Giving Incentives of Adult Children Who Care for Disabled Parents

Do altruism and bequest incentives motivate adult children to care for disabled parents? Using an economic framework, this study examines these caregiving incentives. Data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study indicate that motives to increase bequests from parents and parents' disabilities influence adult children's decisions about not working and giving time or money to disabled parents. As people age, their chances of being disabled (i.e., reduced ability to perform basic activities of daily living, such as dressing, eating, or bathing) increase. This occurs at the same time their economic resources and earnings opportunities are declining. More than any other time in their lives, older persons with disabilities rely more heavily on public resources and/or family caregivers (primarily adult daughters) for financial, health, and lifestyle support. This paper examines the economic incentives that form the basis of family members' decisions to provide caregiving support at a critical stage in an older person's life cycle, the stage of physical disability. The researchers investigate this perspective by addressing the following questions. Why do caregivers obtain satisfaction from spending time in the production of long-term care services for older disabled persons? Is caregiving an effort that is motivated solely by social and psychological factors, or are there also economic motivations? Do caregivers derive personal satisfaction or utility from knowing that the older person's needs are met, facilitating (in contrast to typical economics hypotheses) interdependent satisfaction or utility between the older person and the caregiver? Is the caregiver's decision to provide care motivated by an interest to enhance the future welfare of the caregiver? Understanding what motivates family caregivers is important for framing effective public policy for older persons. It informs public policymakers whether enhanced caregiver support will be available when state/federal budget crises lead to decreased support of health and wellness programs for older persons. If potential family caregivers provide adequate caregiver support with an expectation to receive some form of personal gain, public policy strategies that provide compensation (e.g., tax credits or direct financial rewards) may be effective. Reliance on social and psychological forces to generate an adequate level of caregiving support may be inadequate. The conceptual framework for providing insights on caregiving was guided by the theoretical perspectives of the intergenerational transfers and intergenerational giving literature, and these perspectives were further integrated with the general caregiving literature. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) provides a unique database to examine these issues. This is because a sub-sample of the data includes persons who were adult children with disabled parents. A PERSPECTIVE ON CAREGIVING PRESENTED IN THE GERONTOLOGY LITERATURE Most gerontological research on caregiving begins with a sample of persons who have decided to provide support for older disabled persons. Within this literature, research on social-psychology and aging has shown that filial obligation and attachment are motivations for caregiving (Cicirelli 1993; Cantor 1989). Adult children believe that they have a duty or social obligation to care for their parents. These feelings of obligation lead to increased hours of assistance (Callahan 1985; Walker et al. 1990). Adult children also engage in caregiving to protect and prolong life of an attachment figure whose health is declining. Stronger attachment corresponds with more hours of assistance (Cicirelli 1993). The ways that families define their responsibilities affect caregiving efforts, as well as the sharing of responsibility among siblings (Piercy 1998). Gerontological research on the economics and sociology of aging has addressed questions such as, how many hours of support will caregivers provide? …