial carer strain (Templeman et al, 2019). In the workplace, employees with care responsibilities are significantly more likely to report poorer physical and mental health than noncarers (Gaugler et al, 2018).…”