How Do Caregiving Responsibilities Affect Women’s Work–Family Spillovers Over the Life Course?

Abstract

Using three waves of data from the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS 1995–2014, N =1,123), this study investigates the linkage between caregiving and women’s positive and negative work–family spillovers over the life course. Results show that women’s work–family experiences are not only shaped by caregiving itself but also depend on the timing when they take these roles: the effect of raising school-aged children on negative family-to-work spillover (FWS) is the highest in the 40s, and the effect of raising adolescent children on positive work-to-family spillover (WFS) is the lowest in the 50s. Providing financial support to parents increases both negative FWS and negative WFS, and the effects are highest in their 20s and 65+, respectively. Providing emotional care and unpaid assistance to parents can enhance women’s positive FWS in their 40s. This study’s findings suggest that timing and linked-lives both play strong roles in shaping women’s work–family experiences.

Keywords

work–family spillovers childcare eldercare life course perspective

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

AARP (2020). Caregiving in the U.S. Main, (November), 1–79. Retrieved from https://www.caregiving.org/caregiving-in-the-us-2020/.

Adelman

R. D.

Tmanova

L. L.

Delgado

Dion

Lachs

M. S.

(2014). Caregiver Burden. Jama, 311(10), 1052–1059. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.304.

Allison

(2009). Fixed effects regression models. Thousand Oaks, California. SAGE Publications, Inc: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412993869.

Ammons

S. K.

Dahlin

E. C.

Edgell

Santo

J. B.

(2017). Work-family conflict among Black, White, and Hispanic men and women. Community, Work & Family, 20(4), 379–404.

Bianchi

S. M.

Milkie

M. A.

(2010). Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 705–725. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00726.x.

Bittman

Hill

Thomson

(2007). The impact of caring on informal carers’ employment, income and earnings: A longitudinal approach. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 42(2), 255–272.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015). Unpaid Eldercare in the United States-2013-14 data from the American Time Use Study.

Cherlin

A. J.

(2010). Demographic trends in the United States: A review of research in the 2000s. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00710.x.

Coser

R. L.

(1974). The family: Its structures & functions. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

10.

Cotter

England

Hermsen

(2008). Moms and jobs: Trends in mothers’ employment and which mothers stay home. In Coontz

Parson

Raley

(Eds.), American families: A multicultural reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

11.

Elder

G. H.

Johnson

M. K.

Crosnoe

(2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In Mortimer

J. T

Shanahan

M. J.

(Eds.), Handbook of the life course (Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research) (pp. 3–19). Boston, MA: Springer.

12.

Elder

G. H.

Jr (1998). The life course as developmental theory. Child Development, 69(1), 1–12.

13.

Erickson

J. J.

Martinengo

Hill

E. J.

(2010). Putting work and family experiences in context: Differences by family life stage. Human Relations, 63(7):955–979. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709353138.

14.

Freedman

V. A.

Cornman

J. C.

Carr

Lucas

R. E.

(2019). Time use and experienced wellbeing of older caregivers: A sequence analysis. The Gerontologist, 59(5), e441–e450.

15.

Gimenez-nadal

J. I.

Sevilla

(2016). Intensive Mothering and well-being : The role of education and child care activity. In: IZA Discussion Paper. 10023 (pp. 1–49). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

16.

Goode

W. J.

(1960). A theory of role strain. American Sociological Review, 25, 483–496.

17.

Gould

E. D.

Paserman

M. D.

(2003). Waiting for Mr. Right: rising inequality and declining marriage rates. Journal of Urban Economics, 53(2), 257–281.

18.

Grzywacz

J. G.

Almeida

D. M.

Mcdonald

D. A.

(2002). Work-family spillover and daily reports of work and family stress in the adult labor force. Family Relations, 51(1), 28–36.

19.

Grzywacz

J. G.

Butler

A. B.

(2005). The impact of job characteristics on work-to-family facilitation: Testing a theory and distinguishing a construct. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 10(2), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.2.97.

20.

Grzywacz

J. G.

Marks

N. F.

(2000). Reconceptualizing the work-family interface: An ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 111–126.

21.

Gunderson

Barrett

A. E.

(2017). Emotional cost of emotional support? The association between intensive mothering and psychological well-being in midlife. Journal of Family Issues, 38(7), 992–1009.

22.

Handwerker

E. W.

(2011). Delaying retirement to pay for college. ILR Review, 64(5), 921–948. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391106400505.

23.

Hays

(1998). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. USA: Yale University Press.

24.

(2021). How does age shape social interactions? Interviewer-age effects, normative age distance, and gender attitudes. European Sociological Review, 37(4)(673-963). https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaa069.

25.

Ishizuka

(2019). Social class, gender, and contemporary parenting standards in the United States: Evidence from a national survey experiment. Social Forces, 98(1), 31–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy107.

26.

Kahn

J. R.

García-Manglano

Bianchi

S. M.

(2014). The motherhood penalty at midlife: Long-term effects of children on women’s careers. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76(1), 56–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12086.

27.

Lareau

(2011). Unequal childhoods (2nd ed.). University of California Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppgj4.

28.

Lin

Burgard

(2018). Working, parenting and work-home spillover: Gender differences in the work-home interface across the life course. Advances in Life Course Research, 35, 24–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2017.12.003.

29.

Liu

Fang

Chan

Lou

V. W.

(2019). Continued social participation protects against depressive symptoms across the retirement transition: Longitudinal evidence from three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 19(10), 972–976. https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.13752.

30.

Martinengo

Jacob

J. I.

Hill

E. J.

(2010). Gender and the work-family interface: Exploring differences across the family life course. Journal of Family Issues, 31(10), 1363–1390.

31.

Matthews

Hamilton

(2009). Delayed childbearing: more women are having their first child later in life. NCHS Data Brief, 21, 1-8.

32.

Meeussen

Van Laar

(2018). Feeling pressure to be a perfect mother relates to parental burnout and career ambitions. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2113.

33.

Mirowsky

Ross

C. E.

(1986). Social patterns of distress. Annual Review of Sociology, 12(1), 23–45. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.12.1.23.

34.

Moen

Kelly

Huang

(2008). Work, family and life-course fit: Does control over work time matter?. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(3), 414–425.

35.

Moen

Roehling

(2005). The career mystique: Cracks in the American dream. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

36.

Moen

Sweet

(2004). From 'work-family' to 'flexible careers'. Community, Work & Family, 7(2), 209–226.

37.

Niimi

(2017). Does providing informal elderly care hasten retirement? Evidence from Japan. Working Paper No. 730. Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute. Available: https://www.adb.org/publications/does-providing-informal-elderly-care-hasten-retirement-evidence-japan.

38.

Nomaguchi

K. M.

(2012). Parenthood and psychological well-being: Clarifying the role of child age and parent-child relationship quality. Social Science Research, 41(2), 489–498.

39.

Parker

Patten

(2013). The sandwich generation rising financial burdens for middle-aged Americans. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/01/30/the-sandwich-generation/.

40.

Radler

B. T.

Ryff

C. D.

(2010). Who participates? Accounting for longitudinal retention in the MIDUS National Study of Health and Well-Being. Journal of Aging and Health, 22(3), 307–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264309358617.

41.

Reynolds

Aletraris

(2007). Work-family conflict, children, and hour mismatches in Australia. Journal of Family Issues, 28(6), 749–772.

42.

Rizzo

K. M.

Schiffrin

H. H.

Liss

(2013). Insight into the parenthood paradox: Mental health outcomes of intensive mothering. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 22(5), 614–620.

43.

Roth

D. L.

Fredman

Haley

W. E.

(2015). Informal caregiving and its impact on health: A reappraisal from population-based studies. The Gerontologist, 55(2), 309–319.

44.

Sayer

L. C.

Gornick

J. C.

(2012). Cross-national variation in the influence of employment hours on child care time. European Sociological Review, 28(4), 421–442.

45.

Shockley

K. M.

Allen

T. D.

(2012). Motives for flexible work arrangement use. Community, Work & Family, 15(2), 217–231.

46.

Smith

Downs

O’Connell

(2001). Maternity leave and employment Patterns: 1961-1995. In Current Population Reports (pp. 70-79). Washington, DC: U.S, Census Bureau.

47.

Turner

Clegg

(2014). Best practice guidelines for the management of frailty: a British Geriatrics Society, Age UK and Royal College of General Practitioners report. Age and Ageing, 43(6), 744–747.

48.

U.S Census Bureau (2013). Labor force participation and work status of people 65 Years and older. American Community Survey Briefs. (January).

49.

Wayne

J. H.

Musisca

Fleeson

(2004). Considering the role of personality in the work-family experience: Relationships of the big five to work-family conflict and facilitation. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64(1), 108–130.

50.

Xue

Fleischmann

Head

McMunn

Stafford

(2020). Work-family conflict and work exit in later career stage. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 75(3), 716–727. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby146.

51.

W.-h.

Kuo

J. C.-L.

(2017). The motherhood wage penalty by work conditions: How do occupational characteristics hinder or empower mothers?. American Sociological Review, 82(4), 744–769. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417712729.