This study examines how people caring for a spouse with Alzheimer's disease reconstruct the meaning of closeness within their marriage. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 men and 15 women. The authors discovered that significant changes in the social identity of the impaired spouse may have important implications for how caregivers view…

This study compared work-family and family-work conflict for employed family caregivers with disability-related care responsibilities in contrast to employed family caregivers with typical care responsibilities. Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a population-based survey of the U.S. workforce, formal and informal…

Positing role conflict as a bidirectional construct in which work interferes with caregiving (WIC) and caregiving interferes with work (CIW), this study investigated its antecedents (demands and support of caregiving and work) and consequences (role strain). A national sample of 583 women between the ages of 50 and 64 years identified using…

This study explores the role of gender ideologies in moderating social judgments of gender norm violators. Three hundred and eleven participants evaluated a male or a female target who was either a primary breadwinner or a primary caregiver. Attributions of personal traits, moral emotions, and marital emotions were examined. Results showed that…

This narrative and quantitative review synthesizes findings from 55 (N = 54,550) studies on the association between providing support to elderly parents and well-being of adult children as well as well-being of parents, in an endeavor to determine the prevailing direction of effects, magnitude of effects, and possible factors that may moderate…

Being married in later life often prevents relocation to long-term care settings, but couples do relocate to these environments. Typically, this transition does not mark the end of support provided by families, especially adult children. Little is known about children's experiences providing support in care settings when both parents are involved.…

As more unmarried couples become parents, it is important to understand the dynamics that help these couples to maintain strong relationships. This article explores the association of the two partners' beliefs about father involvement with their likelihood of union dissolution and transition to marriage, using the first two waves of the Fragile…

In this article, we use feminist theories of the state to examine why the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has had relatively little impact on increasing men's caregiving after the birth or adoption of a child. An analysis of witness testimonies and of the language of the proposed bill at three different stages of its development revealed that…

Using a national sample of 267 couples, the authors identify distinct profiles of dual-earner couples in the sandwiched generation (i.e., those caring for children and aging parents) using cluster analysis and then assess the relationship between these profiles and work-family conflict. The profiles are defined by characteristics of couples' child…

This study investigates how Chinese and German adult daughters evaluate the norm of reciprocity and the unbalanced exchange of support in relation to their aging parents. Women from rural and urban China (n = 292) and from Germany (n = 264) have participated in this study. Results show that for the German daughters, differently from rural Chinese…

We know little about children who have two living nonresident biological parents. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines the diverse living arrangements of U.S. adolescents in this situation, the kinds of relationships they have with each of their nonresident parents, and how these living…

Despite the fact that caregiving-related issues are well researched in the field of family gerontology, the developmental experiences of grandchildren caregivers and the meanings of their caregiving experiences have not been explored. Influenced by the life-span perspective and a constructionism lens, interviews were conducted with 17…

Guided by a life course perspective, this study investigated whether the psychological consequences of transitioning into a caregiver role for a biological parent, parent-in-law, spouse, other kin, or nonkin among married adults might be moderated by marital role quality. Using longitudinal data from a national sample of 1,842 married adults aged…

The HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa has brought renewed attention to the role of grandmothers as caregivers of children. Using 2004 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey data, the authors examine the relationship between coresidence with a grandmother and child schooling in Lesotho, a country with one of the highest rates of HIV infection.…

This study--on 100 African American wife and 258 daughter primary caregivers--uses a contextual approach in its examination of the relationship between social resources and caregiver depressive symptoms. At the bivariate level, significant differences in certain key characteristics of primary caregivers and care receivers underscore the…