Research project Combining informal caregiving and paid work
Due to population ageing and reductions in social care services, providing informal care is becoming more common, while simultaneously working lives are becoming longer. Therefore, there is higher risk of conflict between these two roles, paid work and informal care, which can become stressful and time-demanding.
Combining informal caregiving and paid work
In Sweden, around 1,3 million persons regularly cares for, supports or helps a family member or friend. The term informal care refers to the unpaid and untrained provision of support and help to someone who is ill or disabled. The cared for person may be someone in one’s friend circle or family, though most commonly it is either a parent (or parent in law) or a partner.
While helping and providing support to a loved one is an admirable and potentially rewarding activity, at the same time, it can be time demanding and emotionally taxing. Furthermore, the work of informal caregivers, who are most often women, is often invisible and overlooked as it is generally carried out in the private sphere of the home. Regularly providing informal care may generate conflict with other incumbent commitments, such as paid work.
Full project title: Combining informal caregiving and paid work: effects on labour force participation.
Project description
Both paid work and informal care are generally inflexible activities and scheduling conflicts may occur frequently. While most informal carers are in paid work, yet evidence on the impacts of informal caregiving on labour market participation is incomplete and knowledge on which mechanisms are amenable to interventions is lacking.
Using data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), this project examines how working caregivers reconcile their commitments as workers in their job and as informal caregivers for their loved ones. Through quantitative and qualitative approaches this project explores the interplay between informal care and paid work, potential moderators (e.g. work environment characteristics), and the barriers and facilitators encountered by individuals to combine their engagement in both of these roles.
Project members
Project managers
Lawrence Sacco
Researcher
Members
Christine Bergljottsdotter
Associate Professor
Constanze Leineweber
Associate Professor
Paraskevi Peristera
Associate Professor
