Debunking the myth that unpaid caregivers are sacrificing most of their time and joy, a University of Michigan study found that caregivers spend most of the day engaged in other pleasant activities.

Whether through religious practices, physical activity or other fulfilling pursuits, the study shows that these activities offer meaningful moments of joy that can offset the potential challenges of caregiving.

On average, caregivers in the United States spend 17 minutes a day on organized events and 29 minutes on active leisure—the two categories considered the most enjoyable.

Research has highlighted the many challenges that may be faced by caregivers in America: They may have to deal with significant time demands, may report higher levels of stress and depression compared to those who aren’t caregivers, and may rate their overall well-being lower.

Some 20 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers to older adults—a third of them providing support to adults with Alzheimer’s Disease or related dementias. And as America ages, the caregiving population is growing.

However, little is known about the time caregivers spend on activities other than caregiving and their emotional experiences with these activities.

The study, led by Yee To (Crystal) Ng, a postdoctoral fellow at the U-M Institute for Social Research Survey Research Center, fills that gap by highlighting activities beyond caregiving that caregivers integrate into their daily lives—identifying other types of activities caregivers enjoy the most and which they spend the most time doing.

“(Our) insights can help inform programs and guide us in understanding how to enhance caregivers’ well-being amid challenges,” said Ng, who dedicated the work to her mother and father-in-law, whose valor in coping with ADRD motivated the research.

Ng and colleagues used data from 2,136 caregivers responding to the 2017 National Study of Caregiving. Participating caregivers completed time diary interviews to relay all activities they engaged in the previous day and report how they felt while doing them.

The researchers identified eight categories of activities beyond caregiving: 1) self-care (eating, grooming); 2) productive tasks (work, school); 3) shopping; 4) household chores (cooking, laundry); 5) physical care for others; 6) nonactive leisure (TV, reading, socializing); 7) active leisure (physical activity, art, travel); and 8) organized activities (religious practices, club meetings).

Although caregivers found organized activities to be the most enjoyable, they spent the least time on them, averaging 17 minutes daily. This limited time may be due to these activities occurring less frequently or taking less time. In contrast, caregivers devoted the most time to nonactive leisure, averaging 5.7 hours per day, indicating a need for downtime.

Among the eight categories, participants rated productive activities as the least pleasant—a finding that aligns with those of time-use studies in other contexts.

Overall, participants rated most of their daily non-caregiving time as pleasant: 10.6 hours vs. 35 minutes deemed unpleasant.

The researchers also compared family caregivers assisting older adults with dementia—a group at risk for experiencing elevated strain—to those caring for older adults without dementia (e.g., patients with chronic illnesses and cancers).

“We were surprised to find so much similarity between the two groups of caregivers,” said Vicki Freedman, a study co-author affiliated with the Population Studies Center and the Survey Research Center at ISR. “Across the eight categories, there were no significant differences in their pleasantness ratings.”

Nevertheless, the findings did suggest one potentially significant difference: Caregivers to older adults with dementia engaged in activities that they enjoyed for briefer periods than other caregivers.

“This finding suggests that caregivers to older adults with dementia may have more fragmented schedules and may face particular challenges in sustaining pleasant activities in their daily lives,” Ng said. “It highlights potential avenues for increasing caregiver well-being, for instance, by enrolling in organized activities, walking, or other active leisure. Overall, the results underscore the importance of engaging in activities beyond caregiving for respite and positive experiences.”

The research was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. Other study co-authors were Anna Kratz of the U-M Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Kira Birditt of the Survey Research Center.