Abstract
This article adds to the literature on the ‘supply side’ of informal care, by examining the socio-demographic determinants of co-resident and extra-resident informal caregiving. Results from the population survey “Care in Flanders” (N = 2826), provide evidence for a different relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and informal caregiving, according to the location of care. Women, persons living without children and married (vs. unmarried) persons are more likely to be involved in extra-resident care. Involvement in co-resident care on the other hand, is more common among persons in less good health and sharing a household with someone other than a spouse or child, mostly a parent. The relationship between socio-demographic factors and care intensity is not uniform as well: while younger age and having no paid work are related to more intensive caregiving within the household, this is not the case among extra-resident caregivers. Results may be explained by the fact of some groups having more/less access to “legitimate excuses” for providing less extra-resident care, unequal risks of being confronted with (higher) care needs, as well as selection effects. Overall, our results were weak, pointing to the weakness of a strictly supply based approach in order to predict evolutions in informal care. Future studies should be aware of the differences between co-resident and extra-resident caregiving, taking into account factors from a supply as well as a demand perspective.
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Notes
Finch and Mason (1993) emphasize that the legitimacy of an excuse is not a straightforward outcome either of what the excuse is, or of who is making the excuse. Whether an excuse is accepted as legitimate or not, is the product of a negotiating process. In this article, we will use the term ‘legitimate excuse’, even though we have no information on whether the other parties involved accept this legitimacy. However, we think it is a useful concept, as it signifies the variety of reasons to justify lower care involvement.
In most cases, this ‘other’ person is a parent (72%), or another family member (26%).
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous referee for valuable remarks and suggestions. We also would like to thank Joanna Geerts, Leen Heylen and especially Thérèse Jacobs for helpful comments and careful reading of the manuscript.
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De Koker, B. Socio-demographic determinants of informal caregiving: co-resident versus extra-resident care. Eur J Ageing 6, 3–15 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-008-0103-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-008-0103-7