Mutual relationships between caregiving and work among middle-aged women

Analysis of two-wave panel data

Abstract

  This study analyzed the first two waves of the “Longitudinal Survey of Middle-Aged and Elderly Persons” conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2005 (T1) and 2006 (T2), to examine the mutual relationships between caregiving and work among middle-aged women. First, as a result of a logistic regression analysis of caregiving at T2, we found a negative association between work status and caregiving initiation. Analyses for workers showed a significant negative relationship between working hours and caregiving, but no significant relationships between the form of employment or income and caregiving. Second, we conducted the ordinary least squares regressions of working hours at T2 and found that workers who started caregiving tended to decrease their working hours as compared to those who did not provide care. The results suggest that whether working women begin caregiving or not is unaffected by their working conditions (such as the form of employment and income) other than working hours, although caregiving is likely to accompany the adjustments to their work life (e.g., stop working or reduce working hours).