The Changing Contexts of Family Care in Canada

Over the past 20 to 30 years, the importance of families as providers of assistance to older Canadians has been well documented through research. However, over these decades, the contexts within which families exist and provide support have changed considerably. This paper examines changes over this time period which affect family support to older adults. Specific areas examined include: likelihood of having a parent alive; living arrangements; divorce and single-parenthood; women's labour force participation, and combining employment and care of older relatives. The paper concludes with an assessment of policy changes in health and long-term care as these affect older Canadians and their families.family care; older population; policy change

Families as Care-Providers versus Care-Managers? Gender and Type of Care in a Sample of Employed Canadians

This article extends previous research by examining care management as a distinct type of informal care. Using data drawn from a large Canadian study of work and family, the research is based on a study of a sub-sample of women (1068) and men (805) who were employed full-time and who had provided help to an elderly relative during the six month period preceding the interview. Results indicate that managerial care is a meaningful construct that denotes a distinct type of care. Most commonly, individuals combine managerial care with other types of assistance. Managerial care is a very common activity among caregivers and usually involves aspects of care other than arranging for formal services. Managerial care has an adverse impact on job costs and personal costs, and, among women, is associated with greater stress.elderly; caregiving

The Consequences of Caregiving: Does Employment Make a Difference?

While a number of studies have examined the consequences of caregiving among employed women, surprisingly little research has explicitly compared how consequences differ between employed and not employed women. Moreover, very little research in this area has distinguished between part-time and full- time employment. This paper examines these issues drawing on the 1996 General Social Survey of Canada. The sample for this study consists of women aged 25 to 64 who reported providing care to one or more people aged 65+ because of a long-term physical disability (n=426). Three employment status groups (full-time, part-time and not employed) are compared on positive consequences, burden, guilt, job adjustment, postponed opportunities, and social and economic consequences. Results reveal significant differences between the three employment categories indicating that employment, both full and part-time, is associated with higher burden, guilt and social and economic consequences.caregiving; employment status; GSS

Women, Work and Caregiving: How Much Difference Does a Great Job Really Make?

This paper examines whether type of job makes a difference in (a) the likelihood that individuals are providing assistance to elderly relatives, (b) the 'costs' associated with this provision, in terms of both job-related and personal costs, and (c) whether observed relationships differ for men and for women. Data are derived from a sample of Canadian employees who participated in a study of work/family balance conducted by the Work and Eldercare Research Group of CARNET: The Canadian Aging Research Network, based at the University of Guelph. The analysis compared full-time employees in three job categories: managerial/professional (n = 1,996); semi-professional (n = 1,270) and clerical, sales, service, craft and trades (n = 2,112). The data indicate no differences between the three occupational groups in the likelihood of providing assistance to elderly relatives. The relationship between job type and both job and personal costs was found to vary in relation to the extent of involvement in the caregiver role. Job costs include lateness, absenteeism, foregoing promotions, missed meetings, and so forth, while personal costs include the perception of work interference with family life, and perceived levels of stress. Among employees providing between 1 and 4 hours of assistance on average per week, gender is associated with significant differences in job and personal costs. This is not true for those providing more hours of care. For both men and women, there appears to be a threshold (5 or more hours of care on average per week) beyond which neither gender nor job type makes a difference in terms of job and personal costs.caregiving; job costs

Families as Care-Providers versus Care-Managers? Gender and Type of Care in a Sample of Employed Canadians

This article extends previous research by examining care management as a distinct type of informal care. Using data drawn from a large Canadian study of work and family, the research is based on a study of a sub-sample of women (1068) and men (805) who were employed full-time and who had provided help to an elderly relative during the six month period preceding the interview. Results indicate that managerial care is a meaningful construct that denotes a distinct type of care. Most commonly, individuals combine managerial care with other types of assistance. Managerial care is a very common activity among caregivers and usually involves aspects of care other than arranging for formal services. Managerial care has an adverse impact on job costs and personal costs, and, among women, is associated with greater stress.elderly; caregiving

How Much Help Is Exchanged in Families? Towards an Understanding of Discrepant Research Findings

Responding to claims that contemporary families had abandoned their elderly members, gerontologists over the past 30 years have provided extensive documentation of intergenerational familial support. These studies have been lodged within conceptual frameworks of the modified extended family, intergenerational solidarity, and, more recently, intergenerational equity. By and large, studies claim to have found extensive levels of support. Closer examination of findings from various studies, however, reveals widely discrepant findings in terms of amounts of help given to and received by older family members. This paper examines the findings from four representative Canadian and American studies spanning four decades. Factors contributing to discrepant findings are identified at both methodological and conceptual levels, and implications for future research are discussed.intergenerational support

How Much Help Is Exchanged in Families? Towards an Understanding of Discrepant Research Finding

Responding to claims that contemporary families had abandoned their elderly members, gerontologists over the past 30 years have provided extensive documentation of intergenerational familial support. These studies have been lodged within conceptual frameworks of the modified extended family, intergenerational solidarity, and, more recently, intergenerational equity. By and large, studies claim to have found extensive levels of support. Closer examination of findings from various studies, however, reveals widely discrepant findings in terms of amounts of help given to and received by older family members. This paper examines the findings from four representative Canadian and American studies spanning four decades. Factors contributing to discrepant findings are identified at both methodological and conceptual levels, and implications for future research are discussed.intergenerational support

Caught in the Middle? Occupancy in Multiple Roles and Help to Parents in a National Probability Sample of Canadian Adults

This paper considers for a Canadian national probability sample of middle-aged women and men the question of how typical is the experience of being "caught in the middle" between being the adult child of elderly parents and other roles. Three roles are examined: adult child, employed worker, and parent (and a refinement of the parent role, being a parent of a co-resident child). Occupancy in multiple roles is examined, followed by an investigation of the extent to which adults in various role combinations actually assist older parents and whether those who provide frequent help are also those "sandwiched" by competing ommitments. The majority of middle-aged children do not provide frequent help to parents. Notably, the highest proportion of daughters who assist elderly parents are those in their fifties whose children are no longer co-resident. For both sons and daughters, being "caught in the middle" is far from a typical experience in this cross-sectional analysis.multiple roles

Age-Gapped and Age-Condensed Lineages: Patterns of Intergenerational Age Structure among Canadian Families

This paper examines intergenerational connections within Canadian families. Its focus is on intergenerational age structure, the interval or 'gap' in years that separates one generation from the next. Intergenerational age structure is measured in terms of the age of a mother at the birth of her first child. Using data from the 1995 General Social Survey of Canada, the study examines the socio-demographic characteristics of women (n=404) in three- and four-generation families (lineages) that are age-condensed (small age distances between generations that are the result of early fertility) and those that are age- gapped (with large age distances between generations that are the result of late fertility patterns). Across two generations of women, there is a striking similarity in the distributions of age at first birth with just under one-third of the sample having early fertility, just over one-half falling into a normative or "on-time" category, and one-seventh having delayed fertility. However, when matched pairs of mothers and daughters are compared across generations, age-condensed and age-gapped lineage patterns show considerable variability. Although just under one-half of mother-daughter dyads show lineage consistency in family age structure across three generations (most typically in age-condensed/age-condensed or normative/normative age structures), low percentages of women whose family of origin was age-gapped repeat that age structure pattern in their own families of procreation. Socio-demographic factors such as mother's and daughter's age, family size, age at first marriage, and level of education are associated with lineage continuity and discontinuity in family age structure.intergenerational age structure; GSS

Refexive Planning for Later Life: A Conceptual Model and Evidence from Canada

In this paper, we present a conceptual model to describe an individual's preparations for later life. Situated in the life course perspective, this model invites a comprehensive and systematic study of later life planning. It describes a dynamic process that portrays the interplay between social structure and human agency. Through its consideration of collective preparations (the public protection programs offered by the state), individual preparations (financial and non-financial), and the interplay between them, this model provides fresh insight into the existing literature on retirement planning, the timing of retirement, savings, and consumption patterns in later life. Moreover, the model may be used to structure research questions, to guide policy decision making and to point the direction for the design and content of future research studies. While the purpose of this paper is primarily the development of a conceptual model, we illustrate the model using the results of a self-completion semi-structured questionnaire on this topic that was completed by a convenience sample of 240 seniors in Canada. We conclude by suggesting a number of research questions that may be generated from the model.retirement planning, financial security, savings, independence