Intergenerational Care and Mental Health: Comparing Child and Senior Caregiving Across the Life Course in Canada

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 4: Family Caregiving

Abstract

Unpaid caregiving is a central mechanism through which families provide support across the life course. In Canada, nearly half of adults provide unpaid care to dependent children or older adults, yet limited research has examined how caregiving at different life stages shapes caregivers’ mental health. This study situates unpaid caregiving as a form of intergenerational family support and compares its mental health consequences across two distinct care contexts: childcare and senior care.
Using a convergent mixed methods design, we analyzed data from two nationally representative surveys (N = 1,997) alongside in-depth interviews with a subset of respondents (N = 102). Separate regression models were estimated for childcare and senior care samples using caregiver mental health indicators, and findings were integrated through joint displays.
Across both care contexts, lack of leisure time and sex emerged as the strongest predictors of mental health impacts, with women reporting greater consequences than men. While paid care satisfaction and income were not statistically significant predictors in quantitative models, qualitative findings highlighted how financial strain, care system navigation challenges, and limited access to respite shape caregivers’ experiences. Comparing caregiving at early and later life stages reveals both shared stressors, particularly time scarcity and gendered responsibility, and context-specific pressures embedded in distinct family roles and expectations.
By directly comparing childcare and senior care, this study advances life course scholarship by demonstrating how family-provided care at different dependency stages generates patterned mental health consequences. Findings underscore the need for public health and social policy interventions that address time constraints, gender inequities, and structural barriers to accessible care across the life course.

Authors

• Fabio Robibaro, University of Toronto

• Kayla A Benjamin