Parental status, family complexity, and unmet care needs in later life

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 9: Family Structure and Change

Abstract

Objective: This study examines how parental status is associated with unmet care needs—situations in which older adults experience negative consequences because needed help was unavailable—among U.S. adults aged 65 and older who require assistance with daily activities, and whether these associations differ for men and women.
Background: Parenthood has long been assumed to protect older adults from care vulnerability. However, growing family diversity and complexity, including lower fertility, rising childlessness, and the increasing prevalence of stepfamilies, raise questions about whether, and for whom, parenthood reduces unmet care needs in later life.
Method: This study uses nationally representative longitudinal data from 11,333 older adults in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS, 2011-2023). Moving beyond a simple parent–childless dichotomy, we examine presence of adult children, family size, children’s gender composition, and stepfamily ties. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models are employed to account for repeated observations over time.
Results: Having children does not uniformly reduce unmet care needs. Compared with childless older adults, parents have higher odds of unmet care needs, and having more children does not lower risk. Parents with daughters face lower risk, whereas those without daughters and those with stepchildren—particularly stepchildren only—face substantially higher risk. These patterns are evident among older men but not among older women.
Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of family complexity and gendered caregiving dynamics in shaping later-life care vulnerability and caution against assuming that parenthood or larger families necessarily ensure adequate support in old age.

Authors

• Yan Zhang, Texas State University

• Zhiyong Lin, University of Texas-San Antonio