Transfers of Informal Care Time in the United States: The Role of Cultural and Demographic Differentials on Intergenerational Flows By Age and Sex
Denys Dukhovnov, University of California, Berkeley
Emilio Zagheni, University of Washington
In recent work, using the American Time Use Survey (2011-2013) we estimated matrices of “who provides care to whom” by age and sex and evaluated the well-being associated to care activities in the US. In this paper, we build on our previous work with the goal of evaluating the role of cultural and demographic differences in informal care transfers. Descriptive analyses indicate differences and similarities by race/ethnicity: overall racial groups within the US differ substantially in the prevalence of childcare, but are similar in prevalence of adult care. We find that Asians have a substantially higher prevalence of childcare compared to other groups in the US. However, the difference is mostly explained by compositional and demographic factors: Asians who are first-generation immigrants have very high prevalence of childcare as well as larger families. In contrast, Asians born in the US show patterns of transfers of care time very similar to those of whites born in the US. As we develop our research, we expect to be able to fully document the cultural differences in time transfers by age and sex, as determined by race/ethnicity and national origin, and to explain those.
Presented in Session 33: Intergenerational Relations and Transfer Channels