Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France

Thijs van den Broek () and Emily Grundy
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Thijs van den Broek: London School of Economics and Political Science
Emily Grundy: London School of Economics and Political Science

European Journal of Ageing, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, No 5, 369-377

Abstract: Abstract We investigate how daughters’ feelings of loneliness are impacted when widowed parents develop health limitations, and when daughters take on personal care tasks in response. Using longitudinal data from daughters of widowed parents drawn from the French Family and Intergenerational Relationships Study (ERFI, 1485 observations nested in 557 daughters), we assess (a) whether health limitations of widowed parents are associated with daughters’ feelings of loneliness regardless of whether or not daughters provide personal care and (b) whether there is an effect of care provision on loneliness that cannot be explained by parental health limitations. Fixed effect regression analyses show that widowed parents’ health limitations were associated with raised feelings of loneliness among their daughters. No significant additional effect of providing personal care to a widowed parent was found. Prior research on the impact of health limitations of older parents on the lives of their adult–children has focused mostly on issues related to informal caregiving. Our findings suggest that more attention to the psychosocial impact of parental health limitations—net of actual caregiving—on adult children’s lives is warranted.

Keywords: Intergenerational support; Wellbeing; Mental health; Linked lives; Life course; Fixed effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s10433-018-0459-2

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