Gautun Heidi, Bratt Christopher
Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Oslo and Akershus University College (HiOA), Oslo, Norway.
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Eur J Ageing. 2016 Oct 31;14(2):155-166. doi: 10.1007/s10433-016-0403-2. eCollection 2017 Jun.
The need to provide care for older people can put a strain on their adult children, potentially interfering with their work attendance. We tested the hypothesis that public care for older people (nursing homes or home care services) would moderate the association between having an older parent in need of care and reduced work attendance among the adult children. The analysis used data from a survey of Norwegian employees aged 45-65 ( = 529). Institutional care for older people in need of care (i.e. nursing homes) was associated with improved work attendance among their children-their daughters in particular. Data also indicated a moderating effect: the link between the parents' reduced health and reduced work attendance among the children was weaker if the parent lived in a nursing home. However, the results were very different for home-based care: data indicated no positive effects on adult children's work attendance when parents received non-institutionalised care of this kind. Overall, the results suggest that extending public care service to older people can improve their children's ability to combine work with care for parents. However, this effect seems to require the high level of care commonly provided by nursing homes. Thus, the current trend towards de-institutionalising care in Europe (and Norway in particular) might hamper work attendance among care-giving adult children, women in particular. Home care services to older people probably need to be extended if they are intended as a real alternative to institutional care.
为老年人提供照料的需求可能会给他们的成年子女带来压力，有可能影响他们的工作出勤率。我们检验了这样一个假设：为老年人提供的公共照料（养老院或居家照料服务）会缓和需要照料的老年父母与成年子女工作出勤率降低之间的关联。该分析使用了对45至65岁挪威员工（n = 529）的一项调查数据。为需要照料的老年人提供的机构照料（即养老院）与他们子女的工作出勤率提高有关，尤其是他们的女儿。数据还显示出一种调节作用：如果父母住在养老院，那么父母健康状况下降与子女工作出勤率降低之间的联系就较弱。然而，居家照料的结果却大不相同：数据表明，当父母接受这种非机构化照料时，对成年子女的工作出勤率没有积极影响。总体而言，结果表明，向老年人扩展公共照料服务可以提高他们子女将工作与照料父母相结合的能力。然而，这种效果似乎需要养老院通常提供的高水平照料。因此，目前欧洲（尤其是挪威）照料去机构化的趋势可能会妨碍提供照料的成年子女，尤其是女性的工作出勤率。如果居家照料服务要成为机构照料的真正替代方案，可能需要加以扩展。
