Full-time employment and informal caregiving in the 1980s

Abstract

The study examines the extent to which the effect of full-time employment on informal caregiving has changed over time. Such a change could be expected because women, who constitute the majority of unpaid caregivers, have been increasing their commitment to career employment. Full-time market work by an increasing proportion of successive cohorts of women means that proportionally fewer will be available to provide the amount of assistance needed by persons with disabilities that require the constant presence of a caregiver. This study is based on the National Informal Caregiver Surveys that are linked to the National Long-Term Care Surveys of 1982 and 1989. To achieve comparability between the 1982 and 1989 data, the analysis is based on primary caregivers whose care-recipients were disabled in performing the activities of daily living (ADLs): 1,489 in 1982 and 597 in 1989. A simultaneous-equations model estimates the number of weekly hours of unpaid help and the probability of full-time work for pay. The principal finding is that, compared with nonemployment, full-time employment reduced caregiving by 25 hours a week in 1982 and by 22 hours a week in 1989, but the difference of 3 hours is not statistically significant. The proportion of primary caregivers engaged in market work full time increased from 15.8%, in 1982 to 19.3% in 1989, but this difference is not statistically significant. These findings suggest that full-time employment reduces caregiving time substantially but that the effect of full-time employment on informal caregiving by primary caregivers of ADL-disabled elderly did not change during the 1980s. Primary caregivers with full-time jobs were more likely to assist individuals disabled in bathing and dressing, two activities that do not require the constant presence of a caregiver. The primary caregivers of individuals with more than two ADL disabilities frequently were the spouses of the care-recipients, themselves elderly persons who were not expected to be engaged in market work. The data from the 1980s appear to be reassuring in the sense that full-time employment by primary caregivers of ADL-disabled elderly did not further reduce the amount of time that they devoted to caregiving. In 1989, only about one fifth of these caregivers were engaged in market work full time. But this proportion is likely to increase in the future. As these future increases materialize, proportionally fewer caregivers will be available to provide the amount of help needed by persons with ADL disabilities that require the constant presence of a caregiver.