Balancing Elder Care Responsibilities and Work: The Impact on Emotional Health

As the elderly population over 85 and the amount of women in the workforce both rise there is an increasing number of persons that must divide their time between working and caring for an elderly relative. These researchers hypothesize that (1a) the relationship between caregiver status and emotional health will be resultant on whether or not the respondent is employed; (1b) those people that are caregivers and employed are expected to have more problems with emotional stability; (2) these problems will grow as the caregiver becomes more involved with the elderly person; and (3) male caregivers are expected to fair better, emotionally, than female caregivers. They found mixed support for hypothesis 1a and no support for hypothesis 1b. However, hypothesis 2 was supported as more emotional difficulties evolved when a caregiver became more involved with the elderly person. Hypothesis 3, found support in that depression was more prevalent in the women caregivers than the men, but other emotional factors did not show significant relationships.