CHANGES OVER TIME IN FAMILY CAREGIVING FOR DISABLED OLDER AMERICANS, 1982–2012

Abstract

This paper examines trends in informal caregiving for community-dwelling disabled older Americans between 1982 and 2012. We decompose hours of care received from spouses and children according to changes in: (a) the number of potential spousal and child caregivers (“family structure”), (b) the likelihood that existing spouses and children are caregivers (“the propensity to give care”), and (c) the amount of care provided by individual spousal and child caregivers (“caregiving intensity”). We use data from two nationally representative surveys, the National Long-Term Care Survey (1982 and waves every five years from 1984 through 2004) and the Health and Retirement Study (waves every two years from 2000 through 2012). Disabled older people reported having fewer informal caregivers in 2012 than they did 30 years earlier. Hours of care received from spouses, children, and other family members declined during the 1990’s but have remained fairly constant since then. With regard to the decompositions, existing spouses’ and children’s decreasing likelihood of being caregivers led to fewer spousal and child caregivers per disabled older person in 2012 than in 1982, but the amount of care provided by individual spousal and child caregivers has been similar across the thirty years. Because the intensity of care provided by individual family caregivers has remained fairly constant since the early 1980s, the needs of family caregivers who experience high stress and a high time burden continue to deserve our attention.