IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v15y2018i4d10.1007_s10433-018-0459-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France

Author

Listed:
  • Thijs van den Broek

    (London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Emily Grundy

    (London School of Economics and Political Science
    University of Essex)

Abstract

We investigate how daughters’ feelings of loneliness are impacted when widowed parents develop health limitations, and when daughters take on personal care tasks in response. Using longitudinal data from daughters of widowed parents drawn from the French Family and Intergenerational Relationships Study (ERFI, 1485 observations nested in 557 daughters), we assess (a) whether health limitations of widowed parents are associated with daughters’ feelings of loneliness regardless of whether or not daughters provide personal care and (b) whether there is an effect of care provision on loneliness that cannot be explained by parental health limitations. Fixed effect regression analyses show that widowed parents’ health limitations were associated with raised feelings of loneliness among their daughters. No significant additional effect of providing personal care to a widowed parent was found. Prior research on the impact of health limitations of older parents on the lives of their adult–children has focused mostly on issues related to informal caregiving. Our findings suggest that more attention to the psychosocial impact of parental health limitations—net of actual caregiving—on adult children’s lives is warranted.

Suggested Citation

  • Thijs van den Broek & Emily Grundy, 2018. "Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 369-377, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:15:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-018-0459-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-018-0459-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-018-0459-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-018-0459-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold & Reidun Ingebretsen, 2013. "The Strains and Gains of Caregiving: An Examination of the Effects of Providing Personal Care to a Parent on a Range of Indicators of Psychological Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 323-343, November.
    2. Norma B. Coe & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2009. "Caring for mom and neglecting yourself? The health effects of caring for an elderly parent," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(9), pages 991-1010, September.
    3. Anna A. Amirkhanyan & Douglas A. Wolf, 2006. "Parent Care and the Stress Process: Findings From Panel Data," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 248-255.
    4. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    5. Martin Pinquart & Silvia Sörensen, 2003. "Associations of Stressors and Uplifts of Caregiving With Caregiver Burden and Depressive Mood: A Meta-Analysis," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(2), pages 112-128.
    6. Thijs van den Broek & Emily Grundy, 2017. "Loneliness among Polish migrants in the Netherlands: The impact of presence and location of partners and offspring," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(23), pages 727-742.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rellstab, Sara & Bakx, Pieter & García-Gómez, Pilar & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2020. "The kids are alright - labour market effects of unexpected parental hospitalisations in the Netherlands," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2023. "Informal Caregivers and Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 1883-1930, August.
    3. Brenna, Elenka, 2021. "Should I care for my mum or for my kid? Sandwich generation and depression burden in Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 415-423.
    4. Yoko Niimi, 2016. "The “Costs” of informal care: an analysis of the impact of elderly care on caregivers’ subjective well-being in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 779-810, December.
    5. Cinzia Di Novi & Elenka Brenna, 2013. "Is caring for elderly parents detrimental for women�s mental health? The influence of the European North-South gradient," Working Papers 2013:23, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    6. Young Kyung Do & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2015. "Informal Care and Caregiver's Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 224-237, February.
    7. repec:ctc:serie1:def4 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Elisa Labbas & Maria Stanfors, 2023. "Does Caring for Parents Take Its Toll? Gender Differences in Caregiving Intensity, Coresidence, and Psychological Well-Being Across Europe," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-29, December.
    9. Van Houtven, Courtney Harold & Coe, Norma B. & Skira, Meghan M., 2013. "The effect of informal care on work and wages," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 240-252.
    10. David C. Grabowski & Edward C. Norton & Courtney H. Van Houtven, 2012. "Informal Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 30, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Elenka Brenna & Cinzia Di Novi, 2013. "Is caring for elderly parents detrimental to women’s mental health? The influence of the European North-South gradient," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def004, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    12. Bom, Judith & Bakx, Pieter & Schut, Frederik & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2019. "Health effects of caring for and about parents and spouses," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    13. Diego Alburez‐Gutierrez & Carl Mason & Emilio Zagheni, 2021. "The “Sandwich Generation” Revisited: Global Demographic Drivers of Care Time Demands," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 997-1023, December.
    14. Christine McGarrigle & Hilary Cronin & Rose Kenny, 2014. "The impact of being the intermediate caring generation and intergenerational transfers on self-reported health of women in Ireland," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(2), pages 301-308, April.
    15. Chen, Lu & Fan, Hongli & Chu, Lanlan, 2019. "The hidden cost of informal care: An empirical study on female caregivers' subjective well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 85-93.
    16. Teo, Hansel, 2023. "The impact of a partner's nursing home admission on individuals' mental well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    17. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Mental health effects of caregivers respite: Subsidies or Supports?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    18. Dörte Heger, 2017. "The Mental Health of Children Providing Care to their Elderly Parent," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1617-1629, December.
    19. Bauer, Jan Michael & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2015. "Impacts of Informal Caregiving on Caregiver Employment, Health, and Family," IZA Discussion Papers 8851, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Cristina Vilaplana Prieto & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2015. "Unmet needs in formal care: kindling the spark for caregiving behavior," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 153-184, June.
    21. Elenka Brenna & Cinzia Novi, 2016. "Is caring for older parents detrimental to women’s mental health? The role of the European North–South gradient," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 745-778, December.

    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:spr:eujoag:v:15:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-018-0459-2. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.