Heterogeneity in informal care intensity and its impact on employment

Gendered life-course trajectories of childcare and informal care in the Netherlands

Unpaid caregiving remains highly gendered both in the context of childcare for young children and informal care provided to ill or ageing family members, friends, or neighbors. Using a life-course framework, this study expands previous research which generally treated these care types as separate life domains, by exploring the variety in caregiving trajectories including both childcare and informal care as integral parts of life courses. In addition to identifying and describing clusters of caregiving trajectories, we examine to what extent these are stratified by gender and education. We use unique retrospective survey data on informal caregiving combined with longitudinal data on childrearing, collected by the LISS Panel in the Netherlands (N = 1631). Using sequence and cluster analysis, we created caregiving trajectories covering up to 50 years of individual life courses and identified six clusters of caregiving trajectories that differed in care-heaviness, based on different combinations of the timing, duration, order, and intensity of care episodes. Our findings indicate path-dependency in care patterns, whereby most individuals who have engaged in unpaid care, provided both childcare and informal care at various points throughout their lives. In addition, while patterns of caregiving over the life course did not differ by gender, women were overrepresented in care-heavier clusters while men were more likely to follow the least care-heavy clusters. Theoretical expectations predicting educational differences based on opportunity costs and normative pressure were not supported. Given the anticipated rise in informal care due to population ageing and welfare state retrenchment, our findings suggest that while both women and men will be increasingly confronted with balancing unpaid care with other commitments, the gender gap in care-heaviness might persist and even widen.

Forecasting Informal care needs of the urban-rural older adults in China based on microsimulation model

BACKGROUND

Forecasting the intensity, source, and cost of informal care for older adults in China is essential to establish and enhance policy support systems for informal care within the context of East Asian traditional culture that emphasizes filial piety. This study aims to analyze the current situation and influencing factors for the informal care needs and predict the trends of informal care needs for older adults in China from 2020 to 2040.

METHODS

Using the CHARLS database from 2015 to 2018, this study first combined a two-part model and a multinomial logit to analyze the influencing factors for the informal care needs of urban-rural older adults in China. Secondly, a multi-state Markov model was constructed to forecast the number of urban-rural older populations in each health state from 2020 to 2040. Finally, based on a microsimulation model, this study predicted the trends of informal care intensity, source, and cost for older adults in urban and rural areas from 2020 to 2040.

RESULTS

In 2040, the size of the disabled older population in China will expand further. In rural areas, the total number of disabled people in 2040 (39.77 million) is 1.50 times higher than that in 2020; In urban areas, the total number of disabled people in 2040 (56.01 million) is 2.51 times higher than that in 2020. Compared with 2020, older adults population with mild, moderate and severe disability in 2040 would increase by 87.60%, 101.70%, and 115.08%, respectively. In 2040, the number of older adults receiving low-, medium-, and high-intensity care in China will be 38.60 million, 22.89 million, and 41.69 million, respectively, and older people will still rely on informal care provided by spouses and children (from spouses only: 39.26 million, from children only: 36.74 million, from spouses and children only: 16.79 million, other: 10.39 million). The total cost of informal care in 2040 will be 1,086.65 billion yuan, 2.22 times that of 2020 (490.31 billion yuan), which grows faster than the economic growth rate.

CONCLUSION

From 2020 to 2040, the informal care needs of older people in rural areas will increase first and then decrease due to the demographic structure and rapid urbanization. In contrast, the informal care needs of older people in urban areas will continuously increase from 2020 to 2040, with the growth rate gradually slowing down. This study provides an evidence-based rationale for scientifically measuring the economic value of informal care and reasonably allocating care resources.

Informal care and financial stress: Longitudinal evidence from Australia

The number of people providing informal care has increased considerably in the last years while, at the same time, about one in four Australians have financial stress problems. This study uses rich longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to estimate the effect of informal care on financial stress. To establish causality, we exploit a fixed effect-instrumental variable approach to address omitted variable bias and reverse causality problems. Our findings show that informal caregiving increases financial stress between 9.9 and 14.5 percentage points. This finding is robust across a battery of quasi-experimental methods. The effect of informal caregiving on financial stress is more pronounced among males, rural residents and those living in low socioeconomic areas. Our analyses further show that financial fragility and social isolation are important channels through which informal caregiving affects financial stress.

Career Disruption and Employment Status of Korean Family Caregivers of Older Adults Using Home-Based Care

This study utilized nationally approved data from the 2022 Long-Term Care Survey of Korea to examine the factors associated with career disruptions and employment status among family caregivers of home-based care recipients. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, one-way ANOVA, and multinomial logistic regression analysis were employed to address the research questions. The results indicated that 19.39% of family caregivers of home-based care recipients experienced career disruptions due to informal caregiving. Demographic factors such as gender, age of family caregivers, and their relationship with care recipients predicted their employment status. Gender was a significant explanatory factor, as daughters/daughters-in-law were more likely to be in insecure employment positions than sons. Lower household income and older age were also associated with employment insecurity. Recommendations include coverage expansion, family support programs, and pension credit for family caregivers to meet the needs of care recipients and their families.