Pathways of Adult Children Providing Care to Older Parents

TitlePathways of Adult Children Providing Care to Older Parents
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsBarnett, AE
JournalJournal of Marriage and Family
Volume75
Issue1
Pagination178
KeywordsAdult children, Event History/Life Cycle, Healthcare, Methodology
Abstract

Guided by life course and stress process theory, this study investigated pathways of adult child caregivers' family (caregiving, marital, parenting) and nonfamily (employment) roles. Eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed for 1,300 adult child caregivers. Latent class analysis provided strong evidence for a 4-class model of caregivers' role pathways. The four pathways were (a) Not-Married, Early-Transition to Not-Working Caregivers (34 ), (b) Married, Not-Working Caregivers (26 ), (c) Married, Late-Transition to Not-Working Caregivers (23 ), and (d) Married, Not-Working Caregivers with Coresiding Child (17 ). Caregivers' background characteristics and contexts predicted pathway membership. Adult child caregivers have structurally diverse life pathways that have implications for theory, research, and practice.

Notes

This article was edited by Deborah S. Carr.

Endnote Keywords

latent class analysis/caregiving/intergenerational transfers/life-cycle/life course/adult Children

Endnote ID

69736

Citation Key7918