Faculty of Social Sciences, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
Aging Ment Health. 2022 Aug;26(8):1589-1596. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2021.1926425. Epub 2021 May 19.
Due to increasing care needs and decreasing care potentials, research around informal caregiving gains attention. Relatively new - but of utmost importance - is the role of socioeconomic inequalities in care and wellbeing. Although caregiving can be rewarding, a growing body of research shows that informal caregiving often has negative consequences for individuals' wellbeing. Theoretically, we expect these negative outcomes to be more pronounced among caregivers with lower socioeconomic resources. The current study examines socioeconomic inequalities in the consequences of caregiving inside the household for life satisfaction.
We draw on longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE waves 2, 4, 5, and 6). We estimated pooled ordinary least squares and fixed-effects regression models to examine the consequences of informal care provision within the household for individuals' life satisfaction, and whether household wealth moderates this relationship, controlling for individuals' sociodemographic and health characteristics.
Care provision inside the household was negatively associated with older adults' life satisfaction. The longitudinal analyses accordingly show that the uptake of care led to declines in life satisfaction. Differentiating by socioeconomic background, we find that caregivers with higher socioeconomic resources in terms of wealth generally experienced higher life satisfaction. Our longitudinal analyses on wellbeing declines reveal, however, that these mechanisms did not significantly differ by socioeconomic status of the caregiver.
Our findings suggest the need for increased investments in support services for informal caregivers to mitigate caregiving burdens, irrespective of socioeconomic status, and enhance later life wellbeing.
由于护理需求不断增加，而护理能力却在下降，因此人们对非正式护理的关注度日益提高。相对较新的，但极其重要的是，社会经济不平等在护理和幸福感方面的作用。尽管护理可能是有回报的，但越来越多的研究表明，非正式护理往往会对个人的幸福感产生负面影响。从理论上讲，我们预计社会经济资源较低的护理人员会受到这些负面影响的更大影响。本研究考察了家庭内部护理对生活满意度的后果方面存在的社会经济不平等。
我们借鉴了欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查（SHARE 波 2、4、5 和 6）的纵向数据。我们使用汇总普通最小二乘法和固定效应回归模型来检验家庭内部非正式护理提供对个人生活满意度的影响，以及家庭财富是否调节了这种关系，同时控制了个人的社会人口学和健康特征。
家庭内部的护理提供与老年人的生活满意度呈负相关。因此，纵向分析表明，接受护理会导致生活满意度下降。根据社会经济背景进行区分，我们发现，在财富方面具有较高社会经济资源的护理人员通常会有更高的生活满意度。然而，我们关于幸福感下降的纵向分析表明，这些机制在护理人员的社会经济地位方面没有显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，需要增加对非正式护理人员的支持服务投资，以减轻护理负担，不论其社会经济地位如何，并提高晚年的幸福感。
