IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v78y2023i11p1805-1812..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Caregiving History on Later-Life Self-Perceptions of Aging

Author

Listed:
  • Rita Xiaochen Hu
  • Marina Larkina
  • Jacqui Smith
  • Rodlescia Sneed

Abstract

ObjectivesTheories suggest that self-perceptions of aging (SPA) reflect structural and cultural ageism together with an individual’s personal life experiences. We examine the impact of an individual’s history of informal caregiving on their SPA.MethodsUsing data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, N = 8,372, age range 50–102 years), we investigated caregiving history as a determinant of later-life SPA. HRS participants provided reports of up to 5 episodes of caregiving, the life-course timing of each episode (start/end year), and their relationship with the care recipients. SPA was measured by the HRS Attitudes Toward Own Aging Scale. We conducted linear regressions to examine associations between specific caregiving histories and later-life SPA. Models included controls for current sociodemographic and health status.ResultsIndividuals who were ever a caregiver reported more negative SPA than noncaregivers. Variations in the impact of histories of caregiving were also revealed. Specifically, compared to people who had cared for adult(s) only, HRS participants who cared for both a child with special needs and an adult reported more negative SPA later in life.DiscussionThe study provides insight into potential life-course precursors of SPA and highlights the importance of conceptualizing caregiving history as a complex life experience that might affect an individual’s SPA later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Rita Xiaochen Hu & Marina Larkina & Jacqui Smith & Rodlescia Sneed, 2023. "The Impact of Caregiving History on Later-Life Self-Perceptions of Aging," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 78(11), pages 1805-1812.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:11:p:1805-1812.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbad103
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:11:p:1805-1812.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.