Spousal care arrangements and caregivers’ wellbeing: Variations by gender and social welfare regime
Ginevra Floridi1, Nekehia Quashie2, Karen Glaser1, Martina Brandt2
1King's College London, 2TU Dortmund University
Spousal caregivers are often found to have lower wellbeing than non-caregivers. Yet, to date, research has overlooked the role of different caregiving arrangements for spousal caregivers’ wellbeing. We take data from the sixth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe covering 17 European countries, with information on 3,363 couples aged 50+ where at least one partner receives care. We examine the wellbeing (life satisfaction and depression) of spousal caregivers across five care arrangements: solo-care; shared formal; shared informal; outsourced formal; and outsourced informal. We further explore heterogeneity in spousal caregivers’ wellbeing by gender and social welfare regime. Our results reveal that women in spousal caregiving roles generally benefit more than men from outsourcing the care to others, identifying women who care for their partners as a particularly vulnerable group. Context matters as outsourcing care is associated with lower wellbeing for women in Southern Europe.