Dr. Francesca Zanasi
Department of Social and political Science, University of Bologna
All over Europe, care responsibilities for older individuals fall on the shoulders of family members, particularly partners, and children, usually wives and daughters(in-laws) – with negative consequences on psychological and physical health. Despite the extensive study of the caregiver burden, the socio-economic characteristics of informal caregivers remain overlooked by research. In the present study, we aim to uncover socio-economic differences (regarding education, income, and wealth) in the probability of providing informal caregiving to older parents (and parents-in-law) in Europe, using the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, 2004-2020). Given the gender roles traditionally associated with care duties, we focus on older women, who bear the lion’s share of informal care. Logistic regression models show a positive gradient between women’s socio-economic status and providing support to parents(in-laws). Education appears to be the dimension along which differences in care provision emerge the most: the highest the educational level, the highest the probability of providing care. Such provision is at low-intensity levels, namely, on less-than-weekly-basis and in activities other than personal care. It may be offered as a complement to formal services that high-socioeconomic-status individuals can afford to purchase on the market. A lower commitment to older parents(in-laws) can be experienced as less burdensome and be offered at the daughters' (in-laws) discretion. However, it emerges clearly that low-income groups compensate for lack of resources with co-residence with older parents, allegedly as a strategy to care for them.
