A Brief Report on Older Working Caregivers: Developing a Typology of Work Environments

A growing proportion of the U.S. labor force juggles paid work with family caregiving of older adults. However, no research has examined caregivers' work environments. The purpose of this brief report is to develop typologies of the work environments of family caregivers.

This study used data drawn from the 2008-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Our sample includes employed individuals who also provided regular help with daily activities to a parent or spouse (n = 976). We used latent class analysis to develop caregiver work environment typologies.

Our analyses revealed 4 typologies among caregivers: (a) high-quality work environments (n = 340; 35%); (b) average work environments with high job lock (n = 293; 30%); (c) low-quality work environments (n = 203; 21%); and (d) high personal interference in supportive work environments (n = 140; 14%). Although only 21% of working caregivers were in a low-quality work environment (Type C), descriptive results suggest that these workers were most likely to be minorities who needed to work for financial reasons, reporting the highest number of health problems, and the most work hours.

Our findings provide insights into the types of environments that caregivers work in, and the characteristics of individuals in those environments. We discuss implications of our findings for future research and work-based policy development.