The overall goal of the proposed research is to investigate whether traditional gender roles within marriage have negative implications for women in times of ill health, given that traditional masculine gender roles may leave some men ill-prepared to assume the caregiving role. Given current health policy trends and many families preferences for care, the issue of husbands as caregivers has salience for today's aging society. Specifically, this research will address the following aims: 1.To describe cross-sectional gender differences in caregiving arrangements, including reciprocity in helping patterns when both husband and wife are in need of care. Further, to describe gender differences in transitions in caregiving arrangements over time, including formal and informal service mix, in response to husbands/wives escalating care needs; 2. To test whether husbands are more likely than wives to withdraw or decrease caregiving involvement over time, controlling for declining caregiver health status and other potentially confounding factors; 3. To test whether patterns of care characteristic of caregiving husbands influence wives' cross- sectional and longitudinal care outcomes, specifically, functional health status, hospital and nursing home use, and reported unmet need for care; 4. To investigate whether age, gender role attitudes, prior household work and the quality of the marital relationship mediate the effect of gender on spousal caregiving patterns and outcomes of care; 5. To compare gender differences in caregiving patterns, and resulting care outcomes, between cohabiting and married couples; 6. To estimate the magnitude of gender role bias in the measurement of need for assistance with gender-related activities among elderly married men and women, and to adjust estimates of need accordingly. This investigation will involve secondary analyses of existing data, focusing on two longitudinal national data sets, the Longitudinal Survey on Aging and the National Survey of Families and Households, both of which contain interview data collected from both members of the marital couple. Additionally, data from a randomly selected regional sample of working age and elderly persons with disabilities will be analyzed.
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