Feeling the squeeze The effects of combining work

Authors: Thomas Hansen Britt Slagsvold

Publish Date: 2014/05/03

Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 51-60

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Abstract

Does employment provide respite or add stress to caregivers As a result of population aging and increasing female employment rates growing numbers are facing the competing demands of paid work and caregiving This study explores the effect of providing regular personal care by employment status on six dimensions of psychological wellbeing We concentrate on partner and parent care recipients and differentiate between inhousehold and outofhousehold caregiving We use crosssectional data from the Norwegian Life Course Ageing and Generation study n = 11047 age 25–64 Results indicate that outofhousehold caregiving has no significant relationship with men or women’s wellbeing irrespective of employment status Inhousehold caregiving however relates to lower psychological wellbeing but only among women who do not work fulltime The advantages of fulltime employment to caregivers may be due to greater opportunity to achieve the full benefits that this role has to offer There is little to suggest that combining work and caregiving harms wellbeing In fact a “double burden” seems to be experienced by women who combine extensive caregiving with limited employment

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