A recent study from Princeton University
The research project found that daughters offer an average
of 12.3 hours of elderly parent care per month, on average, compared to the 5.6
hours of care a son provides. The daughters spend twice as much time with
parents than the sons. Care giving time is often associated with the
constraints daughters face such as child care or employment. A son’s care
giving time is associated with whether or not there is a presence or absence of
other helpers like siblings or the other parent. Health Briefs learns that when a daughter is
present, the sons reduce their care-giving efforts and the daughters increase
their care-giving efforts. Gender is definitely a strong point when it comes to
the care of elderly parents. Perhaps the maternal instinct of daughters is one
reason why females are usually the ones who step in and take care of older
parents. Sons are more likely to provide financial assistance as they are most
often raised to be the breadwinner. Whether it is a daughter or son doing the
care-taking, all siblings need the support of each other when elderly parents
call for help. No one child can do it alone. Eventually, the caretaker will
need a break and siblings should step in and assist.
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