Pathways of Adult Children Providing Care to Older Parents

Guided by life course and stress process theory, this study investigated pathways of adult child caregivers' family (caregiving, marital, parenting) and nonfamily (employment) roles. Eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed for 1,300 adult child caregivers. Latent class analysis provided strong evidence for a 4-class model of caregivers' role pathways. The four pathways were (a) Not-Married, Early-Transition to Not-Working Caregivers (34%), (b) Married, Not-Working Caregivers (26%), (c) Married, Late-Transition to Not-Working Caregivers (23%), and (d) Married, Not-Working Caregivers with Coresiding Child (17%). Caregivers' background characteristics and contexts predicted pathway membership. Adult child caregivers have structurally diverse life pathways that have implications for theory, research, and practice.Key Words: caregiving, Health and Retirement Study, latent class analysis, life courseProviding informal, nonpaid care and personal assistance to older adults who are physically or cognitively disabled has historically been the primary responsibility of family members in the United States. Family caregivers provide approximately 80% of assistance in later life, which means that 44 million caregivers (19% of the population) are currently providing assistance to adults age 50 and older (National Alliance for Caregiving & AARP [hereinafter NAC/AARP], 2009). Many family caregivers are adult children (44%) providing assistance and care to parents (Connidis, 2010; NAAC/ AARP). As this is one of the largest caregiver groups, there is much to gain from understanding adult child caregivers' life pathways.Research has yet to capture the reality that adult child caregivers, hereafter referred to as caregivers, are heterogeneous and occupy diverse life pathways (Macmillan & Copher, 2005; Pearlin, 2010; Roberto & Jarrott, 2008; Silverstein & Giarrusso, 2010). Caregivers' life pathways, defined as caregivers' long-term, interdependently related family and nonfamily roles, are important to understand because they may have implications for caregivers' longterm health and well-being. Research has found variability among family roles (i.e., caregiving, marital, and parenting roles) and nonfamily roles (i.e., employment), suggesting that caregiving pathways may exist (Chumbler, Pienta, & Dwyer, 2004; Connidis, 2010; Henz, 2006; Marks, Lambert, & Choi, 2002). But little is known about caregivers' role pathways, because researchers have tended to underestimate the differences in caregivers' life experiences by holding roles constant (Dannefer & KelleyMoore, 2009; Marks et al., 2002; Pearlin, 2010). A majority of caregiving research is also crosssectional, which does not provide information about how caregivers' family and nonfamily roles may be interrelated over time (Pearlin).Considering how caregivers' pathways vary by caregivers' background characteristics and contexts provides additional insight into the diversity of caregivers' life experiences (Pearlin, 2010; Silverstein & Giarrusso, 2010). Descriptive research has found variability in caregivers' sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, income, health), caregiving networks, and care relationship characteristics (NAC/AARP, 2009; Rozario, Morrow-Howell, & Hinterlong, 2004). Although a plethora of studies have examined how caregivers' health varies by caregivers' background characteristics and contexts (see sources cited in Pinquart & Sorenson, 2003, 2007), there is little knowledge of whether caregivers' role pathways vary by these factors.Guided by stress process and life course theory (Elder, 1985; 1998; Macmillan & Copher, 2005; Pearlin, Mullan, Semple, & Skaff, 1990), this study examined caregivers' pathways using eight waves of panel data from the Health and Retirement Study. Two pertinent research questions were answered: (a) Can adult child caregivers' role pathways be empirically distinguished and, if so, what is their prevalence and (b) do adult child caregivers' role pathways vary by caregivers' background characteristics and contexts? …