Author Angelina Grigoryeva, of Princeton University’s Office of Population Research, analyzed data from the 2004 Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), a detailed questionnaire that asks elderly Americans to report which tasks they need help completing, which people help them, and what length of time each person provides assistance. The final count revealed that daughters average 12.3 hours of care per month, while sons provide only 5.3. Even after adjusting for confounding factors (like a sibling’s geographical distance from a parent), daughters still gave 5.4 more hours than their male counterparts. This imbalance is poised to become even more widespread. From 1990 to 2010, the proportion of elderly people in the US grew by more than 1,100% percent, Grigoryeva reports—a shift associated with both increasing longevity and declining birth rates. The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics predicts this demographic trend will continue. That’s a serious problem, because the cost of providing care is measured in much more than just time. Caregiving can negatively affect health (studies have linked it with higher overall mortality), marriages, job market earnings, and financial reserves. Grigoryeva is currently at work on an extension of her analysis to include more recent HRS data, but the forecast is still disheartening. “Preliminary results suggest that the findings hold across several survey years, including more recent waves,” she says. For a fairer balance, Grigoryeva suggests playing to each gender’s caregiving strengths, as demonstrated in her study. “Elder care includes a number of activities, ranging from more physical assistance to emotional support,” she says. “Men are less likely to provide physical hands-on care, but more likely to help with certain forms of administrative tasks or home repairs. As a result, one could expect that brothers would be more responsive when they are asked to help home repairs rather than when they are asked to help with dressing the parent.” How have you and your siblings cared for elderly parents? Were you able to share the load equally? Tell us on Twitter at @Prevention Mag or in the comments below.
