Women's Kin Caregiving Burden across Race-Ethnicity in the United States

Elena Pojman, Pennsylvania State University

Women’s race-ethnicity shapes their kin caregiving burden, i.e., the number of kin for whom they provide care. Previous work has lacked an explicitly demographic approach which considers the number and age of kin for whom a woman may provide care based on mortality, fertility, and kin proximity differentials. To address this gap, the present study considers a woman’s kinship network to quantify disparities in the kin caregiving burden across women’s race-ethnicity. I use kinship matrix models and time-use data on which kin women provide child- and adultcare to estimate (1) the age and kin type for whom women will provide care; (2) the number of kin for whom women provide care across the life course, and (3) the intensity of that care. Owing to racial-ethnic disparities in terms of mortality, fertility, and kin proximity, I expect there will be large differences in terms of the three outcomes. For example, I expect Black women will provide more child- and eldercare earlier in the life course, whereas White women will peak relatively later. Hispanic women will provide less eldercare but more childcare. Building on previous work identifying disparities in women’s family lives across race-ethnicity, this study examines an understudied element of social stratification: the kin caregiving burden.

Keywords: Families, Unions and Households, Mathematical demography , Gender Dynamics

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 70. Family Networks beyond the Household: An International Perspective