Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T04:13:38.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The absence of conflict between paid-work hours and the provision of instrumental support to elderly parents among middle-aged women and men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010

ANNE E. VAN PUTTEN ,
JAN DIRK VLASBLOM ,
PEARL A. DYKSTRA  and
JOOP J. SCHIPPERS
ANNE E. VAN PUTTEN*
Affiliation:
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, The Hague, The Netherlands.
JAN DIRK VLASBLOM
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
PEARL A. DYKSTRA
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
JOOP J. SCHIPPERS
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
*
Address for correspondence: Anne E. van Putten, Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Anna van Hannoverstraat 4, 2595BJThe Hague, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study assesses the relationship between the number of work hours and the provision of instrumental support to parents among 779 middle-aged women and men in dual-worker couples in The Netherlands. Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study collected during 2002–04, we estimate a simultaneous two-stage probit least-squares model, which takes into account that the competing time and financial demands of a person's engagement in paid work and parental support are endogenous. We explicitly control for the effects of partners' earnings, housework and parent-support contributions, and of co-resident children's time demands and help with domestic tasks. Contrary to expectations, the results do not reveal a conflict between paid work and giving support to parents. Several possible explanations are discussed. The results emphasise the importance of the household context, in that the work hours of both women and men depend on other household members' activities and finances, as does men's provision of parent-support. The striking lack of relationships between women's provision of parental support and any individual and contextual characteristic demonstrates the persistence of gendered roles in family members giving support.

Keywords

work hoursinstrumental supportparentspartnerschildrenmiddle age
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , August 2010 , pp. 923 - 948
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adema, W. 2002. Babies and Bosses: Reconciling Work and Family Life. Volume 1, Australia, Denmark and The Netherlands. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.Google Scholar
Agree, E. M., Bissett, B. and Rendall, M. S. 2003. Simultaneous care for parents and care for children among mid-life British women and men. Population Trends, 112, Summer, 29–35.Google Scholar
Albertini, M., Kohli, M. and Vogel, C. 2007. Intergenerational transfers of time and money in European families: common patterns: different regimes? Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 4, 319–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amemiya, T. 1978. The estimation of a simultaneous equation generalized probit model. Econometrica, 46, 7, 1193–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antill, J. K., Goodnow, J. J., Russell, G. and Cotton, S. 1996. The influence of parents and family context on children's involvement in household tasks. Sex Roles, 34, 3–4, 215–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attias-Donfut, C., Ogg, J. and Wolff, F. C. 2005. European patterns of intergenerational financial and time transfers. European Journal of Ageing, 2, 3, 161–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnes, C. L., Given, B. A. and Given, C. W. 1995. Parent caregivers: a comparison of employed and not employed daughters. Social Work, 40, 3, 375–82.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S. 1965. A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal, 75, 299, 493–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernasco, W. 1994. Coupled Careers: The Effects of Spouse's Resources on Success at Work. Thesis Publishers, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Bettio, F. and Plantenga, J. 2004. Comparing care regimes in Europe. Feminist Economics, 10, 1, 85–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, S. M. and Robinson, J. P. 1997. What did you do today? Children's use of time, family composition, and the acquisition of social capital. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 2, 332–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittman, M., England, P., Folbre, N., Sayer, L. and Matheson, G. 2003. When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 1, 186–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, S. L. 1992. The sex-typing of children's household labor: parental influence on daughters' and sons' housework. Youth and Society, 24, 2, 178–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brines, J. 1993. The exchange value of housework. Rationality and Society, 5, 3, 302–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brines, J. 1994. Economic dependency, gender, and the division of labor at home. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 3, 652–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cogle, F. L. and Tasker, G. E. 1982. Children and housework. Family Relations, 31, 3, 395–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coltrane, S. 2000. Research on household labor: modeling and measuring the social embeddedness of routine family housework. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 4, 1208–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coltrane, S. and Ishii-Kuntz, M. 1992. Men's housework: a life course perspective. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 1, 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuijpers, M., Hermans, B. and Portegijs, W. 2006. Betaalde arbeid [Paid labour]. In Portegijs, W., Hermans, B. and Lalta, V. (eds), Emancipatiemonitor 2006. Veranderingen in de Leefsituatie en Levensloop [Emancipation Monitor 2006: Changes in Living Arrangements and Life Histories]. Netherlands Institute for Social Research, The Hague, 67–99.Google Scholar
Cunningham, M. 2007. Influences of women's employment on the gendered division of household labor over the life course. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 3, 422–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dautzenberg, M. G. H., Diederiks, J. P. M., Philipsen, H., Stevens, F. C. J., Tan, F. E. S. and Vernooij-Dassen, M. J. F. J. 2000. The competing demands of paid work and parent care: middle-aged daughters providing assistance to elderly parents. Research on Aging, 22, 2, 165–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Graaf, N. D., De Graaf, P. M., Kraaykamp, G. and Ultee, W. C. 1998. Family Survey Dutch Population 1998. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
De Graaf, N. D., De Graaf, P. M., Kraaykamp, G. and Ultee, W. C. 2000. Family Survey Dutch Population 2000. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
De Graaf, N. D., De Graaf, P. M., Kraaykamp, G. and Ultee, W. C. 2003. Family Survey Dutch Population 2003. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
De Leeuw, E. D. and De Heer, W. 2001. Trends in household survey nonresponse: a longitudinal and international comparison. In Groves, R. M., Dillman, D. A., Eltinge, J. L. and Little, R. J. A. (eds), Survey Nonresponse. Wiley, New York, 41–54.Google Scholar
Denuwelaere, M. 2003. Een ongelijke taakverdeling tussen man en vrouw: Van ouders naar kinderen [An unequal task-division between man and woman: from parents to children]. Mens en Maatschappij, 78, 4, 355–78.Google Scholar
Dykstra, P., Kalmijn, M., Knijn, T. C. M., Komter, A. E., Liefbroer, A. C. and Mulder, C. H. 2005. Codebook of The Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, a Multi-Actor, Multi-method Panel Study on Solidarity in Family Relationships, Wave 1. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, The Hague.Google Scholar
Ettner, S. L. 1995. The impact of ‘parent care’ on female labor supply decisions. Demography, 32, 1, 63–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eurostat 2008. European Union Labour Force Survey: Annual Results 2008. Table 1, Employed persons: number, employment rates and share of part-time employment by sex, 2008, Eurostat, Luxembourg. Available online at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/ [Accessed 21 January 2010].Google Scholar
Evertsson, M. 2006. The reproduction of gender: housework and attitudes towards gender equality in the home among Swedish boys and girls. British Journal of Sociology, 57, 3, 415–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fields, J. 2003. America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2003. Current Population Report P20-553, US Census Bureau, Government Printing Office, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Fokkema, T. and Liefbroer, A. C. 2008. Trends in living arrangements in Europe: convergence or divergence? Demographic Research, 19, 36, 1351–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gager, C. T., Cooney, T. M. and Call, K. T. 1999. The effects of family characteristics and time use on teenagers' household labor. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 4, 982–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gjerdingen, D. K. and Center, B. A. 2005. First-time parents' postpartum changes in employment, childcare, and housework responsibilities. Social Science Research, 34, 1, 103–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronau, R. 1980. Home production: a forgotten industry. Review of Economics and Statistics, 62, 3, 408–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, S. 2006. Her money, her time: women's earnings and their housework hours. Social Science Research, 35, 4, 975–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henz, U. 2004. The effects of informal care on paid-work participation in Great Britain: a lifecourse perspective. Ageing & Society, 24, 6, 851–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hook, J. L. 2004. Reconsidering the division of household labor: incorporating volunteer work and informal support. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 66, 1, 101–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, A. 1985. Sons and daughters as care-givers to older parents: differences in role performance and consequences. The Gerontologist, 25, 6, 612–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, R. W. and Lo Sasso, A. T. 2000. The Tradeoff Between Hours of Paid Employment and Time Assistance to Elderly Parents at Midlife. Abstract of presentation to Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy, 7 February. Available online at http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102272788.html [Accessed 21 January 2010].Google Scholar
Keshk, O. M. G. 2003. CDSIMEQ: a program to implement two-stage probit least squares. Stata Journal, 3, 2, 157–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kooreman, P. and Wunderink, S. 1996. The Economics of Household Behaviour. Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Künemund, H. and Rein, M. 1999. There is more to receiving than needing: theoretical arguments and empirical explorations of crowding in and crowding out. Ageing & Society, 19, 1, 93–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurz, D. 2002. Caring for teenage children. Journal of Family Issues, 23, 6, 748–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafortune, G., Balestat, G. and the Disability Study Expert Group Members 2007. Trends in Severe Disability Among Elderly People: Assessing the Evidence in 12 OECD Countries and the Future Implications. Health Working Paper 26, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.Google Scholar
Litwin, H. and Attias-Donfut, C. 2009. The inter-relationship between formal and informal care: a study in France and Israel. Ageing & Society, 29, 1, 71–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Long, J. S. and Freese, J. 2006. Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata. Second edition, Stata, College Station, Texas.Google Scholar
Maddala, G. S. 1983. Limited-dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manke, B., Seery, B. L., Crouter, A. C. and McHale, S. M. 1994. The three corners of domestic labor: mothers', fathers', and children's weekday and weekend housework. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 3, 657–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maume, D. J. 2006. Gender differences in restricting work efforts because of family responsibilities. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 4, 859–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moen, P., Robinson, J. and Fields, V. 1994. Women's work and caregiving roles: a life course approach. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 49, 4, S176–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motel-Klingebiel, A., Tesch-Roemer, C. and von Kondratowitz, H.-J. 2005. Welfare states do not crowd out the family: evidence for mixed responsibility from comparative analyses. Ageing & Society, 25, 6, 863–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nusselder, W. J., Looman, C. W. N., Franco, O. H., Peeters, A., Slingerland, A. S. and Mackenbach, J. P. 2008. The relation between non-occupational physical activity and years lived with and without disability. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62, 9, 823–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogg, J. and Renaut, S. 2006. The support of parents in old age by those born during 1945–1954: a European perspective. Ageing & Society, 26, 5, 723–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavalko, E. K. and Artis, J. E. 1997. Women's caregiving and paid work: causal relationships in late midlife. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 52B, 4, S170–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perenboom, R. J. M. 2005. Wat is de gezonde levensverwachting van de bevolking in Nederland? [What is the Life Expectancy in Good Health of the Dutch Population?]. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands. Available online at http://www.rivm.nl/vtv/object_document/o2785n18839.html [Accessed 21 January 2010].Google Scholar
Powers, R. S. 2003. Doing the daily grind: the effects of domestic labor on professional, managerial, and technical workers' earnings. Gender Issues, 21, 1, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Presser, H. B. 1994. Employment schedules among dual-earner spouses and the division of household labor by gender. American Sociological Review, 59, 3, 348–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez, L. and Thomson, E. 1997. Becoming mothers and fathers: parenthood, gender, and the division of labor. Gender and Society, 11, 6, 747–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelton, B. and John, D. 1996. The division of household labor. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 1, 299–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M., Parrott, T. M. and Bengtson, V. L. 1995. Factors that predispose middle-aged sons and daughters to provide social support to older parents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 2, 465–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, Y., Warin, J., Lewis, C. and Langford, W. 2002. Intimate talk between parents and their teenage children: democratic openness or covert control? Sociology, 36, 4, 965–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiess, C. K. and Schneider, A. U. 2003. Interactions between care-giving and paid work hours among European midlife women, 1994 to 1996. Ageing & Society, 23, 1, 41–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitze, G. and Logan, J. 1990. Sons, daughters, and intergenerational social support. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 2, 420–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statistics Netherlands 2008. Personen in Particuliere Huishoudens naar Positie in het Huishouden, Leeftijd en Geslacht [Persons in Private Households by Household Type, Age and Gender]. Website tabulation, Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Statistics Netherlands), The Hague. Available online at http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?VW=T&DM=SLNL&PA=37620&D1=0-1,4-8&D2=a&D3=105-109&D4=l&HD=081021-1510&HDR=T&STB=G1,G2,G3 [Accessed 21 January 2010].Google Scholar
Stone, R., Cafferata, G. and Sangl, J. 1987. Caregivers of the frail elderly: a national profile. The Gerontologist, 27, 5, 616–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Szinovacz, M. E. and Davey, A. 2008. The division of parent care between spouses. Ageing & Society, 28, 4, 571–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tennstedt, S. 1999. Family Caregiving in an Aging Society. Paper presented at the US Administration on Aging Symposium on Longevity in the New American Century, 29 March, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Tichenor, V. J. 2005. Earning More and Getting Less: Why Successful Wives Can't Buy Equality. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Tobin, J. 1958. Estimation of relationships for dependent variables. Econometrica, 26, 1, 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ultee, W. C. and Ganzeboom, H. B. G. 1992. Netherlands Family Survey 1992/93. Department of Sociology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau 2006. Family Groups by Family Type, Sex, and Race and Hispanic Origin of Reference Person: 2006. Table FG7, America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2006. Online tables, Current Population Survey, US Census Bureau, Washington DC. Available online at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2006.html [Accessed 25 January 2010].Google Scholar
US Census Bureau 2008. Family Status and Household Relationship of People 15 Years and Over, by Marital Status, Age, and Sex: 2008. Table A2, America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2008, Current Population Survey, US Census Bureau, Washington DC. Available online at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2008.html [Accessed 25 January 2010].Google Scholar
Van Doorne-Huiskes, J., Dykstra, P., Nievers, E., Oppelaar, J. and Schippers, J. J. 2002. Mantelzorg: Tussen Vraag en Aanbod [Informal Care: Between Supply and Demand]. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, The Hague.Google Scholar
Van Gils, W. 2007. Full-time Working Couples in The Netherlands: Causes and Consequences. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Verbakel, E. 2008. The Partner as a Resource or Restriction? Labour Market Consequences of Husbands and Wives and the Consequences for Inequality Between Couples. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Wang, R., Bianchi, S. M. and Raley, S. B. 2005. Teenagers' internet use and family rules: a research note. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 5, 1249–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, L. K. and Brinkerhoff, D. B. 1981. Children's work in the family: its significance and meaning. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 4, 789–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, D. B. and Soldo, B. J. 1994. Married women's allocation of time to employment and care of elderly parents. Journal of Human Resources, 29, 4, special issue, The Family and Intergenerational Relations, 1259–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar