How Do Caregiving Responsibilities Affect Women’s Work-Family Spillovers over the Life Course?

• In Event: 3523 - Family Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 1: Intergenerational Caregiving

Abstract

Guided by the role theories and the life course perspective, this study examines how caregiving responsibilities, namely, childcare and elderly care affect women’s work-family conflict and work-family enrichment experiences over the life course in the U.S. Using three waves longitudinal data from the Midlife Development in the United States Study (MIDUS, 1996-2014), fixed-effect method was conducted to examine the within-person changes in work-family experiences over the life course. We found that both childcare and elderly care significantly shape women’s experiences of work-family conflicts and work-family enrichment over the life course. The effects from childcare and elderly care on negative family-to-work and work-to-family spillover depend on age group, while the effects on positive family-to-work and work-to-family spillover do not. Specifically, the effect of raising young children on negative work-to-family spillover is the highest in the 20s but gradually declines afterwards; by contrast, the effect of providing emotional care on negative work-to-family increases as women get older. Interestingly, the effect of giving money to elderly parents on negative family-to-work spillover is lower in the 40s than in the 20s. The findings of this study inform that women’s work-family experiences are not only affected by caregiving roles per se, but also depending on the life course stage they arrive at, which also speaks to the life course perspective, that timing and linked-life both play strong roles in shaping individuals’ work-family experiences.

Author

• Haoshu Duan, University of Maryland, College Park