Working and caring: The relationship between women\u27s work situations and caregiving for elderly family members

Several societal changes are related to the heightened importance of understanding work-caregiving relationships. Yet, the studies that examine the relationship between women\u27s involvement in work and in caregiving reveal conflicting results. In order to better understand the issue, the role of intervening variables was examined. Thirty-nine women who were working full-time and caring for elderly family members who lived in the community completed detailed questionnaires about work and caregiving. First, three contextual variables were tested for their role as moderators: care receiver\u27s functional status, women\u27s job flexibility and occupational role salience. Care recipient\u27s functional status did not moderate the relationship between the number of hours women worked and the extent or the quality of the care they provided. Care receiver\u27s difficulty with IADL, however, moderated the relationship between the number of hours women worked and the work interference they experienced. In addition, job flexibility moderated the association between temporal involvement in care and job interference due to care responsibilities. Next, Kohn\u27s theory of work socialization was applied to caregiving for elderly family members. The relationship between work conditions that encourage self-direction and women\u27s belief in paternalism in caregiving situations was studied using authoritarian conservatism as a mediating factor. An unexpected curvilinear relationship between self-directive work conditions and authoritarian conservative orientations was observed. Although authoritarian conservatism was found to be related to women\u27s belief in paternalism, its role as a mediating factor was not established. The strengths and limitations of the study and the implications of its findings for future research and practice are discussed