Goal & Concept
Goal
The goal of this exercise is to explore the characteristics and well-being of middle-aged caregivers. Frequencies, crosstabulation, and comparison of means will be used.
Concept
Today's middle-aged adults are often referred to as the "sandwich generation" because many will spend as much time caring for their aging parents as they did for their own children. As life expectancy rises and the elderly make up a larger proportion of the population, the need for care will also increase. However, caregiving is not exclusive to adult children and their aging parents. Other examples include parents caring for a disabled child or older adults caring for an ill spouse.
For this exercise, the definition of caregiving will be include care given to a friend or relative who requires assistance because of a physical or mental condition, illness, or disability. This excludes the normal care parents give children.
Researchers define well-being in many ways, including dimensions of physical, psychological, and social health. The well-being of caregivers is of interest because of the potential physical and emotional stress involved with caregiving, which may also carry over into other parts of the caregiver's life, such as his/her work. This exercise will focus on well-being as measured by life satisfaction, effects of family life on work, and marital/relationship problems.
Examples of possible research questions about caregiving and middle age:
- Who gives care?
- Who receives care?
- Which age groups are more likely to care for their parents?
- Are men and women equally likely to be caregivers?
- How does caregiving affect the well-being of caregivers?
- Are men and women affected by caregiving in similar or different ways?
- Do caregivers experience different levels of life satisfaction than those not giving care?
Dataset
Data for this exercise come from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS2) 2004-2006, a longitudinal follow-up to a national survey of over 7,000 Americans aged 25 to 74. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of behavioral, psychological, and social factors in understanding age-related differences in physical and mental health. MIDUS2 repeats assessments from MIDUS, with additional questions in selected areas such as cognitive functioning, optimism and coping, stressful life events, and caregiving.
The MIDUS2 sample is designed to represent non-institutionalized, English-speaking adults in the United States, aged 18 and older. The study is funded by the National Institute on Aging.
This exercise will use the following variables:
- Age at interview (B1PAGE_M)
- Gender (B1PRSEX)
- Gave personal care in last 12 months (B1PD1)
- To whom care was given (B1PD2)
- Number of weeks care was given in past year (B1PD14)
- Average weekly hours of care (B1PD15)
- Negative effects of family life on work (B1SNEGFW)
- Frequency of trouble in marriage/relationship (B1SL7)
- Rating of current life overall (B1SQ1)
Application
For this exercise you will explore the characteristics and well-being of middle-aged caregivers using frequency and crosstabulation tables and comparison of means.
In this dataset, age is measured by subtracting year of birth from the date of interview. To create an age measure more appropriate for these analyses, we collapsed age into five categories: 28-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70 and older. We called the new variable "AGEGRP".
Who are the caregivers?
To measure caregiving, we recoded the survey's variable B1PD1 to exclude missing data. Answers were coded "1" if the respondent reported caregiving in the previous 12 months, and "0" otherwise. We called the new measure "GAVECARE".
According to the frequency table, what percentage of people gave care in the past year? Is the number higher or lower you might've expected?
Next, we created a measure of caring for parents (including in-laws) from the variable B1PD2, which measures to whom care was given. We created a new variable, called "PARENTCARE," which was coded as "1" if the caregiver reported caring for a mother, father, mother-in-law, or father-in-law, and coded as "0" otherwise. Keep in mind that the percentages shown are of caregivers, not of the sample as a whole. What proportion of caregivers are caring for parents?
Now take a look at caregiving by age. Which age groups are more likely to have given care?
Next look at caring for parents by age which shows the number of people caring for their parents by age. What do you find? Are the results for giving care to parents the same as for caregiving in general?
Now consider gender. Look at crosstabs of gender (B1PRSEX) and both GAVECARE and PARENTCARE. Of those who gave care, what percentage are male? What percentage are female? Are the results as you expected? Why?
How much time is spent caregiving?
To measure the amount of time spent caregiving, two new variables were created. First, we recoded the number of weeks of caregiving in the past year (B1PD14) into two categories: Less than 26 weeks and 26 weeks or more.
Look at the resulting frequency (CAREWEEKS). What do you find?
We recoded average weekly hours spent giving care (B1PD15) into four categories: 0-9 hours, 10-19 hours, 20-39 hours, and 40 or more hours. Now look at the number of hours spent in caregiving per week (CAREHOURS). Are the results as you expected?
Now look at the number of weeks spent caring for parents. Do caregivers of parents differ from other caregivers in the number of weeks spent caring? Next examine the number of hours per week spent in caregiving. Are there differences in the average weekly hours spent caring?
Does caregivers' well-being differ from that of non-caregivers?
To examine the relationship between caregiving and problems at work, use the Negative Effects of Family Life on Work scale (B1SNEGFW). This scale sums responses to four questions which ask how often each of the following were experienced in the past year: 1) Responsibilities at home reduce the effort you can devote to your job; 2) Personal or family worries and problems distract you when you are at work; 3) Activities and chores at home prevent you from getting the amount of sleep you need to do your job well, and; 4) Stress at home makes you irritable at work. The scale ranges from 4-20, with higher scores indicating more negative effects of family life on work.
Run a comparison of means, with B1SNEGFW and GAVECARE. (B1SNEGFW is the dependent variable.) Do caregivers experience more negative effects of family on their work than do non-caregivers?
Now try B1SNEGFW with PARENTCARE. Are people who give care to parents more or less affected at work than are those who give care to non-parents?
Next consider the relationship between caregiving and marital quality. To measure marital quality, we recoded frequency of trouble in marriage/relationship in the past year (B1SL7) into three categories: 0=Never; 1=Once or a few times; 2=Most or all of the time. Look at the relationship between this new variable TROUBLE and GAVECARE . Is there a difference in frequency of marital trouble between caregivers and non-caregivers?
What happens when you look at PARENTCARE? Is the relationship between marital quality and caregiving different for those caring for parents than for other caregivers?
Finally, consider the relationship between caregiving and overall life satisfaction. To measure life satisfaction, use B1SQ1 which asks, "Using a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 means 'the worst possible life overall' and 10 means 'the best possible life overall,' how would you rate your life overall these days?"
Look at how the mean level of life satisfaction differs for those who do and do not give care. Do caregivers and non-caregivers rate their lives differently?
Now try the comparison of means again with PARENTCARE. Do those who care for parents rate their lives differently than other caregivers?
Interpretation & Summary
Think about your answers to the application questions before you click through to the interpretation guide for help in answering them.
Who are the caregivers?
According to the frequency table of GAVECARE, what percentage of people gave care in the past year? Is the number higher or lower you might've expected?
What proportion of caregivers are caring for parents?
Which age groups are more likely to have given care?
Are the results for giving care to parents the same as for caregiving in general?
Of those who gave care, what percentage are male? What percentage are female? Are the results as you expected? Why?
How much time is spent caregiving?
Describe the number of weeks per year and hours per week respondents spent in caregiving.
Do caregivers of parents differ from other caregivers in the number of weeks per year or hours per week spent caring?
Does Caregivers' well-being differ from that of non-caregivers?
Do caregivers experience more negative effects of family on their work than do non-caregivers?
Are people who give care to parents more or less affected at work than are those who give care to non-parents?
Is there a difference in frequency of marital trouble between caregivers and non-caregivers? Describe any difference you see.
Is the relationship between marital quality and caregiving different for those caring for parents than for other caregivers?
Do caregivers and non-caregivers rate their levels of life satisfaction differently? Do those who care for parents rate their lives differently than other caregivers?
Interpretation
Things to think about when interpreting the results:
- In general, results from this dataset should be fairly representative of the population because it is a national probability sample. However, it is important to pay attention to which groups are included in your analyses. The variable PARENTCARE, for example, only includes those respondents who already said they gave care of some type. Therefore, results from analyses of PARENTCARE can only be generalized to caregivers, not to the population as a whole.
- Reading the results: the numbers in each cell of the crosstabulation tables show the percent of the people who fall into the overlapping categories, followed by the actual number of people that represents in this sample. The coloring in the tables demonstrates how the observed numbers in each cell compares to the number that would be expected if there was no association between the two variables. The accompanying bar charts display the patterns visually as well.
- The use of column percentages, as shown in these tables, allows for the comparison of answers to the "outcome" of interest across values of the grouping variable. For example, of those who were not caregivers in the past year, 4.6% reported having marital problems for most of the past year, compared with 7.9% of those who were caregivers. In this case, using column percentages allows us to compare the marital quality of caregivers and non-caregivers.
- The analyses show the following:
- About 13% of respondents reported giving care in the past year. Of those, 43.8% were caring for a parent or parent-in-law. Caregivers of parents tend to fall into slightly younger age groups than other caregivers, and the majority (over 65%) of all caregivers are women.
- Of those who gave care in the past year, about 55% gave care for fewer than 26 weeks, and 45% gave care for 26 weeks or more. The majority of caregivers (35%) spent 9 hours or less per week giving care. 19% gave care for 40 or more hours per week.
- Caregivers have higher "negative family to work spillover" than non-caregivers. Among all caregivers, those who care for parents or in-laws have slightly higher negative family to work spillover than other caregivers.
- Caregivers more likely than non-caregivers to report marital troubles in the past year. Among all caregivers, those caring for parents or in-laws were less likely to report having marital trouble "most or all of the time" in the past year than other caregivers.
- Caregivers rate overall life satisfaction slightly lower than non-caregivers. Among caregivers, those who care for parents or in-laws rate overall life satisfaction higher than other caregivers.
- Finally, remember that a relationship between two variables does not necessarily mean that one causes the other.
Summary
The goal of this exercise was to explore the characteristics and well-being of caregivers. You should be able to describe the demographic characteristics of caregivers, how much time is spent caregiving, who is being cared for, and how the well-being of caregivers compares to non-caregivers. Overall, the results show that caregivers score lower on measures of well-being than non-caregivers, but to whom care is given also makes a difference; those who care for parents or in-laws tend to do better than other caregivers.
Aging and Caregiving: A Data-Driven Learning Guide
Bibliography
We have compiled a list of references (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cgi/CITATIONS/search?study={id}&method=study&path=OLC) that might be useful to instructors and students wishing to further explore this topic. All were chosen because they relate to the topic of study, whether or not they use the specific dataset that was used in this exercise. Some relate directly to the concepts as defined by the exercise, others explore the topic more broadly either conceptually or empirically. For even more resources, try a key word search in the ICPSR Bibliography (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/citations/)!