Working paper No.15 July 1998
Family relationships and intergenerational
exchange in later life
Christine Millward
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Contents
It is important to explore family relations and supports
in the light of the trend toward redistribution of private and public resources
for family support services and welfare provision. This paper ties together
many aspects of the intergenerational family obligations and exchanges experienced
by people aged between 50 and 70 years. It is based on data from the Australian
Institute of Family Studies' Later Life Families Study, conducted in late
1996.
This paper examines the interactions and flows of aid up and down between
three generations of the same family, with some emphasis on prolonged youth
dependency and elder care. Dimensions such as family size, availability and
degree of interaction between family members are taken into account, as are
the impact of the socio demographic and personal characteristics of the respondents,
their adult children and their elderly parents.
There are differing views of the family experience of middle age, retirement
and ageing. Hagestad (1987) sees the older groups in society as a rich resource
both for society at large and for individual families, since family networks
now have more multigenerational links, resulting in more variety and longer
duration of family relationships. However, while retirement brings a decline
in work and outside relationships which may lead to an increase in time spent
with family members, there is also a risk of overinvolvement with grandchildren
and other kin who need help (Szinovacz and Ekerdt 1995). This has the potential
to affect adversely the retirement experience of Laslett's idyllic notion of
the 'third age' in life - the time of personal fulfilment (Laslett 1992). This
third age (or stage) of life follows the first two stages - dependency and responsibility
- but precedes the fourth stage - physical decline. So while some maintain that
increased age brings a gradual withdrawal from family connections (Troll, Miller
and Atchley 1979), others say this time of life brings increased involvement
with family (Szinovacz and Ekerdt 1995).
This paper explores the intergenerational family relations of people aged from
50 to 70 years. This is equivalent to Laslett's third stage of life and is referred
to as 'later life' in this paper. The analysis examines interactions between
three generations of the same family. It explores various dimensions of family
cohesion - family structure, association, exchange, emotional relationships
and values. Elements such as family size, availability or degree of interaction
between family members, as well as socio demographic and personal characteristics,
are investigated as predictors of intergenerational family support for and by
people at this later life stage.
It is important to explore family relations and supports in an economic climate
of redistribution of family support services. Contemporary economic strategies
favour a reduction in government provision of services and the privatisation
of services. These strategies may affect expectations about family and community
responsibilities. Therefore, the identification of factors that contribute to
actual or anticipated family support, particularly exchange between younger
and older generations, will facilitate an understanding of the interplay between
private and public supports for families. Who has access to what sorts of private
resources, and what difference does such access make?
These changes in service provision and questions about who will provide family
support lead to a number of social and public policy issues for people in the
'later life' stage. The main social issues that will be considered are the ageing
of the population; the question of intergenerational obligations; prolonged
dependency of adult children; gender inequality in the shouldering of family
care responsibilities; the effects of divorce or relationship breakdown on the
availability of family support networks; the experience and responsibilities
of grandparenting; and care for the elderly.
Background issues
A number of issues raised in both the Australian and overseas literature set
the broader theoretical context for analysis of, and discussion about, the dynamics
and significance of family relations and exchange. These issues are the broad
social policy debate; the dimensions of family cohesion; the social contract;
the ageing of the population; gender inequality; and the effects of marital
separation.
Social policy debate
Variations in the propensity of family members to provide inter-generational
family support, for whatever reason, are important in informing policy debates
about the right mix of private and public social and economic supports for individuals.
For instance, public provision decisions based upon assumptions of support from
adult children to elderly parents may be ill-founded where divorce has occurred
(Thompson and Li 1992; Furstenberg, Hoffman and Shrestha 1995). The balance
of private and public support resources is particularly relevant to people in
their fifties and sixties. Not only will this group's own needs for certain
public services (particularly health services) start to increase in the next
two decades; they may also have responsibility for dependent or semi-dependent
adult children, or for elderly parents in need of care or assistance.
In recent years, many Western societies have moved away from a public welfare
style of government, and economic considerations have played a more dominant
role in policy-makers' decisions. Because social and health services can be
seen as a 'public burden' that drains the economy, the social objectives of
care, equity and wellbeing of citizens become subordinate to 'efficiency' and
cost-containment objectives. Thus, care of the very young, the ill, the disabled
or the elderly is seen to be the responsibility of the community. Thus, family
care is largely supported by unpaid labour, mostly provided by women, and often
with little help from public services (Hooyman 1992).
Given that indvidualism is encouraged by neo-classical economic theory, then
the assumption is that individuals should be responsible for their own welfare
rather than relying on the state (Bessant 1996). Under these circumstances there
is an expectation that if individuals fail to provide for themselves their families
rather than the state should provide for them. However, this expectation is
based upon the assumption that the family can and will care for all members.
The extra responsibilities implied by prolonged periods of education for young
people, rising unemployment rates and an ageing Australian population may mean
that this expectation is increasingly difficult to satisfy.
The age group that is the focus of this paper - those in their fifties and sixties
- will likely be the ones to bear this extra responsibility for both young adult
children and elderly parents.
Dimensions of family cohesion
How can we tell which families are in a position to take on extra responsibilities,
and which are already doing so? The ability to identify family resources and
propensities to provide intergenerational support becomes critical. A number
of dimensions of family cohesion have been discussed in the literature as being
important to integenerational exchange within families.
According to Roberts, Richards and Bengtson (1991) the main elements of family
cohesion are:
structure - which relatives exist and where they live;
association - communication and activities shared with relatives;
function - transfers and exchange of money, goods and services;
affect - feelings of affection, closeness, satisfaction with relationships;
value systems - beliefs about family culture and obligations;
identity/similarity - social or economic mobility among relatives.
An examination of the interactions between the various dimensions of family
cohesion will also help to identify which elements are important in predicting
the likelihood of intergenerational family support, whether this assistance
be to older or to younger family members. An obvious example is the link between
proximity and amount of contact.
For example, people may feel close to a broad range of family members or only
a few specific family members, which could affect levels of exchange. Levels
of involvement may also vary widely due to the diversity of family sizes and
forms produced by rapid social and demographic change. Some newer family forms
are the 'beanpole' family, which is a result of greater longevity and the
consequent multiple generations, and which extends the duration of intergenerational
family roles; the 'age-gapped' family structure, which is due to delayed child-bearing
and greater age differences between generations; missing generations, which
are increasingly due to voluntary childlessness; and complications brought
about by divorce or separation, which give rise to the 'step-relation' family
(Bengtson 1993). Such different patterns have implications not only for the
availability of support in times of need but also for the degree to which
value systems are shared.
Although some families will have the means to provide goods and services to
their members while others will not, the propensity to either provide or draw
upon family resources for support could also be related to a prevailing family
culture. Some families may endorse a traditional gender-based, home-centred
mode of caring for relatives, while others may favour a more modern mode of
care, using both formal and informal resources outside the home (King and
Chamberlayne 1996). Nevertheless, the extent to which individual families
are involved in internal transfers and exchange, and the extent to which they
espouse the values of mutual obligation and support, have implications for
the degree to which they can cover the needs gaps left by diminished public
provision. Knowledge of the nature of intergenerational support within families
can therefore help in our understanding of the demands families make on public
services.
The social contract
Family and societal values have consequences for the intergenerational 'social
contract'. This has been defined as a set of social norms 'involving the unwritten
informal expectations and obligations that create solidarity or conflict,
and the negotiation of these in everyday life' (Bengtson 1993, p. 4). In the
broader social context, it means that members of the older generation, having
maintained and succoured the next generation, will, theoretically, expect
the younger generation to support them in old age. But do people still expect
the younger generations - their own or others' children - to accept this responsibility?
It could be that these unwritten family obligations are becoming superseded
by the ideology of individualism.
Indeed, Motenko et al. (1995, p. 461) maintain that: 'societal conflict is
created by a philosophy of privatisation and individualism that espouses the
belief that people should be responsible for meeting their own basic needs
for housing, health services, and mental health services, with minimal help
from the collective taxpayers. '
Since the term 'generation' will be used in this paper in its sociological
sense, meaning generations of family lineage, rather than the more historical
concept of age cohorts, the intergenerational contract refers here to interaction
between generations within the same family. Therefore, if minimal help from
'the collective taxpayers' is to be expected, then a person's own family members
appear to be the obvious source of support for older citizens who cannot (or
will not be able to) provide for themselves. Alternatively, it may be the
case that isolated or 'nuclear' family households impede the operation of
mutual exchange between family generations. The important issues, therefore,
are to what extent younger generations are already providing support for their
seniors and to what extent they are expected to do so in the future.
The ageing of the population
The financial support of the aged is increasingly perceived to be a problem
for future social policy planning (Officer 1996). One reason for this is that
the proportion of citizens paying taxes to support welfare services for the
older generation is dwindling, while the proportion of people in the older
generation increases in comparison. This results in increases in the 'dependency
ratio' - the ratio of dependent aged to taxpayers.
In the past, the population distribution in Australia has resembled a pyramid,
with the smallest proportion in the oldest age groups and the largest proportion
in the youngest age groups. The size of projected population sections for
Australia over the next 50 years indicates that the population distribution
will become (and is already becoming) more square-shaped. There is a projected
increase of people aged 65 years and over from 12 per cent of the population
in 1995 to 22 per cent in 2041 (ABS 1996a). This means that the ratio of wage-earners
and other taxpayers to elderly people will be reduced. Also, younger people
available to attend to the care of the elderly will make up a smaller proportion
of the population. When the current lower fertility rates (de Vaus, Wise and
Soriano 1997) are added, it becomes clear that the future elderly will have
fewer adult children, or no adult children, to help them in older age.
In the United States, Bengtson (1993) foresees limits being placed upon medical
care or pensions for the elderly by the second or third decades of next century.
The corollary is increasing political pressure for families to provide for
the growing elderly population in Australia as in the United States.
Gender inequality
Practical problems may result from these pressures if insufficient human or
economic resources exist within individual families to enable them to shoulder
an increasing burden. Furthermore, personal care for family members (excluding
financial care) has been observed to be provided by women (Finch 1989; Glezer
1991; Millward 1996; Howe and Schofield 1996); while men do provide some spousal
care, they rarely care for disabled family-of-origin members or for impaired
parents. Hence, the term 'family care' may be a misnomer. Furthermore, Hooyman
(1992) maintains that social policy perpetuates gender inequality because
social service cost-cutting relies on women's unpaid labour. Therefore, the
social norms around caring roles disadvantage women, because long-term care
is seen as a family - that is, female - responsibility rather than as a societal
responsibility.
It should not be assumed that there is an endless supply of unpaid female
labour. Women's participation in the paid workforce is increasing, as is the
number of sole mothers. However, women's domestic caring responsibilities
do not recede as their paid work increases, so they may experience the conflict
and burden of a 'double duty' (Moen 1992). This can cause physical or mental
stress, especially since the actual time available to spend on domestic and
caring tasks does decrease, which may lead to an increase in domestic tensions
and a reduction in the level of satisfaction women experience in their family
role (Bittman and Pixley 1997).
Effects of marital separation
A further factor pertinent to the availability of private family resources
is the family network disruption that may follow divorce or separation. This
may affect two or more generations of the same family and can result in fewer
family members being accessible (Millward 1996). Decisions about the public
provision of support that are based upon the assumptions that adult children
will support elderly parents may be ill founded where divorce has occurred
(Furstenberg, Hoffman and Shrestha 1995).
The present Australian divorce rate raises concerns about future intergenerational
relations and exchange. Australian divorce rates throughout the 1980s and
1990s have been fairly stable at between ten and twelve divorces per thousand
of the married population for any given year (de Vaus 1997). Although around
one-third of divorced people remarry, slightly more second marriages than
first marriages also end in divorce (ABS 1996b). As a consequence, the number
of children living in one-parent families has steadily increased since the
late 1980s (Kilmartin 1997); de Vaus (1997) notes that the pool of Australian
people with divorced parents 'is increasing by 40 to 50 thousand children
each year' (p. 32).
Such changing marital patterns have implications for the balance of public
and private support resources for people in later life since traditional flows
of exchange and possibly also emotional ties with adult children may have
been disrupted in a sizeable proportion of families. The effect of divorce
among grandparents has also been found to be a factor in determining kin network
availability and contact (Thompson and Li 1992), because adults whose parents
divorce also report a lower quality relationship with their parents (Lye et
al. 1995).
These effects suggest there may be less intergenerational involvement when
the grandparent generation has been through marital breakdown. This might
lessen involvement with both adult children and with grandchildren.
Indeed, Aquilino (1994, p. 908) found that: 'later life parental divorce lowered
relationship quality and contact between adult children and parents. The effects
were stronger for father-child than mother-child relations and stronger for
father-daughter than for father-son relations. Widowhood had negative effects
on father-child but not on mother-child relations . . . Divorce disrupted
parent-son more than parent-daughter support exchange.'
Later Life Families Study
The Later Life Families Study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family
Studies was designed to examine the place of family in people's lives as they
approach older age. It was a random national sample collected in late 1996
via computer-assisted telephone interviewing, in conjunction with the larger
Australian Lifecourse Study. Structured telephone interviews lasting approximately
45 to 60 minutes were conducted by trained interviewers with 721 respondents.
One male or female respondent, aged between 50 and 70 years, was interviewed
per selected household. Their spouses or other family members were not interviewed.
In the Later Life Families Study, intergenerational relations are examined
with the older parent as the reference person, rather than the adult child.
This contrasts with two large US studies: Furstenberg, Hoffman and Shrestha
(1995), based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics of 1988, and Webster and
Herzog (1995), based on the Americans' Changing Lives survey of 1989. The
Australian study allows for the emphasis to be on the perceptions and behaviours
of these older people, rather than the perceptions of younger adults, as is
the case with the two US studies. Also, since the three studies cover very
similar subject matter, comparisons from the point of view of two different
generations are possible.
Sample characteristics
Table 1 displays personal characteristics
of the Later Life Families Study sample. The 721 respondents were aged between
50 and 70 years, with 57 per cent being women and 43 per cent being men. This
is an overrepresentation of women by about 6 per cent, and was due to women
being more likely than men to agree to be interviewed. Other dimensions of
the sample were very close to the proportions in the general population within
the age range (Mills 1997).
Seventy-two per cent were currently in registered or de facto marriages (not
necessarily their first marriage), 12 per cent were divorced or separated,
and 11 per cent were widowed. Most respondents were born in either Australia
or the British Isles (85 per cent) and only 5 per cent spoke a language other
then English at home. Half were still in the workforce and nearly half had
an education level of year 10 (fourth form or Intermediate Certificate) or
less, which reflects common educational standards of the 1930s to 1950s when
they were likely to be at school.
Table 2 shows respondents' family and
household characteristics. The majority of respondents (71 per cent) lived
with a partner and most had children (92 per cent). Of those with children,
just over a quarter (27 per cent) still had children living at home with them.
Nearly two-thirds were grandparents (62 per cent), and around half still had
at least one elderly parent living (35 per cent had their own father or mother
and 29 per cent had a partner's parent alive). Nearly all (94 per cent) had
at least one sibling living (76 per cent had their own brother, 78 per cent
had their own sister and 78 per cent had partners with siblings).
Family structure, proximity and association
In the investigation of which family factors are linked with intergenerational
exchange, the first family cohesion factors to be examined are those of intergenerational
family structure, geographic proximity and levels of association.
Where the younger and older generations live
Respondents were asked where adult children, mothers or step-mothers, fathers
or step-fathers and partner's parents or step-parents lived, using the following
categories: live with me; live within 30 minutes away; live between 30 minutes
and 2 hours from me; live elsewhere in Australia; live overseas.
This part of the survey deals with those respondents who had adult children
who had left home and were living independently. The effects of co-residence
with adult children will be discussed later in this paper in the context of
aid exchange.
Most respondents had children living independently (82 per cent) and, of those
with independent children, over half had at least one adult child living within
a 30-minute drive. Also, women were more likely to have independent children
than men (86 per cent compared with 76 per cent of men), which suggests that
the men in this age group tend to have younger children than the women.
Elderly parents are included in Table 3 regardless
of co-residence, as this applies in only about 3 per cent of cases. Only 35
per cent of respondents had either a mother or father still living, but it
was much more common to have an elderly mother (220) than father (90). Around
half of those still in their fifties had a parent alive, compared with only
15 per cent of those aged 60 to 71 years. However, very few (3 per cent) had
an elderly parent living with them and fewer than 20 per cent had an elderly
parent living within a 30-minute drive of them. It is clear, therefore, that
the majority of elderly parents are living independently, and not just around
the corner. Only 12 per cent of all respondents had an elderly parent (or
parent-in-law) in a nursing home or special accommodation home or hostel.
Contact between generations
Respondents were asked how often they spoke to adult children and to elderly
parents, using the following categories: every day; a few times a week; once
a week; once a fortnight; monthly; less often; special occasions; not at all.
Seventeen per cent of respondents had adult children (over 18 years of age)
still living with them. Living nearby correlated with more frequent contact:
if relatives lived nearby they were likely to be contacted either in person,
or by telephone, more often than if they lived further afield. Nearly all
respondents (92 per cent) with an adult child living independently spoke to
them at least once a week, and there was often more than one such child (see
Table 4). Nearly two-thirds of respondents
with an elderly mother spoke to her weekly, while elderly fathers and partner's
parents were not contacted so often.
Women generally had more frequent contact with both independent children and
elderly parents than did men. Ninety-five per cent of women spoke to an independent
child at least once a week, compared with 85 per cent of men, but differences
were more striking regarding elderly parents. Women were much more likely
to have frequent contact with both elderly mothers (73 per cent had weekly
contact, compared with 55 per cent of men) and elderly fathers (63 per cent
of women had weekly contact, compared with 36 per cent of men). The gender
difference worked in the opposite direction for contact with parents-in-law,
with men more likely than women to have weekly contact with in-laws (45 per
cent weekly, compared with 30 per cent of women). This is consistent with
a man seeing his wife's parents more often than a woman seeing her husband's
parents.
There were no differences in frequency of contact with either independent
children or elderly parents according to respondents' workforce participation.
This is somewhat surprising, since it could be expected that those who had
retired or were not in the workforce would have more time to contact relatives
than would those with employment commitments, but this was not found to be
the case.
Although respondents from non-English-speaking backgrounds are less likely
than those from English-speaking backgrounds to have elderly parents living
in Australia (Millward 1996), it might be expected that, due to cultural norms,
there would be more frequent contact with close relatives who had also migrated
to Australia. This was found to be the case in a limited sense: all respondents
from such a background with an elderly mother living here had contact with
her at least weekly, compared with three-quarters of those with English-speaking
backgrounds. However, there were not enough elderly fathers or parents-in-law
from non-English-speaking backgrounds living in Australia for meaningful comparisons
to be made regarding these relatives, and there was no significant difference
between these and other respondents in contacting at least one adult child
weekly.
The marital status of respondents made some difference to contact rates. Respondents
who had been divorced or separated had less frequent contact with adult children.
Seventeen per cent of those divorced or separated contacted independent children
less often than weekly, compared with only 6 per cent of legally married and
10 per cent of widowed people. So it was not whether people lived alone or
with a spouse or partner that made the difference; rather, it was a history
of marital separation.
In other studies, parental divorce or separation has also been observed to
decrease levels of contact between older parents and their adult children
(Roberts, Richards and Bengtson 1991; Webster and Herzog 1995). Such intergenerational
dynamics have been of particular interest in cultures where there are high
divorce rates, as divorces and remarriages clearly change the structure of
the kinship system (Marks and McLanahan 1993).
However, despite a history of marital separation making a difference to contact
with children, it did not affect contact with elderly parents. In this case,
the important factor was whether or not respondents lived alone or with a
partner. Those who were living with a partner were less likely to contact
elderly mothers or fathers weekly than were those living alone. Perhaps this
is linked to the greater availability of unpartnered people at this later
life stage to socialise with elderly parents, or to cater to their more personal
needs.
Discussion
A main issue that arises from the consideration of proximity and association
is that of gender differences. As seen in Table
3, very few respondents had elderly parents living with them; those who
did were more likely to have elderly mothers living with them (2 per cent).
Respondents were more likely to have mothers than fathers living within a
30-minute drive (11 per cent) and were more likely to be in fairly frequent
contact with mothers than fathers (65 per cent in contact at least weekly)
(see Table 4). Female respondents also
had more to do with both their parents and independent children, while the
men had more to do with their parents-in-law, ostensibly through association
between their wife and her parents.
This female 'kin-keeping' phenomenon has been attributed to female socialisation
into family roles of organisation, nurture and mediation (Chodorow 1978),
which are seen to complement male roles in public life (Bottomley 1983). Female
respondents appear to be more connected with both younger and older generations
of family members than male respondents, but further analysis will test the
hypothesis that the strength of feminine culture within the family milieu
translates to more extensive exchange between female relatives than male relatives.
The direction of family ties also seems to be important. While levels of association
were generally fairly high, the ties with children appeared to be stronger
than those with elderly parents. This was the case regardless of ethnic background,
suggesting that downward links are stronger than upward ones. The next section,
dealing with actual exchange between generations, will further test the hypothesis
that the parent-adult child relationship is the most significant by examing
levels of intergenerational exchange both up and down generations from the
point of view of the respondents.
The effect of the marital situation of respondents on intergenerational contacts
is also further explored later in this paper. The three family dynamics -
proximity, contact rates and levels of exchange - have been shown to be correlated,
both in recent Australian research (Millward 1996) and in overseas work (Roberts,
Richards and Bengtson 1991; Finch 1989). Therefore, the hypothesis is that
the marital and partnering status of people in later life will also significantly
influence actual intergenerational exchange.
Later life parents receiving help from adult children
The next dimension of family cohesion, and the main focus of this paper, is
that of intergenerational exchange. Three main types of aid exchange between
respondents and both adult children and elderly parents are examined: financial
assistance, practical help and emotional support or advice. Associated demographic
and social factors are expected to vary and different policy issues arise
depending on the direction of the intergenerational flow of aid - up to or
down from respondents - and the life stage of the 'givers' and 'receivers'
of support.
The first issue to be explored is the exchange of aid between respondents
and their adult children. This involved interviewing a sub-sample of 632 parents
who had children over the age of 18 years, whether these children were living
independently or not.
This group of parents was asked: 'Do your adult children provide you with
emotional support or advice?' 'Do your adult children help you financially
if you need it?' 'Do your adult children provide you with any practical support
(doing things for you)?'
These questions pertain to generic types of assistance; no specific tasks,
amounts of help or sums of money were mentioned in the survey. This was partly
because the survey was a sub-section of a much more extensive and broad-ranging
study. Also, because it was a telephone survey, the length of interviews had
to be tightly contained. Nevertheless, Table
5 shows that well over three-quarters of these respondents received some
emotional support (81 per cent) or some sort of practical help (78 per cent)
from their adult children (two-thirds (68 per cent) received both). However,
general financial aid from adult children was much less common (23 per cent),
so only around a fifth of the parents received all three kinds of help from
adult children.
As will be seen later in this paper, the big difference between the nature
of support given to adult children and received from adult children was that
financial help generally flowed in one direction - from older parents to adult
children and not vice versa. Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence
of a wide-based commitment on the part of adult children towards their parents.
Effect of co-residence
Although most of these respondents (73 per cent) did not have any adult offspring
still living at home, the influence of co-residence with adult children for
the remaining parents (27 per cent) should be considered, in that more exchange
might be expected when adult children are living with their parents (White
and Rogers 1997). Table 6 shows that
proportion of parents receiving three types of assistance from resident compared
with non-resident adult children.
Co-residence did generally enhance financial exchange. Chi-square significance
tests showed a weak to moderate difference in the receipt of financial assistance
between those with and those without resident adult children. There was a
higher instance of receiving money from resident adult children than from
non-resident adult children. This contribution to household finances on the
part of co-resident children probably takes the form of board and other expenses
paid from children's wages or study assistance payments.
However, parents were just as likely to receive practical help from their
adult children whether they were co-resident or not, and in fact less emotional
support was received by respondents from co-resident children than from those
who were living independently (see Table 6).
The greater emotional support and advice given to parents by adult children
living independently may well be related to their age and maturity, as they
could perhaps act as a friend or adviser to parents. Because many were themselves
parents, the shared understanding of the parenting role may also provide for
more of an equal status with their later life parents.
Parental characteristics and receipt of aid
The characteristics and socio-demographic situation of parents may be a further
influence on the amount of help forthcoming from the younger generation. To
avoid the confounding effects of co-residence, Table
7 shows the proportions of parents receiving assistance from adult children
according to parental characteristics, but only from adult children living
independently.
Mothers were more likely than fathers to report receiving all three types
of aid from their children, which accords with past research findings that
mothers give to adult children and receive from them more help than fathers
(Marks and McLanahan 1993). This also further illustrates the correlation
between communication and exchange, as mothers also had more frequent contact
with independent children than did fathers.
Not surprisingly, those in the workforce and with the highest incomes were
less likely than those with lower incomes to receive financial assistance
from children. In contrast, those with non-English-speaking backgrounds or
low incomes were the most likely to receive financial help. Parents on lower
incomes also received the most practical help, which suggests that giving
by adult children to their parents is needs-based.
Parents with more than one independent adult child were also more likely than
those with only one child to receive emotional and practical aid, as these
parents can draw upon a bigger younger-generation 'resource base' in times
of need (of course, the sixty-one respondents without children would have
no such resource base).
As explained earlier, the effects of marital status and history are explored
here in two dimensions. The first is a comparison of those respondents who
have had a marital separation with those who have not; the second is a comparison
of those currently with a partner and those without.
Regarding the first dimension, a past marital separation decreased the probability
of emotional support or practical aid from non-resident adult children, which
reflects a lower level of involvement and possibly more detached relationships.
However, a past marital separation did not seem to affect financial assistance
to the later life parents, in contrast with findings from the US Panel Study
of Income Dynamics, which found that parental marital separation negatively
affects economic aid from adult children (Furstenberg, Hoffman and Shrestha
1995). This contradiction may be linked to the fact that many of the parents
reported on by Furstenberg, Hoffman and Shrestha were older than those in
the Later Life Families Study, so may have needed more financial assistance
from adult children for health care and the like.
On the second dimension, living alone rather than with a partner had no clear
effect upon receipt of help. Nevertheless, if both the gender and past divorce
or separation of parents are considered simultaneously, a 'pecking order'
for receipt of aid from adult children emerged.
Starting with the group of parents most helped, this pecking order was as
follows:
mothers who were widowed and had not repartnered;
mothers in one intact marriage;
mothers who were divorced or separated, but not repartnered;
fathers in one intact marriage;
mothers who had divorced or separated and were repartnered;
fathers who were divorced or separated, but not repartnered;
fathers who had divorced or separated and were repartnered.
Apart from the effects of marital history, this pecking order illustrates
several other dynamics. First, people generally 'do not give unconditional
assent to the principle of kinship obligations' (Finch and Mason 1993). Rather,
this is tempered by the nature and duration of personal ties. Second, gender
is important, as mothers in general appear to reciprocate support more than
fathers (particularly in interchanges with daughters) and this is an important
factor in striving for 'a proper balance' in receiving and donating relationships
(Finch and Mason 1993). Third, personal relationship circumstances compound
the effects of past divorce or separation. Widows and divorced mothers may
be regarded as more in need of children's support than are fathers in general.
However, it becomes clear that older men are more likely to experience diminished
younger generation support following marital change.
According to these findings, the fairly high and stable divorce rates over
the 1980s and 1990s may compromise the availability of younger- generational
support for the age cohorts who will be aged over 60 years in the second and
third decades of the twenty first century. This implies that older parents
with a history of marital separation, particularly those living alone, may
need to rely more on public nursing, home help or accommodation services than
those who have not experienced marital separation. Therefore, long-term planning
of public support services may need to compensate for shortfalls in filial
resources, particularly for divorced older men. Also, the need for an expansion
of aged services in the future is suggested for the low-income, not employed
and non-English-speaking background groups, who may need to rely more and
more on offspring for support as they age and whose offspring may be unavailable
or unable to provide support.
Expectations of aid
As well as being asked about the help they received from their children, the
later life parents were asked who they would turn to for help in certain situations.
Table 8 gives the proportions of respondents
with different characteristics who felt they would turn to independent adult
children for care when ill, to confide in, and for help in an emergency.
Generally, the proportions of respondents who would expect these forms of
support from adult children were smaller than the proportions actually receiving
emotional and practical help (see Table 7).
This could in part be due to definitional differences, as parents may view
'confiding in children' as narrower than receiving general 'emotional support',
and 'practical help' would cover a much wider range of tasks or services than
the special cases of illness and emergencies. However, the difference could
also reflect these parents' feelings that they should not expect to (or would
not desire to) call upon adult children in such circumstances.
As was the case with receipt of aid, mothers were more likely than fathers
to expect all three types of aid from their children. Those in the workforce
were less likely to expect all three types of aid from children (see Table
8). Those on the lowest incomes were the most likely to expect help from
children when they were ill. Parents with English speaking backgrounds were
less likely to expect help in emergencies and were less likely to confide
in adult children than were those with non-English-speaking backgrounds. Age
was related to expectations too, with those over 60 more likely to expect
help in illness and emergencies than those in their fifties.
The picture that emerges is one of parents with fewer material or social resources
(due to low income, migrant status, or lack of a partner) relying more on
their adult children than other parents. However, having more than one independent
child over 18 years did not increase the likelihood of seeking these types
of help, despite the existence of a larger potential resource pool. The age-related
effect may indicate perceptions of higher or more immediate need by the older
respondents, to whom the possibility of requiring such extra help may be more
salient.
As was the case with actual aid, a past marital separation was related to
expectations about aid, but only for those who were living alone: the widowed
group were much more likely to expect help from their children than were the
divorced or separated (see Table 8).
Of course, this is partly related to gender because there were far more women
among the widowed group. It should also be noted that parents with partners,
regardless of their previous marital history, were most likely to report turning
to their partner for help rather than to other family members, including adult
children.
Relationships and family values
So far we have seen that the extent of intergenerational exchange is influenced
by some personal and social characteristics, as well as by the more structural
dimensions of family cohesion, such as family structure, proximity of relatives
and contact frequency between family members. However, there are more subjective
aspects of family cohesion that might be just as important in determining
exchange of aid. In particular, the following analysis explores satisfaction
with relationships between respondents and adult children, as well as beliefs
about family culture and intergenerational obligations.
Satisfaction with parent-child relationships
First, to indicate the quality of filial relationships, a scale measuring
satisfaction with the relationship with adult children was used. Again, it
was not possible to gauge closeness with individual children, as the question
was asked: 'How satisfied are you with your relationship with your children?'
On a five-point scale from '1 = Very satisfied' to '5 = Very dissatisfied',
75 per cent of parents whose adult children all lived away independently said
they were very satisfied with their relationships with their children. A further
20 per cent were satisfied. Table 9 shows
that the highest levels of satisfaction with parent-child relationships were
associated with gaining emotional support or practical help from adult children,
and with expectations of help.
However, although only a small group of twenty-five parents were dissatisfied
or had mixed feelings about their relationships with adult children, these
feelings were linked with a lower probability of gaining assistance from those
children. For example, only 33 per cent of those who were not satisfied with
filial relationships received any practical help from adult children, compared
with 80 per cent of those who were very satisfied. Not surprisingly, it appears
that subjective feelings about the nature of intergenerational relationships
make a difference to the flow of aid, but it is unclear whether poorer relationships
led to there being less chance of gaining help or whether they resulted from
receiving less help.
Furthermore, mothers (81 per cent) were more likely than fathers (67 per cent)
to have very satisfactory relations with adult children, as was also the case
for those who had not experienced marital separation (81 per cent) compared
with those who had (59 per cent). This is consistent with mothers, people
in intact marriages and the widowed also receiving more help from, and having
more contact with, adult children than did those with a history of marital
separation.
Attitudes to intergenerational obligations
A second measure was constructed to probe views about intergenerational family
obligations. This was a normative scale indicating parents' views on the obligations
of adult children toward older parents. The scale is based on a four-item
factor derived by performing principal components analysis on nine family
values propositions.
Respondents were asked whether they strongly agreed, agreed, had mixed feelings
about, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the following statements: 'Adult
children should help their parents financially if they need it. Children should
let ageing parents live with them if they need to. It is not the responsibility
of adult children to take care of ageing parents. I would rather use outside
services than have help from family or friends.'
The raw 'obligations' scale had a range from 3 (denoting very high support)
to 19 (no support) and was reasonably reliable (Chronbach Alpha = 0.65). When
making the scale, the last two items were reverse-coded for consistency, as
they were worded in a negative way.
Parents receiving financial assistance from adult children more strongly supported
the belief in adult children's responsibility toward older parents than did
those not receiving financial assistance. However, there were no differences
regarding the receipt of emotional or practical aid from children, nor were
there differences in the expectations of help in illness, help in emergencies
or sharing of confidences. There were also no significant differences in this
intergenerational obligation scale according to marital history.
In contrast with satisfaction with relationships, stronger support for filial
obligation was more likely to be reported by fathers than mothers (42 per
cent compared with 26 per cent). Older men more strongly endorsed the proposition
that adult children should care for older parents and support them financially.
Perhaps some men were more traditional in their views or were worried about
who would look after them if they lost their wife. However, the gender difference
in views could also reflect the fact that many women knew more fully the commitment
needed to care for elderly parents and did not believe that children should
feel obligated to shoulder such a burden. (A detailed discussion of elder
care and responsibility is provided in the section examining respondents and
their elderly parents).
The degree of satisfaction with relationships with adult children seems important
for ongoing support from them, while there is only limited and somewhat unclear
evidence that parents' attitudes toward filial obligations are linked with
actual or expected support from adult children.
Of course, aid given to later life parents could depend more on the children's
attitudes towards intergenerational obligations than the parents' own views,
but unfortunately the views of adult children are not available for this paper.
Furthermore, although Webster and Herzog (1995) note that members of the older
generation tend to perceive parent-child relations more positively than do
their children (a form of 'generational bias'), it cannot be assumed that
parents view filial obligations as more important than do children. Neither
can it be assumed that the views of the two generations will coincide. Indeed,
Finch and Mason (1993) point out that the sense of commitment between parents
and children (and other family members) develops and changes over time, and
may be viewed differently by members of the same family as they move through
different stages and circumstances.
Later life parents helping adult children
As well as receiving some assistance from their adult children as they grow
older, parents generally continue to help their children, no matter what their
ages (Finch 1989; Towsend 1989; Greenberg 1991).
Regarding assistance given to adult children, respondents were asked: 'Do
you provide your adult children with emotional support or advice?' 'Do you
help your adult children financially if they need it?' 'Do you provide your
adult children with any practical support (doing things for them)?'
Psychological support, social interaction and practical help through money,
goods and services can all be important resources for today's younger generation,
particularly in a political climate that is increasingly adopting a 'user-pays'
philosophy concerning social infrastructures and welfare services. Certain
changes to federal legislation - such as restricting eligibility for Austudy
or unemployment benefits for young adults - are based upon the premise that
parents are still responsible for the welfare of adult children who are unemployed
or studying. Prolonged dependency of increasingly large sub-groups of adult
children may result, but some children may be more likely than others to receive
help from parents.
To explore the extent and correlates of aid, as well as reasons for aid, provided
by older parents to adult children, the parents in this study were asked what
type of support they gave to their adult children (those over 18 years): financial,
practical or emotional. Because these questions were asked about adult children
in general, it was not possible to determine the characteristics of those
who did or did not receive help from parents, but just that some help was
given. However, it was possible to examine the characteristics of the parents
who were providing the assistance (see Table
10).
The great majority of parents were helping their adult children. The most
common form of assistance was emotional support and advice, which attests
to the intimate nature of parent-child relationships. Although almost universal,
the provision of emotional support and advice to adult children was related,
to a small degree, to the parent's gender, age and current relationship status.
Emotional support was more likely from mothers than fathers, from those under
the age of 60 than those over 60, and from those living with a partner (whether
a registered or de facto marriage) than those living alone (whether widowed,
divorced or never married). This emphasises the closeness of mother-child
relationships - an intimacy clearly demonstrated by previous Institute research
which found that both men and women have more contact with, and tend to confide
in, their mother above any other relative (Millward 1996). There was also
a suggestion that younger parents (those under 60) may be more in tune with
the problems of their adult children than older parents. Those who themselves
had emotional 'back-up' in the form of an intimate relationship with a partner
or spouse also appeared better placed to support adult children emotionally
(see Table 10).
The least common form of aid to adult children was financial help, but this
was still given by over two-thirds of parents. Overall, financial assistance
was related mainly to the economic and employment status of parents or basically
to their means to assist. Those with higher incomes (particularly over $60
000 per year), higher education and those still in the paid workforce were
most likely to help adult children financially. Of interest here is the fact
that, as with emotional support, parents who were married or de facto appeared
better placed to help support adult children financially, perhaps because
of the availability of double incomes (from pensions, wages, etc.) compared
with parents who were unpartnered (see
Table 10).
Again, the giving of practical assistance was widespread, with more than three
quarters of the parents interviewed giving this type of assistance. This was
not significantly affected by parental characteristics.
Overall, 60 per cent of parents reported giving all three types of assistance
to children. This seems a big commitment on the part of these parents, half
of whom also had elderly parents to consider.
Why do some children get more help than others?
More specifically, parents were asked: 'Do any of your adult children need
more help from you than others?'
If the answer was yes, they were then asked 'Who?' and 'Why?' Where extra
help was given to a particular adult child, the design of the study made it
possible to examine that adult child's personal circumstances as well as those
of the parent. Parents' own explanations for any differential treatment of
their children were also elicited to provide a deeper understanding of circumstances.
In total, the 630 parents supplied information about the personal circumstances
of 1958 adult children. This is an average of 3.1 children per respondent,
which reflects the relatively high fertility rate of this age cohort (de Vaus,
Wise and Soriano 1987). The children concerned could be those of the respondent
or of their spouse or of both.
Three per cent of these adult children had no adult siblings to enable comparisons
of aid given by parents and so were dropped from this analysis. Nearly 10
per cent (n = 175) of the remaining adult children were reported by parents
to need more help than their siblings. It is this group that will be the focus
of the next section of analysis.
First, Table 11 compares the characteristics
of adult children who received extra help from parents with those who received
no extra help.
Where adult children live
Extra help was related to where adult children lived in two ways: those who
were still living with parents and those who had moved out but were living
nearby tended to received more help than siblings further afield.
Co-residency
Nearly twice the proportion (17 per cent) of co-resident adult children as
non-resident ones (9 per cent) received extra help from respondents (see Table
11). Regarding type of help given (not shown in the Table), a greater
proportion of parents (80 per cent) gave financial assistance to resident
children than to non-resident ones (69 per cent), and more parents (90 per
cent) gave practical aid to resident children than to non resident ones (80
per cent). This is not surprising, for, as one mother put it,
'[My son] lives at home so he gets his washing and cooking done.'
However, while more help was exchanged in co-residence, this also resulted
in lower levels of satisfaction with relationships with adult children: 76
per cent of parents were very satisfied with relationships when all adult
children lived away, compared with 57 per cent being very satisfied when at
least one child over 18 was still at home. This concurs with work by White
and Rogers (1997) which found that increased interaction via co-residence
could exacerbate parent-adult child tensions, particularly if co residence
is involuntary. Relationship difficulties may also be due in part to the extra
physical load on parents whose adult children are still at home.
These examples reflect a current Australian trend in co-residency, where children
are staying with parents for longer periods of time than was the case in the
past. As discussed in de Vaus and Qu (1997), the ABS Families Survey (1992)
showed that around 43 per cent of young people aged 20 to 24 years were still
living with parents, as were around 12 per cent of those aged 25 to 29 years
.
This is quite a high percentage of those under 25 years and reflects the trends
toward later age at first marriage (Qu 1998), as well as continuing educational
participation. Furthermore, co-residence on the part of a youngest child does
not preclude older siblings having also enjoyed a great deal of support from
parents before they left 'the nest', so the overall period of time spent by
later life parents with adult children in the home could be quite considerable.
Proximity
However, for 73 per cent of these parents, all children over 18 years of age
were living away independently. Of parents with non-resident children, just
over half (54 per cent) had at least one child living within a 30-minute drive.
Nearly all (90 per cent) spoke with at least one child weekly or more frequently
(either in person or on the telephone). As has been found in other large studies
(Millward 1996), and is noted in the analysis above, close proximity and frequent
contact were strongly correlated, so the nearer adult children lived, the
more interaction occurred between the two generations.
The physical proximity of children to parents also made a difference to the
likelihood of additional aid being given. That is, where children were not
actually residing with their parents, the closer they lived, the more likely
they were to gain additional help from parents. One mother said she helped
her daughter more 'just because she lives closer than the son'.
Indeed, nearly half (47 per cent) of those being given more help than their
siblings lived within a half-hour drive of their parent or parents, while
only a fifth (19 per cent) of those given additional assistance lived more
than 2 hours away. Geographical closeness can be viewed as an important element
of 'structural solidarity' in families (Roberts, Richards and Bengtson 1991);
these findings are consistent with other studies showing the importance of
proximity of family members in facilitating family exchange (Millward 1996;
Finch 1989; Glezer 1991).
Personal characteristics of parents
The gender of parents did not affect the likelihood of them giving extra help
to certain children; nor did marital history, age or employment status. It
was anticipated
that perhaps older parents and those who had retired might give more practical
help to adult children, as they might have more time available, but this was
not found to be the case.
Personal characteristics of adult children
While the characteristics of parents had no impact on the likelihood that
they would give extra aid to particular children, the characteristics of the
adult children themselves certainly did explain why some received additional
support from their parents.
Age
First, those receiving 'extra help' were likely to be younger. Table
11 shows that a higher proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds received extra
help than did not, but a lower proportion of over 35 year olds received extra
help than did not. Some parents explained that they gave more advice to very
young adults (often their youngest child) because they were just more psychologically
dependent on parents:
'My son is the youngest and needs a little more support at times.'
'Need more support and advice because they are young and inexperienced.'
More practical assistance was also reported to go to the youngest child because
they were just starting out and had fewer resources than their older siblings,
who were generally better established financially and considered to be more
psychologically independent. Therefore, youth was a factor in determining
need. Even though older siblings were more likely to have children (and more
children) than their younger siblings, the assistance expected via grandparenting
did not appear to cancel out the age effect.
Occupation
Somewhat related to age and experience was the adult child's occupational
status, as extra financial support was frequently said to be needed by adult
offspring who were studying, particularly if they were undertaking full-time
university courses. Indeed, a number of parents commented that adult students
(some in their twenties or thirties) were largely or wholly financially dependent
upon them:
'He's a student and 100 per cent financially dependent.'
'She's still studying at university and at this stage not getting any government
support.'
Also, some children were unemployed or in precarious employment, so their
parents provided a financial 'cushion' for them. One father said he helped
his youngest son the most because,
'He never stays in jobs for very long. There are financial difficulties so
we need to support him.'
It is not surprising that the financial needs of adult offspring are linked
to their occupational activities. Table
11 shows that those in paid employment were not as likely as the others
to receive extra help. Nevertheless, some parents explained that they gave
both additional financial and practical help to a particular child because
they had just started their own business; for example,
'My son has just bought his own farm in partnership with his wife.'
Also, some grandparents said they provided work-related child care because
their daughter was in paid work and so needed more help with babysitting than
did her siblings:
'I mind [this daughter's] children a lot more because she's working.'
There was a larger proportion of homemakers among those adult children receiving
extra help than those not receiving extra help (see Table
11). These were likely to be daughters (whether 'lone' mothers or not)
and to be caring for children, which tended to increase the amount of time
or other resources being invested by their parent or parents. This finding
may partly reflect the higher levels of grandparental involvement found elsewhere
when grandchildren are below school age (Millward and Matches 1995).
Gender
A much higher proportion of daughters than sons were given extra assistance
by parents (see Table 11). Indeed, female
social roles of 'kin-keeping', domestic organisation and child nurturing imply
greater family involvement, and it has been shown that assistance flows more
through maternal kin lines than paternal ones (Finch 1989; Rosenthal 1985).
This means that women tend to be more closely linked within families than
are men. It was particularly the later life mothers who reported giving additional
domestic help to daughters rather than to sons, acknowledging their daughters'
greater domestic responsibilities:
'She needed help because she was the girl in the family.'
'I do more for my daughters - they do not have wives.'
In contrast, the father of a man who was a long-distance truck driver reported
providing extra practical support to him because, while he is away:
'I need to keep an eye on his house and family for him.'
A further point is that daughters are much more likely than sons to be lone
parents. According to the 1991 Census (ABS 1993a), 86 per cent of one-parent
households were headed by a mother. Such households tend to have low incomes
and female lone parents are more likely to have young children than are male
lone parents. Not surprisingly then, if one child was a lone parent they tended
to need more help than their siblings, according to some parents; for example:
'She's on her own on a single parent's pension. It's hard for her to make
ends meet.'
However, not all lone parents mentioned were daughters. For example, one older
mother explained how she provided extra babysitting for her son because
'He has three kids to bring up by himself.'
Marital status
The amount of support received by adult children who were lone parents is
one consequence of adult children's marital or relationship status. Indeed,
a greater proportion of those receiving extra help from parents than of those
not receiving extra help were divorced or separated (see Table
11 ). Often parents gave emotional support to help adult children through
marital breakdowns as well as through other relationship problems; for example:
'For emotional reasons. Both [daughter] and her son still bear scars from
an abusive relationship.'
'[Daughter] has split up with her partner and has a child from that relationship.
She is going through a traumatic period because they split up only a few weeks
ago.'
The other significant effect of adult children's marital status was that the
largest proportion of those receiving extra parental help were single and
never married (see Table 11). Thus,
some parents provided friendship and support for children who lived alone
or did not have an intimate relationship. For example, one mother said:
'[My daughter] grew up without a father, and she likes to stay closer to me.
She needs me as a friend - we discuss things a lot.'
Others gave additional practical aid to unpartnered children, especially if
they were living alone, since they had no-one to assist them with domestic
work or maintenance jobs:
'She's single - she needs more help with practical tasks.'
Being single and never married is generally associated with youth and inexperience,
so may essentially equate to a state of continuing dependency, whether via
co residence or not. However, with later age at first marriage being more
common, and an increased propensity not to marry at all (de Vaus 1997), there
is some evidence that the phenomenon of living alone or 'being unattached'
is becoming more common in older adult children. The present findings suggest
that single adults draw more upon their parents' resources than do married
children, thus prolonging the term of parental responsibility beyond the time
of parents' retirement and entry into old age.
Parental status
There was no evidence that adult children being parents necessarily resulted
in additional help being received from the children's grandparents (see Table
11). Two thirds of the later life parents interviewed were grandparents,
so it could well be that this was such a generic state among them that it
was not viewed as a reason for giving special help to the adult children.
Nevertheless, the need to give practical help to one child more than another
was explained by some older parents in terms of the needs of grandchildren,
and it tended to be linked to the age and number of grandchildren. While some
later life parents said one adult child needed more help because they had
the youngest grandchildren (often babies), others said it was because a particular
adult child had the most children (generally four or five). For example:
'[My daughter] needs help because of her babies. They are very tiny and only
one year apart.'
'[My daughter] has five children [and] is always needing a bit of help around
the house...and looking after the children.'
Obviously the life stage of the adult child is important. The parents of the
youngest grandchildren will be inexperienced in child care and so need extra
help, though they themselves are not necessarily the youngest child of the
respondents.
Other explanations for extra help given
A number of other explanations were provided by parents for giving particular
adult children an extra helping hand.
Sometimes more guidance and emotional support was given because of the adult
child's personality traits; for example, to those considered by the parents
to be emotionally insecure, immature or even 'irresponsible'. For example:
'He's having trouble settling down. Has a lot of growing up to do.'
'He is emotionally immature - cannot get on his feet and become independent.
He needs to make his own way in life.'
These emotional needs may or may not be linked with a clinical psychological
problem or condition. However, problems such as depression, attempted suicide,
aggression, instability or addictions to drugs, alcohol or gambling did require
extra support from some older parents. For example:
'He needs help because of his current drug addiction. He ended up in a psychiatric
hospital two years ago.'
Other health problems of children or grandchildren also required extra support
from some older parents; for instance, a physical or mental disability or
handicap on the part of the adult child or grandchild:
'[My daughter] is disabled and needs full-time care.'
'[My daughter] has an intellectually disabled child and frequently needs more
support and freedom.'
Others gave the short- or long-term illness of an adult child or grandchild
as the reason for giving extra help:
'[My son] has epilepsy and cannot drive.'
'[My daughter] has hurt her back.'
Discussion
The characteristics and life stage of adult children, as well as other special
circumstances such as illness, clearly influence the amount of time and other
resources being 'donated' by the older generation to their adult offspring.
The findings also concur with Greenberg's (1991) work, which illustrates the
extent of emotional involvement of older parents with their adult children,
and their consequent efforts to try to help children overcome difficulties,
whatever their nature. Although particular problems or characteristics of
children led parents to feel more responsible for some than for others, it
is important to remember that there was also a high level of general support
overall (see Table 10).
From the parents' point of view, prolonged periods of education, increased
incidence of lone parenthood and fewer employment opportunities for young
people often necessitate the extended support of adult offspring. The changing
nature of public welfare provision is restricting financial support for young
adults, which is also resulting in an increased load on older parents.
The fact that later life parents tended to give more help to children who
were either single without children, divorced with children or experiencing
personal problems also reflects the needs of young adults which are inherent
in current social trends toward semi-permanent relationships, delayed family
formation and increased rates of marital dissolution.
A sizeable proportion of the parents interviewed, roughly half of whom were
retired, were still involved with meeting the needs of their children. Past
studies have shown that most family support flows from older to younger generations
(Finch 1989; Glezer 1991). The present findings support this observation,
but most apparently in the area of financial support, as there was a good
deal of reciprocity of emotional support and practical help between the generations.
Unfortunately, the scope of the study did not allow for the amount of help
exchanged to be quantified (for example, in terms of hours per week, or dollars
per month given or received). Therefore, although we know that a greater proportion
of parents were supporting adult children than vice versa, we do not know
exactly how much help was actually being given to individual children.
Older parents are not necessarily dissatisfied with their commitment to adult
children, but the findings underline the fact that parenting responsibilities
do not cease just because children become adults. Many of the respondents
are shouldering, to varying degrees, the responsibility for younger adults
in a variety of ways including co residence, financial support of students
and back-up services for lone parents.
Grandparenting
As established above, two-thirds of the respondents who were parents were
also grandparents, and this status brings another dimension to intergenerational
relations. Settles (1993) maintains that most people look forward to spending
time with their grandchildren. A number of studies have also shown that the
majority of grandparents tend to live in the same city as their adult children
and grandchildren, facilitating a considerable degree of aid to parents and
active involvement with grandchildren (Shanas and Streib 1979; Lee 1980; Kendig
and Rowland 1983; Glezer 1991; Millward 1996).
Because the period of child-bearing in the late twentieth century is much
shorter than it once was, today's grandparents are freed earlier from full
parenting obligations and so, potentially, can devote more time and energy
to their grandchildren. In addition, Hagestad (1988) proposes that grandmothers
exert a stabilising effect on mothers, which allows them to feel more confident
and competent with their own children. Grandmothers' experience, back-up and
advice can, therefore, be seen as an important 'second-order' generational
effect. Indeed, both British and Australian studies have shown that between
a quarter and a half of employed women have their children looked after by
a grandmother while they are at work (Finch 1989; Glezer 1991; Millward and
Matches 1995).
However, there may also be a negative side to grandparental involvement. Bergquist,
Greenberg and Klaum (1993) found that grandmothers who felt obligated to provide
long periods of child care were under stress and reported diminished enjoyment
of the time spent with grandchildren. Townsend (1989) says it is unfair of
people to expect their parents to provide child care after retirement because
older people deserve some time to themselves to develop new skills or interests,
to travel or to spend more time with their spouse or friends.
The important questions for the purposes of this study are, Did the grandparents
see their role as a positive one? How involved were they with their grandchildren?
How did they feel about looking after grandchildren, and what factors affected
such feelings?
Sample of grandparents
There were 449 grandparents in the sample: thirty-five per cent were men and
65 per cent were women. This sex bias was due partly to the sex bias in the
group of people who agreed to be interviewed, as women were more likely to
agree than were men. It is also consistent with there being more women in
these age cohorts in the general population, and to women becoming grandparents
at an earlier age than men. In this sample, more women than men aged in their
fifties were grandparents.
As was the case with aid to adult children, questions about grandparenting
referred to grandchildren in general, not to individual grandchildren. However,
147 of the grandparents had only one son or daughter who had children, so
for this group the characteristics of the adult child who was the parent of
the reference grandchildren were identifiable, as were the ages of the grandchildren.
Therefore, when analysis uses respondents' characteristics, it is based upon
449 grandparents, but when analysis also considers adult children's characteristics,
it will be based upon a sub-set of 147 grandparents with one adult child who
is a parent.
Mediating factors in the experience of grandparenting
The experience and level of involvement of grandparenting may be affected
by a number of personal factors. The first three to be considered here are
the gender, workforce participation and marital or relationship status of
both the respondents and their adult children who are themselves parents.
Thus three generations are taken into account. The fourth main factor considered
is the proximity of grandchildren to their grandparents.
Gender
There is assumed to be an intergenerational bond of motherhood between mothers
and daughters due to the existence of 'comparable tasks and responsibilities'
(Fischer 1986). However, because of the matrilineal nature of exchange, there
is generally more help with the grandchildren from the maternal grandmother
and less involvement from paternal grandmothers (Millward 1996; Fischer 1986;
Chodorow 1978). Indeed, for women, having children has been found to lead
to less conflict with their own mother but more with their mother-in-law (Fischer
1986).
Strong mother-daughter relationships might also imply less involvement with
grandchildren for grandfathers. However, men interviewed by Bergquist, Greenberg
and Klaum (1993) said that being a grandfather often gave them an opportunity
to enjoy their grandchildren in a way they had not experienced with their
own children because they lacked time. This sometimes caused resentment on
the part of their own children, who saw the big difference between the attention
their children were receiving and the attention they had received.
In this study, grandfathers and grandmothers were compared according to how
often they saw grandchildren, how often they looked after them, who took the
main responsibility for caring, the level of satisfaction with caring and
the importance of grandparenting.
Grandparents were asked the following questions:
'How often are you in touch with your grandchildren? How often do you look
after your grandchildren?' (The options were: once a week or more often; fortnightly,
or a few times a month; about once a month; every few months; occasionally;
not at all.)
'When looking after grandchildren, do you, or your [spouse or partner], or
both take the main responsibility in caring for them?'
'Overall, when you're looking after grandchildren, do you find: It is positive
and satisfying? You have mixed feelings? It is quite a strain?'
'How important is being a grandparent to you? Is it: Very important? Important?
Not at all important?'
Grandmothers were in touch with at least one of their grandchildren significantly
more often than were grandfathers, but, rather surprisingly, there was no
significant difference between grandmothers and grandfathers regarding how
often they looked after a grandchild (see Table
12). However, when grandfathers reported looking after grandchildren,
only 4 per cent of the grandfathers interviewed said they took the main responsibility
of care, while around half shared it with their partner or spouse and nearly
half said their partner or spouse was solely responsible for the grandchildren.
In contrast, more than half (54 per cent) of the grandmothers reported taking
the main responsibility of care for grandchildren, with just over one-third
saying they shared the responsibility with their partner or spouse.
Perhaps related to this tendency for grandmothers to take responsibility is
the fact that only 7 per cent of grandfathers were not completely satisfied
with caring for grandchildren, while 14 per cent of grandmothers had some
reservations about the merits of caring (either 'mixed feelings' or thought
it was 'quite a strain'). The burden of care, therefore, appears to be heavier
for grandmothers, which is consistent with studies from the 1970s and 1980s.
The nucleus of family care does not seem to be shifting from women to men,
at least in this generation of grandparents. It will be interesting to see
whether or not today's fathers take on a greater role as grandfathers than
their own fathers have done.
Not surprisingly, significantly more grandmothers (86 per cent) than grandfathers
(62 per cent) reported grandparenting to be very important to them. Because
grandmothers are more involved with grandchildren, their grandparenting role
probably contributes more to their sense of identity than is the case for
grandfathers, particularly if they see themselves in a mentoring role for
their daughters or daughters-in-law, or have made raising a family their main
life's work.
Both grandfathers and grandmothers were likely to see their daughters' children
more often than their sons' children. For example, 78 per cent of grandmothers
saw a daughter's children at least weekly, compared with 64 per cent who saw
a son's children this often. However, there was no difference in how often
they actually looked after the children of daughters rather than sons. This
suggests that there is a closer relationship and tendency to socialise more
with daughters and their children, while the provision of child care appears
to be linked to need rather than gender-specific relations.
Workforce participation
Another lifestyle factor for grandparents is their attachment to the paid
workforce. A major change for people in middle age and early old age can be
retirement from paid work, for themselves, their partner or both. Among the
respondents there was a much higher proportion of grandmothers (68 per cent)
than grandfathers (47 per cent) in the retired or non-employed group.
At the same time, an increasing number of grandmothers are participating in
paid employment. At the 1991 Census, 63 per cent of married women aged 45
to 54 years and 34 per cent of those aged 55 to 59 years were in paid employment,
compared with 36 per of those aged 45 to 54 years and 23 per cent of those
aged 55 to 59 years at the 1971 Census (ABS 1993a). However, most practical
help is provided by grandmothers - the age group of women whose labour force
participation rate has been increasing. Hagestad (1987, p. 419) maintains
that this may lead to an overload for middle generation women, who assist
adult children, grandchildren and parents 'in addition to facing the demands
of workday life and household maintenance'.
Since the grandmothers interviewed were the ones giving most of the care to
grandchildren and thus expending more time and energy on the grandparenting
role, it might be expected that those who were in the workforce would look
after grandchildren less often than those not in the workforce. However, this
was not found to be the case.
First, grandmothers in the paid workforce saw their grandchildren slightly
more often than did those who were not in the workforce or who were retired
(84 per cent compared with 72 per cent weekly). This appeared to be related
to the age of grandchildren, as working grandmothers were more likely to have
grandchildren aged less than 2 years.
Second, retired or non-employed grandmothers did not look after grandchildren
more often than those in paid work - 34 per cent of both groups did this weekly.
Nor were they more satisfied with caring for grandchildren. Around 85 per
cent of both groups were very satisfied, so employed grandmothers did not
find caring for grandchildren less satisfying due to the possibility of conflicting
demands on their time.
Furthermore, when considering the effect of the workforce participation of
the grandchildren's parents, it was found that those in the workforce were
no more likely to have their children minded by grandparents than were those
not in the workforce. There was also no significant difference in the frequency
of looking after grandchildren according to the workforce participation of
daughters. In fact, a higher proportion of grandparents looked after grandchildren
fairly regularly when the mother was not in the workforce (53 per cent weekly
or monthly) than when she was (39 per cent weekly or monthly). This seemed
to be related to the fact that 53 per cent of the grandmothers looked after
babies or toddlers at least once a week, while only 17 per cent looked after
primary school-aged children that often, and daughters were more likely to
be at home with very young children.
Finally, workforce participation made no difference at all to the frequency
of grandfathers seeing their grandchildren or caring for them (whether work-related
or not), or to the feelings of satisfaction grandfathers gained from caring
for their grandchildren. This is not surprising since in most cases their
partner or spouse was actually providing the care.
Marital or partnering status of grandparents and adult children
Earlier analysis suggests that the marital or partnering status of both grandparents
and their adult children might also bear upon the experience of grandparenting.
As has been shown earlier in this paper, the fathers interviewed for the study
who had experienced marital separation had much less to do with their adult
children. There was a similar outcome if men were without marital partners
due to being widowed, although this applied to very few men in the study.
When grandparents are divorced and repartnered, grandchildren acquire extra
grandparents, so there can be few grandchildren and many grandparents, making
involvement complex and possibly contentious. Alternatively, if parents separate
and repartner, grandparents can acquire new step-grandchildren, so there can
be few grandparents and many grandchildren. Thus, loyalties, time management
and relationships can become complex and strained (Bergquist, Greenberg and
Klaum 1993).
Our study found that grandparents who were divorced or separated saw grandchildren
less often than did married or widowed ones. Partnered grandparents were then
compared with unpartnered ones to see whether or not being on their own made
a difference to people's interaction with their grandchildren (the partnered
grandparents were generally a bit younger).
Table 13 shows that the partnering status
of grandmothers made no difference to the frequency of seeing grandchildren,
but that partnered grandfathers saw their grandchildren significantly more
often than those without a partner (63 per cent compared with 42 per cent
weekly).
A similar and slightly stronger association held between gender and partnering
status for frequency of looking after grandchildren. Partnered grandfathers
were three times as likely as unpartnered ones to look after grandchildren,
which is consistent with the spouse or partner of the grandfathers actually
taking care of the grandchildren and probably also organising the visits with
them.
Being partnered or not made no difference to how often grandmothers looked
after grandchildren, except that partnered grandmothers were likely to provide
work-related care for grandchildren (20 per cent) slightly more often than
were grandmothers living alone (8 per cent). For both grandmothers and grandfathers,
having a partner made no difference to the perceived importance of grandparenting.
However, grandfathers without partners were more inclined to feel that caring
for grandchildren was a bit of a strain (12 per cent compared with 2 per cent).
An adult child's marriage breakdown has also been shown to disrupt kin networks
and ties such that post-divorce maternal grandparent-grandchild ties are stronger,
while paternal grandparent-grandchild ties are weaker (Thompson and Li 1992;
Funder 1989). This is because children generally live with their mother after
divorce, so kinship links are more active on the mother's side. However, Funder
(1989) stresses that grandparent roles are flexible and negotiable: while
children may be less likely to see paternal grandparents after divorce, as
they grow into teenagers they are likely to want to see less of all grandparents.
There was information on only five divorced or separated adult children in
this sub sample of respondents with grandchildren by only one adult child,
so meaningful comparisons with married offspring could not be made. Of these
five, however, two had children cared for weekly and one had children cared
for monthly by the grandparents.
Proximity of adult children and grandchildren
We have already seen that proximity affects contact and involvement between
generations. Therefore, the final factor considered in grandparent-grandchild
attachments is that of proximity. The relocation of older people to more desirable
holiday-type areas has been termed 'retirement migration'. Although this may,
in one sense, be seen as withdrawing from family obligations, it can also
attract extended visits from family - notably grandchildren (Szinovacz and
Ekerdt 1995). Retirement relocations can also involve moving closer to family
members, thus strengthening ties. Either way, such relocations may vary the
amount of interaction between grandparents and grandchildren.
Half of the respondents' sons and daughters who themselves had children lived
very near to their parents. In fact, nine were actually living with the respondent.
Table 14 shows a very strong relationship
between close proximity and frequency of both seeing and caring for grandchildren.
This might suggest that grandparents who move away on retirement will have
less involvement with grandchildren. However, there were no significant differences
according to retirement status. Only 29 per cent of those who were retired
(which for some women related to the retirement of their spouse or partner)
compared with 26 per cent of those not retired were living further than a
2-hour drive away from their son or daughter and their grandchildren.
It appears that difference in proximity rather than any specific effect of
the transition to later life or retirement status per se was responsible for
difference in contact. It should be noted that adult daughters did not generally
live closer to their parents than did adult sons, so close proximity would
not account for mothers of adult daughters seeing the grandchildren more often
than mothers of adult sons.
Discussion
Overall, interaction with grandchildren was an important and satisfying part
of the later life experience of these men and women. However, since being
a grandmother rather than a grandfather was associated with more contact and
greater responsibility for the care of grandchildren, the perpetuation of
gender roles is evident. The mother-daughter bond is also evident, since mothers
of daughters with children saw their grandchildren more often than did mothers
of sons with children.
According to these findings, the responsibility for family care does not seem
to be shifting from women to men in this generation of Australian grandparents.
However, with the increasing social emphasis on father-child involvement (Amato
1996), it will be interesting to see whether or not today's fathers will take
on a greater role as grandfathers than their own fathers appear to have done.
So far, however, research indicates that men are still generally reluctant
to commit more time to the care of children (Daly 1996) and this may continue
to hold for both fathers and grandfathers.
While some grandmothers had mixed feelings about looking after grandchildren,
most were very positive about doing so. They also seemed more likely than
grandfathers to identify themselves in terms of their grandparenting role,
since they felt it was more important than did the men. Grandfathers without
partners appeared much more isolated from their grandchildren than were those
with a spouse or partner. No inference can be made, however, as to whether
this is due to choice or to social roles and circumstances.
The time of greatest need of assistance with young grandchildren is when many
grandmothers are still in paid employment themselves. The demand for care
of grandchildren by grandparents may also be on the increase if projected
demands for work-related child care into the next century cannot be satisfied
by child care centres due to escalating costs to parents. Further withdrawal
of government subsidies for child care therefore implies an increasing reliance
on informal sources of care: chiefly middle-aged grandmothers, many of whom
are still in the paid workforce.
Retirement from the paid workforce did not seem to engender more involvement
with grandchildren. On the contrary, the findings suggest that when grandmothers
are retired, and therefore older, their grandchildren are also generally older
and do not need as much care. It will be interesting to see whether or not
this trend will be reversed with the next generation of grandparents who,
due to their adult children becoming parents at a later age, might commonly
have grandchildren born after their retirement.
Finally, the close proximity of adult children and grandchildren is consistent
with the values of family solidarity, and indicates the potential availability
of grandparents. However, the so-called 'army' of unpaid domestic and child
care labour, in which middle-aged grandmothers feature prominently, may become
less available with future generations, requiring substantial modifications
of government policies predicated on the assumption of 'family care'.
Respondents and their elderly parents
The last section of this paper focuses on relations between the respondents
and their own elderly parents. Due to the advanced age of many parents of
those people interviewed (who were themselves aged up to 70 years), much of
the discussion will centre around the need to provide filial care by those
with elderly parents in need.
'Care-giving work' for elders has been defined as: 'custodial or maintenance
help or services, rendered for the wellbeing of older individuals who, because
of chronic physical or mental illness, or disability, cannot perform such
activities for themselves' (Waerness, quoted in Hooyman 1992, p. 182).
It is difficult to obtain exact statistics on the prevalence of caring for
the elderly, as it depends very much on the definition of caring used, and
this is often subjectively defined. In the United States, it was found that
around 7 per cent of the adult population were spouses or adult children of
disabled elderly people needing long term care (Stenberg-Nichols and Junk
1997). However, the proportion of these people who were actually providing
care is more difficult to determine. In Australia, it has been estimated that
around 17.5 per cent of households contain at least one carer for a person
who is disabled, handicapped or frail elderly, around 5 per cent of adults
are the 'main' carer for an elderly relative and around 40 per cent of all
carers are adult offspring caring for an elderly parent (Howe and Schofield
1996).
Much of the literature on caring for elderly parents focuses on gender inequality
in such caring work. For instance, Hooyman (1992) maintains that 'family care'
is a misnomer, as men rarely care for impaired parents. Others have also noted
that daughters, not sons, are expected to care for parents (Wilkinson 1988;
Lehr 1984; Marsden and Abrams 1987).
Hooyman (1992) contends that, in the United States, the cost-cutting that
is part of social policy around aged services is predicated on long-term care
of the elderly being a familial rather than a societal one. This perpetuates
the reliance on women's unpaid labour. According to McDonald (1997), there
is also the fear in Australia that if more funding were to be put into formal
supports for the elderly, then the family would abdicate its responsibility,
placing a severe load on the public purse.
There have been claims that elder care responsibilities may lead to middle-aged
daughters' careers, finances and health being compromised by the ongoing burden
of caring, often with very little help from other family members (McDonald
1997). The close contact between elderly resident parents and their children
has also been found to cause resentment in the children, particularly where
elderly mothers are living with daughters. Lower levels of physical and emotional
wellbeing have also been noted in carers of elderly people living at home
(Marsden and Abrams 1987; Howe and Schofield 1996). It will be interesting
to see whether or not the trend toward earlier retirement for men will result
in their assuming more responsibility for elderly parents than has been the
case up to now.
Before the analysis of intergenerational exchange between respondents and
their elderly parents is presented, two provisos should be noted. The first
relates to gender; some respondents, particularly men, clearly answered questions
from the point of view of their support of parents or parents-in-law as a
couple, not as an individual. The second is that only a certain percentage
of elderly people need time-consuming or extensive care from their adult children.
This, coupled with the fact that many people in their fifties and sixties
no longer have any living parents, means that the problems or 'burdens' of
elder care will apply to a minority of respondents, in contrast with the responsibilities
for adult children, which (as seen above) applied to the majority of the respondents.
Who helps elderly parents?
Just over a third of the 50- to 70-year-old respondents had a living parent
(254) and just under a third (206) had a partner with at least one parent
alive. Overall, therefore, half of them (368) had either one of their own
parents or their partner's parents still living.
This group was asked: 'Do you provide your parents with emotional support
or advice?' 'Do you help your parents financially if they need it?' 'Do you
provide your parents with any practical support (doing things for them)?'
As with exchange with adult children, these questions pertained to generic
types of assistance and no particular tasks, amounts of help or sums of money
were specifiied. However, there was a series of questions about being an elder
carer, which will be discussed a little further on.
The majority of those respondents with elderly parents reported giving emotional
support or advice (73 per cent) and practical help (68 per cent) to their
parents or parents-in-law. However, respondents were less likely to help their
parents or parents in-law financially than they were to help adult children
in this way. Consequently, only one-quarter of those who had parents or parents-in-law
gave all three types of assistance to them.
Some characteristics of respondents were related to the likelihood of assisting
elderly parents, as shown in Table 15.
Those with a higher income and higher level of formal education were a little
more likely to be giving emotional support and advice to elderly parents,
and those who had never experienced marital separation or divorce were a little
more likely to give financial assistance. Respondents with more education
may feel more obliged to give their elderly parents advice - and they may
be in a better position to do so (this group includes those in professional
occupations). Also, being in an intact marriage was associated with higher
income - and presumably greater assets, since these had not been subject to
division through divorce - thus giving respondents more scope to assist elderly
parents financially.
Female respondents were a little more likely than male respondents to give
practical help to elderly parents. This is in keeping with the expectation
of daughters providing domestic assistance to elderly parents - for example,
help with tasks such as shopping, cooking and housekeeping, and the provision
of chauffeuring and of care when parents are sick. Furthermore, although 73
per cent of these women (n = 134) helped a parent (or parents) in practical
ways, very few said that other people also helped. In fact, only sixteen women
said a husband or other male relative helped, and a further sixteen mentioned
help being received from a sister, sister-in-law or daughter.
Caring for elderly parents
Those with an elderly parent or parent-in-law were asked if they had the added
responsibility of being a 'main carer': 'Are you the main carer of a parent
or parent-in law with health problems or disabilities, or who is aged?'
Caring was whatever tasks and commitments the respondent defined as care,
but those answering 'yes' had to be taking the main caring responsibility.
That is, no-one else spent more time than they did caring for this elderly
person. Provision of this more specialised or constant care for the elderly
was found to be gender-related. As well as giving general practical help to
parents, women were also much more likely than men to be acting as the main
carer for an elderly parent. Of all respondents, 11 per cent of women and
4 per cent of men were the main carer for a parent or parent-in-law (a total
of forty-four women and fourteen men). Of those with elderly parents, 21 per
cent of the women and 8 per cent of the men were the main carer.
It appears that the greater propensity of daughters (or daughters-in-law)
than sons to provide instrumental care to elderly parents may be linked more
to the social expectation that women's family responsibilities take precedence
over paid work than to their lack of commitment to, or perhaps more precarious
attachment to, the paid workforce. Table
16 shows that half (52 per cent) of the female elder carers were either
not employed or retired and a further third (32 per cent) were engaged in
paid work for less than 40 hours per week. In contrast, ten out of the fourteen
male elder carers (71 per cent) were in paid work for 40 plus hours per week.
Furthermore, comments made by some of the men suggest that in fact their wives
were sharing or taking the main part in such parental care responsibilities.
Thus there is more evidence of an obligation to care and the tendency to arrange
working hours to fit with other family responsibilities on the part of later
life women than men.
Respondents who did not live with a spouse or partner were also more likely
to take on the main caring role (23 per cent) than were those who were partnered
(12 per cent). This may also be somewhat related to gender because more women
(77 per cent) than men (67 per cent) were living alone. Women in this older
age group are more likely than men to be widowed and are also less likely
to remarry after divorce (McDonald 1997), so they may have more time available
to care for relatives other than a spouse.
Nursing homes
Half (n = 186) of the later life respondents with elderly parents or parents-in-law
had at least one parent suffering from a long-term illness or disability.
For most, this was an ill or disabled mother (n = 92) or mother-in-law (n
= 69). Fewer fathers (n = 26) or fathers in-law (n = 26) were reported to
be ill or disabled, reflecting the fact that fewer respondents had surviving
fathers.
About half of the ill or disabled elderly parents were in a nursing home or
special accommodation home. Again, this group was overrepresented by women:
80 per cent of those in homes were mothers or mothers-in-law, but only 20
per cent were fathers or fathers-in-law. Nevertheless, only about 12 per cent
of all later life respondents had at least one elderly parent or parent-in-law
in a nursing home.
Although most respondents who were main carers were caring for an elderly
parent who was not in a nursing home, just over a third were responsible for
the care of an elderly parent who was actually living in a nursing home. This
could involve regular - even daily - visiting; taking care of clothing and
personal effects, and personal business or finances; conferring with medical
staff; buying pharmaceuticals or other needs; and possibly taking the parent
on outings.
Support services
Outside these formal residential situations there was a range of government
or community services used by some respondents who were carers of elderly
parents in the home situation. While 72 per cent of carers described their
parent as being long term ill or disabled, only half of the 58 carers involved
said that their elderly parent needed 'a lot of' help (compared with 'some'
or 'a little' help). However, only around half whose parent needed a lot of
help were actually using any support services (as were around a third of those
whose parents were said to need less help).
The main services used were home help (14 per cent of carers), the district
nursing service (10 per cent of carers), meals-on-wheels (9 per cent of carers)
and respite care or day care (8 per cent of carers). A few had used particular
services provided by hospital departments or other specialist institutions
for things such as wheelchair loans or guide dogs for the blind. All users
of services said they were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with the services
used and nobody registered any direct complaints.
Since more than half of the carers did not use services, they were asked if
they felt they had service needs that were not being met. However, only seven
carers (12 per cent) said 'yes'. Three of them needed respite or day care
services and four needed either home help, home nursing, home maintenance
or chauffeur services.
The general lack of reliance on public services suggests that most later life
carers were relying on their own or their family's resources to carry out
their caring role, as was also found in Howe and Schofield's (1996) carers
study. This raises the question of what effect the task of caring for elderly
parents might have on the health or happiness of the helpers concerned, particularly
those caring for long-term disabled parents.
Differential outcomes for carers and non-carers
Howe and Schofield's (1996) carers study found that carers had less satisfactory
physical health, emotional wellbeing and lower life satisfaction than non-carers.
To test for these outcomes, satisfaction with health, time management, main
personal relationships and employment were explored as indicators of carer
wellbeing. The respondents who were caring for elderly parents were compared
with non-carers to see if there were disparate outcomes for the two groups.
Health and stress
There was no discernable relationship between the self-ratings of 'overall
health' (rated as 'excellent', 'good', 'fair' or 'poor' health) and the fact
that respondents were helping or caring for elderly parents. Furthermore,
those either providing general help to elderly parents or acting as elder
carers were no more likely than non-helpers to report that they or their partner
suffered from long-term health problems or disabilities, which applied to
around 45 per cent of respondents.
However, in a more psychological vein, two other questions were asked to probe
for perceptions of 'time squeeze' and constraints on the freedom to make future
life decisions, both of which might cause psychological stress.
All respondents were asked the following two questions: 'Is the amount of
time you have for yourself enough, too much or not enough?' 'Have, or will,
the needs of your parents or parents-in-law influence your decisions about
later life?'
A significant effect was found regarding the demands placed upon the time
of people caring for elderly parents. Nearly half of them agreed that they
did not have 'enough time' for themselves, compared with only a quarter of
non-carers. Carers were also more likely to agree that the needs of their
elderly parents had influenced, or would influence, their decisions about
their own retirement and ageing than were non-carers (44 per cent compared
with 30 per cent). So, even though overall physical health did not seem to
be a problem, there was certainly more of a feeling among carers than others
that their time was not their own and that their future plans would have to
take account of the needs of parents. This suggests some evidence for potential
psychological stress among the elder carers.
Marital and work satisfaction
To see whether helping elderly parents or being a main carer for an elderly
parent substantially affected respondents' satisfaction with other key aspects
of wellbeing, the mean scores of those providing assistance and those not
providing assistance were compared on marital satisfaction and work satisfaction
measures. Analysis involved women only, because they were more likely to give
practical aid to parents and were more likely to be the main carer of a parent
than were men, and the main issue raised in the literature is the possible
effect on women of gender inequality in caring for the elderly.
For women in a registered or de facto marriage, a measure representing feelings
of marital 'togetherness' was created. This scale was derived from four items
about marital relationships. On a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 = often, 2 = sometimes,
3 = rarely, 4 = never, the women were asked to indicate, how often, as a couple:
'Do you spend time doing things together?' 'Do you talk over things that concern
you?' 'Have you considered ending your relationship?' 'Have you regretted
the relationship?'
The combined measure also had a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 = a positive or 'high'
score and 4 = a negative or 'low' score, and the female respondents generally
scored very positively (average = 1.4), meaning most felt a sense of togetherness
and security in their marital relationship.
If a strain was being placed on the relationship by helping or caring for
elderly parents, it was expected that this might be reflected in lower levels
of marital satisfaction. However, there was no significant difference in average
ratings on this measure between those who were giving aid or caring for an
elderly parent and those who were not. In fact, those giving some practical
assistance to parents had a slightly more positive score (1.34) on this marital
togetherness measure than those not doing so (1.52; f = 3.74; p = .05).
Thus, if this is seen as an indicator of emotional wellbeing, women who were
carers did not fare worse than those without responsibility for an elderly
parent. It may be that a secure personal relationship means the women feel
better able to give their time to help parents. In addition, some women might
be helping elderly parents together with their spouse, as a couple, thus strengthening
their feelings of togetherness and shared purpose in their marital relationship.
As seen in Table 16, women's caring
responsibilities do not recede despite the increasing acknowledgement of women's
contribution to the paid workforce. Thus the 'double duty' of work and family
obligation may lead some women to hold less positive attitudes about their
job, and this may particularly be the case when responsibility for an elderly
parent is added to general family responsibilities.
For women in the workforce, a scale was constructed to assess the effect on
job satisfaction of devoting time and energy to helping or caring for elderly
parents. The three scaled items used (where 1 = very satisfied to 5 = very
dissatisfied) were the following questions: 'How satisfied are you with your
rate of pay? your job security? the job you have?'
The overall scale was 1 = 'high' work satisfaction and 5 = 'low' satisfaction.
On all three measures, the average ratings of work satisfaction were quite
positive at around 2.1, and these average scores did not differ between women
who were main carers or helpers of elderly parents and those who were not.
Therefore, there is no indication that women in paid work who had responsibilities
for elderly parents were less satisfied with their jobs than were those who
did not report such responsibilities. Had there been less satisfaction, it
may have suggested less choice, security or reward for elder helpers or carers
compared with other women, but this was not the case.
An earlier Australian study of workers with family responsibilities found
that 17 per cent of workers aged in their forties took days off to care for
elderly parents, as did 13 per cent of workers in their fifties (VandenHeuvel
1993). Although no sex difference was found in the mean number of days taken
for elder care, male employees were more likely than females to take time
off to deal with 'administrative, business or legal tasks' on behalf of aged
parents, while women were mo