Caregiving and Women's Well-being: A Life Course Approach

Abstract

This study demonstrates the utility of incorporating a life course, role context approach in investigations of the ties between particular roles and psychological well-being, using the links between women's caregiving and well-being as a case in point. We draw on panel data from a random sample of 293 women interviewed in 1956 and 1986, considering both current role occupancy and the duration of caregiving as well as a number of factors that may moderate the effects of caregiving on well-being. We find, using ordinary least squares regression, that the effects of caregiving on women's emotional health are moderated by their previous psychological well-being, with caregivers with high prior well-being reporting high subsequent well-being. Other moderators are previous social integration (in the form of religiosity and multiple-role involvements) and other nonfamily roles (worker and volunteer) currently occupied. What women bring to caregiving (in terms of their previous social integration and psychological well-being) shapes its significance for their emotional health. Moreover, the duration and timing of caregiving in women's lives also relate to its effects on their well-being. These findings point to the importance of examining the impacts of particular social roles, such as caregiving, in the context of other roles and resources.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 295 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.