Christian Deindl

Caregiving can be time-consuming, and it can be challenging for caregivers to combine caregiving tasks with other obligations. While we know a lot about the problems of combining informal care with employment and family obligations, past employment and family histories are seldom discussed. This study tries to fill this gap by examining the association between employment and family histories and caregiving in later life. We used pooled data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, waves 1 and 2) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, waves 2 and 3) and combined them with the life history interviews from both surveys conducted in wave 3. First, we used sequence analysis and cluster analysis to analyze employment, partnership, and children histories between 25 and 50 years of age, separately for men and women. Then, we used logistic regression analysis to examine the relationships between these clusters and informal caregiving at ages 50 and above. Results indicate that women who stayed home (homemakers) and those who were self-employed were more likely to provide informal care in later life. Partnership histories matter only for men. Men who were separated were less involved in in-household caregiving and more in care provision outside of the household. Furthermore, childless men and women were more likely to be caregivers. Finally, differences in long-term care policies across countries significantly affected the likelihood of informal caregiving for men and women.

The provision of informal care has received a lot of attention during the past few decades. In the case of recurring parental care needs, adults may find themselves confronted with the task of juggling informal care for their parents and care for their children at the same time. These carers are typically called sandwich carers. Using data from the 2001–2019 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the association between childcare, informal care, and sandwich care on labour earnings, work time, and self-rated health and life satisfaction of caregivers. Our results show that the provision of sandwich care, as well as an increase in care intensity, is associated with a reduction in labour earnings, working hours, and satisfaction with life. Additionally, we found that the effects for labour earnings and working hours also persisted for at least one wave after the provision of care. Analysing our data stratified by sex revealed that only women show significant decreases in their labour earnings and satisfaction with life if providing sandwich care. The combination of different types of care that is inherent in sandwich care comes with its own unique set of challenges and stressors for the carers.

Objectives: We examine the mental health trajectories of people who start providing personal care and compare their trajectories with matched controls who remain non-carers. We also investigate whether trajectories vary by gender, financial resources, and supportive long-term care policies. Methods: Using 9 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, collected in 28 European countries from 2004 to 2022, we analyze longitudinal data from 68,075 men and women aged 50 or older. We identify transitions into regular personal care within the household and use depressive symptoms from up to 4 waves before and after transitioning into care to measure mental health trajectories. Financial resources are measured by household wealth, whereas 3 macro indicators assess (1) support for caregivers, (2) support for care recipients, and (3) public care service availability. Propensity score matching, applied separately for men and women, identifies matched noncaregivers from the same country, and we use piecewise growth curve models to examine changes before, during, and after becoming a carer. Results: Both men and women have a clear increase in depressive symptoms when becoming a regular carer, and this increase even begins before the transition. The increase during the transition is slightly more pronounced for women and those with lower wealth, but we find no systematic differences by policy indicators. Discussion: Our study highlights the need for improved support for carers. Although national policies may influence the likelihood of becoming a carer, their effectiveness in mitigating the mental health impact of caring remains unclear.

Although the long-term consequences of informal care provision have been well investigated, few studies have examined the trajectories of informal care provision among older people and the socioeconomic, demographic, health, and family characteristics associated with them. We use data from four waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, with 6561 respondents followed for 6 years (2012/3–2018/9). We used group-based trajectory modelling to group people's provision of care over time into a finite number of distinct trajectories of caregiving. Using multinomial logistic regressions, we then investigated the characteristics associated with these trajectories. Four distinct trajectories of caregiving were identified: “stable intensive”, “increasing intensive”, “decreasing”, and “stable no care”. Results suggest that although there are socioeconomic, demographic, and health differences across the trajectories of caregiving (with younger women in good health and poorer socioeconomic status more likely to care intensively throughout), family characteristics are their main drivers. Respondents who live alone, with no children, and no parents alive are more likely to never provide care, whereas those with older parents and who live with adults in poor health are more likely to provide stable intensive care. Also, changes in family characteristics (e.g. death of parents, widowhood, or deterioration of the partner’s health) are associated with trajectories representing increases or decreases in caregiving over time. Overall, trajectories of informal caregiving undertaken by older people are varied and these patterns are mostly associated with both the availability and health of family members, suggesting that need factors represent the most immediate reason for caregiving commitments.

Informal care plays an important role in the provision of care. However, previous research has mainly focused on middle- or older-aged informal carers and less is known about informal care among young adults, its consequences on educational achievement and employment transitions and whether this varies across country contexts. Using data from the 2009–2018 waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (N= 25,856) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (N= 16,666), we investigated the influence of informal care responsibilities of 17–29 year olds on their chances of achieving a university degree using logistic regression and employment transitions using Cox proportional hazard regression models. Our results revealed that young adulthood caring was negatively associated with the likelihood of obtaining a university degree, reduced the likelihood of entering employment and increased the likelihood of unemployment. These associations were more pronounced if people reported caring for more weekly hours (especially in the UK) or caring for longer durations (especially in Germany). The potential negative influence of caring in young adulthood on education was stronger for women than for men in Germany, and the influence of caring on entering unemployment was stronger for women than for men in the UK.

Introduction: Health inequalities start early in life. The time of young adulthood, between late teens and early twenties, is especially interesting in this regard. This time of emerging adulthood, the transition from being a child to becoming an adult, is characterized by the detachment from parents and establishing of an own independent life. From a health inequality perspective, the question about the importance of the socio-economic background of parents is important. University students are an especially interesting group. Many students come from a privileged background and the question of health inequality among university students has not yet been properly studied.Methods: Based on the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we analyzed health inequalities among 9,000 students in Germany (∅ 20 years in the first year of their studies) over a period of 8 years.Results: We found that most university students (92%) in Germany reported a good and very good health. Yet, we still found substantial health inequalities. Students whose parents had a higher occupational status reported less health problems. Additionally, we observed that health inequalities had indirect impact on health via health behavior, psychosocial resources, and material conditions.Discussion: We believe our study is an important contribution to the understudied subject of students' health. We see the impact of social inequality on health among such a privileged group like university students as an important sign of the importance of health inequality.

Objective: In Europes' ageing societies, informal care is increasingly critical for fulfilling the care needs of older people. Social inequalities in informal care are, however, still poorly understood, and the (differential) wellbeing consequences of caregiving remain unclear. Background: To this end, we provide an overview of empirical results, methodological challenges, and open questions originating from our research project IN-CARE (2019-22) that set out to assess inequalities in care and wellbeing in different care regimes. In this article, we focus on social gradients in informal care and its impact on wellbeing across European care contexts from the perspective of caregivers. Method: Based on the data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the English Longitudinal Study (ELSA) we applied different regression techniques and estimated fixed-effects models. Results: We find a socio-economic gradient in informal care and wellbeing. Yet, we do not find socio-economic differences in the effects of caregiving on caregivers’ wellbeing across European countries with different LTC policies. Also, we observe strong gender differences in the association of caregiving with caregivers’ wellbeing within the population of 50+, which depend on different care arrangements and care regimes. Conclusion: We conclude that gender is still the central inequality dimension in informal caregiving, linked to many other inequality dimensions, and strongly dependent on different care contexts. Thus, when designing social policies, multiple cross-level interactions and path dependencies should be considered.

Disclosing socioeconomic differences in informal care provision is increasingly important in aging societies as it helps to identify the segments of the population that may need targeted support and the types of national investments to support family caregivers. This study examines the association between individual-level socioeconomic status and informal care provision within the household. We also examine the role of contextual factors, income inequality, and the generosity of social spending, to identify how macro-level socioeconomic resource structures shape individuals’ provision of care to household members. We use pooled data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, waves 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, waves 2, 3, 4, 6, 7). Poisson regression multilevel models estimate the associations between household socioeconomic status (education, income, and wealth), and country socioeconomic resources (income inequality and social spending as a percentage of GDP), and the likelihood of older adults’ informal care provision within the household. Results indicate that lower individual socioeconomic resources—education, income, and wealth—were associated with a higher incidence of older adults’ informal care provision within the household. At the macro-level, income inequality was positively associated while social spending was negatively associated with older adults’ care provision within the household. Our findings suggest that socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are more likely to provide informal care, which may reinforce socioeconomic inequalities. At the national level, more equitable resource distribution and social spending may reduce intensive family caregiving.

A growing literature shows that doing voluntary work not only helps the wider community but can also improve one’s own well-being. To date, however, few studies have examined the relationship between volunteering and well-being in non-US and especially in comparative data. We study this relationship using two waves of data of 18,559 individuals aged 50 and above from 12 European countries. We analyze life satisfaction impacts of change and stability in volunteering status and in the intensity (frequency) of volunteering, and explore whether these impacts differ according to life stage (age, employment status) and across countries with different norms and supports for voluntarism. Findings show that net life satisfaction is higher among longer-term, recent, and former volunteers than among stable (long-term) non-volunteers. There are no significant life satisfaction differences between the three groups with volunteer experience. Equally, similar levels of life satisfaction are observed among people who have increased and decreased their frequency of volunteering. It thus seems to be the experience and not the dynamics (i.e., change or persistence) of volunteering that is associated with well-being. Findings further suggest life course variation in the association between volunteering and well-being, as the relationship is stronger for older and long-term non-employed (mostly retired) individuals than for their middle-aged and working counterparts. The relationship is also stronger in countries where volunteering is less common and less institutionally supported.

Zusammenfassung: Bislang wissen wir nur wenig darüber, welchen Einfluss Deprivation auf das Geben und Nehmen von Unterstützungsleistungen innerhalb von Familien hat. Anhand der fünften Welle des Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe untersuchen wir den Zusammenhang zwischen Generationenbeziehungen und materieller und sozialer Deprivation. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass von Deprivation betroffene Eltern ihre Kinder seltener unterstützen und häufiger selbst auf Hilfen angewiesen sind. Daneben finden sich in Ländern mit einer höheren Ungleichheit weniger Transfers zwischen Eltern und Kindern. Intergenerationale Beziehungen werden also durch Deprivation belastet. Zum einen zieht sich die Familie insgesamt zurück, zum anderen verlieren Kinder nicht nur die Unterstützung durch ihre Eltern, sie wenden zusätzlich auch eigene Ressourcen auf, um ihre Eltern zu unterstützen.