Effects of Changing Demographic Trends on Later-Life Health

Clinical Center

Investigators

Abstract

Among the four sub-projects proposed above, the first study, The Impact of Labor Force Participation and Family Structure on Adult Childrens Provision of Care-giving to Their Elderly Parents commenced in July 2008. The research plan and data analysis were completed September 5, 2008, and a manuscript is presently being prepared for conference presentation and publication. The overarching hypothesis for the first sub-study is that macro-level labor force structure will extend its impact into individual household units affecting family care-giving dynamics. Non-work-related factors, such as kin hierarchy, resource competition among family members, as well as parental needs, also shape the household resource allocation decisions. [unreadable] [unreadable] Using data from the 2006 Health and Retirement Study, this first sub-study reveals that adult daughters spend significantly greater amount of time than adult sons helping their parents with ADL and IADL needs. Analyses based on the econometrics (multivariate Tobit regressions) and simulation methods further demonstrate that adult children with higher wage rates and longer weekly work hours give fewer hours of ADL and IADL time transfers to their parents. Nevertheless, there is no clear indication the labor force structure influences adult sons and daughters transfer behaviors in a different manner. Kin hierarchy has an impact on the family transfer dynamics. Controlling for key variables, siblings play a substitution role in adult childrens transfer practices, whereas spouses provide supplementary assistance to adult childrens transfers. Resource competition for adult childrens time does exist between adult childrens spouses and parents. Finally, all else being equal, the division of transfers within married dyads is parallel to the husbands and wifes comparative advantages in the labor force. There are substantial social and policy implications associated with gendered care-giving disparity and this research will contribute to the current literature.