A new research shows that daughters spend more time caring for their ageing parents than sons.
The research stated that daughters spend twice as much time looking after their elderly parents compared to sons. On the other hand, when it comes to taking care of parents, men contribute "as little as possible," researchers said.
The researchers gathered data from the 2004 University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study that surveys every two years a nationally representative sample of more than 26,000 Americans older than the age of 50.
The study results showed that daughters spend an average of 12.3 hours taking care of elderly parent every month compared to 5.6 hours given by sons. This means daughters spend at least seven hours extra looking after their parents.
"Whereas the amount of elderly parent care daughters provide is associated with constraints they face, such as employment or childcare, sons' caregiving is associated only with the presence or absence of other helpers, such as sisters or a parent's spouse," lead study author Angelina Grigoryeva, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Princeton University, said in a press release.
The study results clearly showed that gender clearly determined care for parents in a family with both a son and daughter. Grigoryeva said that the care-giving efforts by the sons are reduced when they have sisters and when girls have brothers they invest more time in caring about their parents. "This suggests that sons pass on parent caregiving responsibilities to their sisters."
According to Grigoryeva, the gender inequality in parent care is particularly noteworthy because of the consequences of elder care for caregivers.
"Numerous empirical studies report negative mental and physical health consequences, including a higher mortality rate, for people who provide care for elderly family members," Grigoryeva said. "In addition, these caregivers often have to balance elder care with employment, potentially resulting in career sacrifices and lower earnings. Providing care for elderly relatives can also impose significant financial burdens on caregivers in the form of direct expenses, as they often pay for goods and services for their care recipients," she explains.
According to the researchers, this biased gender care giving might have repercussions on a series of gender inequalities related to health and economic well-being.
"The U.S. has been gradually becoming a more gender egalitarian society since the 1970s, my study shows gender inequality remains acute when it comes to elderly parent care," Grigoryeva said.
