1. Finding the Nuance in Eldercare Measurement: Latent Profiles of Eldercare Characteristics.
- Author
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Bramble, Reed J., Duerk, Emma K., and Baltes, Boris B.
- Subjects
ELDER care ,INTELLECTUAL disabilities ,DISABILITIES - Abstract
There has historically been little consensus around the measurement of the eldercare construct. While authors most frequently employ a dichotomous operationalization of eldercare, there is likely greater nuance to the caregiver experience that goes uncaptured and can serve to explain inconsistencies in eldercare findings. The current study takes a person-centered approach to eldercare in order to assess how different caregiving characteristics manifest within individuals. Using an archival data source, we conduct a latent profile analysis of 840 employed caregivers to detect patterns within eldercare experiences and relate these contexts to various work-related and psychological outcomes. Overall, we find that the latent profiles are primarily driven by three eldercare variables: (1) the amount of time spent attending to eldercare responsibilities, (2) the living situation of the care recipient, and (3) the impairment of the care recipient. We also discovered that one of the profiles (characterized by long-term, in-home eldercare for a care recipient with a physical or mental disability) exhibited significantly higher family-to-work conflict relative to other profiles. Our comparisons of eldercare profiles serve to illustrate the scenarios in which eldercare is most influential. Additionally, the person-centered approach revealed various caregiving contexts that were otherwise not captured by the variable-centered approach, supporting the use of latent profile analysis in the work-family domain. The findings have implications for the future operationalization of the eldercare construct, as well as for organizational eldercare policies and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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