Lifespan Caregiving Profiles in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Providing unpaid care to family or friends with health limitations has become an increasingly common, recurring, and prolonged part of adult life, yet most studies continue to examine it as a discrete, short-term, and one-time role. This study moves beyond that view by identifying caregiving patterns accumulated across the lifespan in the United States. It further examines how gender, race-ethnicity, and early-life socioeconomic status shape membership in these caregiving profiles.

METHOD: Data come from 3,194 respondents aged 50 and older in the 2017 and 2019 Life History Mail Survey, a supplement to the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Using latent class analysis, we identified distinct caregiving profiles based on four indicators: age at first caregiving onset, number of caregiving episodes, total caregiving years, and overlapping caregiving. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess sociodemographic predictors of profile membership.

RESULTS: Four distinct profiles emerged: Compressed (50%; a single, short-term episode later in life), Early Enduring (22%; early onset with sustained involvement), Recurrent (17%; multiple sequential episodes), and Immersed (11%; prolonged and often overlapping caregiving). Women were disproportionately represented in the Recurrent and Immersed profiles, whereas men were more likely to be Compressed caregivers. Race-ethnicity and early-life socioeconomic status were not significant predictors.

DISCUSSION: Lifespan caregiving patterns in the United States are far from uniform. As demands on family caregivers continue to grow, identifying lifespan caregiving profiles offers a foundation for tailoring support to caregivers' diverse experiences.