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Pathways of Adult Children Providing Care to Older Parents
Author(s) -
Barnett Amanda E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01022.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , latent class model , gerontology , medicine , mathematics , statistics
Guided by life course and stress process theory, this study investigated pathways of adult child caregivers' family (caregiving, marital, parenting) and nonfamily (employment) roles. Eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed for 1,300 adult child caregivers. Latent class analysis provided strong evidence for a 4‐class model of caregivers' role pathways. The four pathways were (a) Not‐Married, Early‐Transition to Not‐Working Caregivers (34%), (b) Married, Not‐Working Caregivers (26%), (c) Married, Late‐Transition to Not‐Working Caregivers (23%), and (d) Married, Not‐Working Caregivers with Coresiding Child (17%). Caregivers' background characteristics and contexts predicted pathway membership. Adult child caregivers have structurally diverse life pathways that have implications for theory, research, and practice.