Caregiving falls disproportionately on daughters of elderly parents, new research finds. A new study presented at the American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco this week suggests that daughters care for their elderly parents as much as they can, while sons help very little in comparison.
In fact, daughters spend twice as much time each month caring for elderly parents than sons do
, Medical News Today reports.
"Numerous empirical studies report negative mental health consequences, including a higher mortality rate, for people who provide care for elderly family members," said lead researcher Angelina Grigoryeva, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Princeton University in New Jersey.
She added that caregivers frequently juggle caring for their parents with employment, possibly resulting in career sacrifices and lower earnings. Caring elderly relatives can also create financial difficulties since they so often pay for items needed for the care they provide.
The findings are based on an analysis of information from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 26,000 Americans over the age of 50 in 2-year intervals.
Results of her study revealed that daughters spend an average of 12.3 hours caring for elderly parents each month, compared with sons, who spend an average of 5.6 hours.
"In other words," said Grigoryeva, "daughters spend twice as much time, or almost seven more hours each month, providing care to elderly parents than sons."
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