Gender Differences in Multigenerational Caregiving Across the Life Course in Europe

To better understand how caregiving varies across contexts and the impact of caregiving on social and economic outcomes, we need to understand how it varies across the entire adult life course and how sensitive caregiving estimates are to the inclusion of different directions and types of care. This is the first study to comprehensively describe multigenerational caregiving patterns by gender and age across European countries. We use the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) Wave 1 (N=114,147) to consider multiple definitions of multigenerational caregiving. In addition to personal care and financial transfers, we also include emotional transfers which are rarely examined. We also examine multigenerational care that includes simultaneous care for any two generations rather than just to parents and children which is most often studied. Across our sample of 11 European countries, we find that women are significantly more likely to give care than men across the life course, and these gender gaps are especially large during critical periods like young adulthood and mid-life around retirement ages. Including emotional caregiving as well as horizontal care (to a spouse, sibling, or friend) are both substantively important in shaping the life course pattern of caregiving and the size of the gender gap. The gender gap in the life course pattern of caregiving have implications for aging, intergenerational inequality, and human capital accumulation across the life course.

为更深刻地理解护理照护在不同情境下的差异及其对社会经济结果的影响，有必要探究护理照护在整个成人生命历程中的变化规律，以及护理照护估计值对不同照护方向和类型的敏感度。本研究系首例全面描述欧洲各国按性别和年龄段划分的多代际护理照护模式。本研究采用世代与性别调查（GGS）第一波次数据（N=114,147），以探讨多代际护理照护的多种定义。除了个人照护和财务转移之外，本研究还纳入了情感转移，这在以往研究中鲜有涉及。此外，本研究还考察了包括同时照护任何两代人群而非仅限于父母与子女的多代际照护，这是以往研究中较为常见的形式。在我们所研究的11个欧洲国家样本中，我们发现女性在整个生命历程中提供照护的可能性显著高于男性，尤其在青年成年期和临近退休年龄的中年期等关键时期，性别差距尤为显著。将情感照护以及横向照护（针对配偶、兄弟姐妹或朋友）纳入考量，对于塑造护理照护的生命历程模式和性别差距大小具有重要意义。护理照护生命历程模式中的性别差距对老龄化、代际不平等以及整个生命历程中的人力资本积累具有深远影响。