Many American Parents are Looked after by Daughters in Old Age: Study
An old saying goes, 'a son is a son till he finds a wife but, a daughter will be a daughter for a life'. Sociologists at the Princeton University found this may hold true for many parents who have had the care and support of daughters in old age or at the time of need. The study used data from a past research involving over 26,000 American citizens aged above 50 to assess the quality of life and care giving efforts provided by family members and close ones.
Their findings revealed parents who had daughters received care and attention for at least 12.3 hours a day on average compared to 5.6 hours given by sons. In old age, many people suffer from mobility issues due to musculoskeletal disorders, decline in mental health and memory and lack self-competency. It was observed a majority of participants who were surveyed said their daughters generously discharged their duties and gave a helping hand in everyday tasks like dressing, feeding, medication and travelling.
In addition, the survey noted that in families with both a son and a daughter, most of the care giving was done by the daughter. This observation remained uniform even after taking in account the number of children the daughters had and work pressure they experienced.
A recent research suggests daughters are less likely to depend on parents financially and ensure they are capable of looking after family during old age. The current survey authors also noted that since 1995 women have played a significant role in caring for the ailing and elderly parents.
"We found that daughters provide as much care as they can with given constraints, but sons provide less care regardless of constraints," said Angelina Grigoryeva, study author and researcher at Princeton University, reports the USA Today.
"This means that gender probably is having a big impact throughout women's whole lives. We see part of the reason for gender gap in pay is because women spend more time out of the workforce, taking care of children, making career sacrifices for family. This suggests that parent care is also a big factor on the gender gap," said Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, reports USA Today.
"We might think of caring for elderly relatives as practical who's got time or resources. But this study suggests it's not time and resources, it's really the gender," adds Cohen.
The research was presented at the 109th annual meet of the American Sociological Association.
