Kinship, Gender, and the Social Networks of Caregivers for Older Adults

Background and Objectives

Caregiving for older adults falls disproportionately on women and family members, but little research addresses how gender and kinship intersect to shape caregiver social support. This study generates an empirical typology of caregiver social networks and examines the types’ association with caregiver gender, relationship to the recipient, and their interaction.

Research Design and Methods

Decision Editor: Joseph E. Gaugler, PhD, FGSA We collected personal network data from a nationally representative sample of 2,824 caregivers in December 2020 and January 2021. We used zero-inflated negative binomial regressions of network size and latent profile analysis to identify network types based on their size, density, family composition, and proportion sharing in caregiving responsibilities. We used multinomial logistic regressions to examine associations between network type and caregiver and care recipient characteristics.

Results

We identified three network types: close-knit kin-based networks; larger networks sharing caregiving activities; and small networks in which few or no contacts assisted with caregiving. Women caring for a spouse/partner were more likely to have larger networks with broader care-sharing than either married men or other women; non-kin caregivers disproportionately had smaller networks lacking care-sharing.

Discussion and Implications

The results highlight the vulnerability of unpaid non-kin caregivers and suggest that interventions should consider the intersection of gender and kinship. This is important because the proportion of kinless older adults is expected to grow significantly, which may increase older adults’ reliance on non-kin informal caregivers. Future work should examine whether differences in network type lead towards different outcomes by gender and caregiver-recipient relationship.