ANN ARBOR—While prior research has shown that women are more likely than men to care for elderly parents, older women who are being cared for also provide and receive more help from their children than do men, say University of Michigan researchers. According to a new study by Berit Ingersoll-Dayton, associate professor of social work, and colleagues Marjorie Starrels and David Dowler, elderly women receive more social support and health care management from their children than do older men. On the other hand, older mothers also provide more help to their children with such tasks as cleaning and meal preparation than do elderly fathers.

“Our findings indicate that care-givers receive more help from their mothers than from their fathers,” Ingersoll-Dayton says. “Because women tend to do more care-giving than men, their children may feel a greater obligation to reciprocate the efforts of their mothers as compared to their fathers. When helping older mothers, care-givers are more likely to be involved in reciprocal exchanges.” The researchers also note that care-givers provide more help to their mothers because older women tend to have more chronic health problems than elderly men and may be more assertive in expressing to their children their need for care.

The study, which consisted of a sample of nearly 1,600 people in the Portland, Ore., area who provide care to a parent or parent-in-law age 60 or older, also compared care-giver tasks, resources and costs for adults who care for a biological parent or a spouse’s parent. According to the researchers, no difference was found between the amount of help sons-in-law and daughters-in-law provide to their parents-in-law. Moreover, the amount of care given to biological parents and parents-in-law was similar. However, daughters-in-law receive less reciprocal help from parents-in-law and experience more care-giver stress than sons-in- law, the study says.

“The results suggest that daughters-in-law are a particularly vulnerable group because they are more likely than their male counterparts to experience the costs of care-giving without the resources that may be somewhat compensatory for some care-givers,” Ingersoll-Dayton says. “They report considerable care-giving stress, yet receive minimal help from elders.” In all, the study found that the greater the functional limitations or problem behaviors of the parents or parents-in- law, or the closer they live to their care-givers, the more help they receive from them.

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