Who Cares About Caregiving?: Identity and Caregiving Policy Perspectives
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Rachel VanSickle-Ward
,
Jennifer L. Merolla
Abstract
Using original data collected from YouGov panelists in July of 2021, we examine caregiving experiences and attitudes toward caregiving policies, taking into consideration how intersecting identities shape the perspectives of caregivers. We examine the racial, ethnic and gender dimensions of who provides care, and how the pandemic affected caregiving commitments. We find that communities of color, especially women of color, experienced pandemic caregiving pressures differently than their White counterparts. We further consider public opinion on caregiving policies and explore whether and how these attitudes vary between men and women and across racial, ethnic groups and partisan groups. We find that while interesting differences do exist among different populations, and these differences are worth reflection, policies that support caregivers and caregiving recipients are, on balance, very popular.
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Research funding: The authors with to thank the Center for American Women and Politics and Pivotal Ventures for their support of this project.
Caregiving Policy
Care Battery
To what extent do you support or oppose the following proposals?
Strongly support/somewhat support/neither support nor oppose/somewhat oppose/strongly oppose/skipped/not asked.
Offer aid to low income and middle-class families to help pay for childcare.
Increase wages of early childcare providers.
Provide funding for summer meals and expanded school lunch programs.
Upgrade childcare facilities and provide more childcare facilities in areas of need.
Increase wages for homecare workers.
Start public education in every state with optional pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds.
Provide universal, free childcare from birth to age five, similar to public school.
Which of these statements most closely reflects your own opinion?
Elder Care
Our public policies should be designed to help families afford the costs of elder care for frail older adults.
Helping people afford elder care is not the role of government.
Skipped.
Not asked.
Paid leave
Which statement comes closer to your own view?
The federal government should require employers to pay their employees when they take leave from work for family or medical reasons.
Employers should be able to decide for themselves whether to pay their employees when they take leave from work for family or medical reasons.
Skipped.
Not asked.
Caregiving Perception
Number of Recipients
Thinking about all the people in your life who you help (even if they do not live with you), who do you regularly help by doing activities like cooking, cleaning, bathing, shopping, yard work, or scheduling appointments? Check all that apply.
(Children/stepchildren/foster children, grandchildren, spouse/partner, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, friends, siblings, community members, other, none of the above).
Caregiving Time
Thinking about all of the people who you helped or took care of in your personal life, during the COVID 19 pandemic do you think the time that you spent helping or caring for others increased, decreased, or stayed the same?
Increased
Decreased
Stayed the same
Skipped
Not asked
Now we’d like you to reflect on your work and home life during the pandemic. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements. [Grid, Show if Q3_b not in 4, 5, 6]
Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree
Skipped
Not asked
I thought I might risk losing my job if I worked less to meet family needs.
I worried that my increased family demands would hurt opportunities for job advancement (raises, promotion).
I was able to find a good balance between work and family demands.
I felt like I could bring up personal or family issues with my supervisor or manager.
| Variables | Support for paid leave |
|---|---|
| Caregiving increase | 0.163 |
| (0.140) | |
| Caregiving decrease | 0.219 |
| (0.242) | |
| Caregiving attitudes | 0.657** |
| (0.255) | |
| Caregiving skills | −0.295 |
| (0.241) | |
| Age | −1.202*** |
| (0.337) | |
| Education | −0.145 |
| (0.250) | |
| Black | 0.337* |
| (0.179) | |
| Latino | 0.253 |
| (0.155) | |
| Asian | 0.273* |
| (0.153) | |
| Party | −0.542** |
| (0.236) | |
| Ideology | −1.229*** |
| (0.322) | |
| Gender | −0.165 |
| (0.145) | |
| Non-binary | 0.650 |
| (0.479) | |
| Employed | −0.127 |
| (0.137) | |
| Gender role | 0.187** |
| (Children) | (0.0798) |
| Gender role | 0.0783 |
| (Adult) | (0.0752) |
| Family income | −0.385 |
| (0.341) | |
| Married | 0.221 |
| (0.160) | |
| Constant | 1.494*** |
| (0.339) | |
| Observations | 1029 |
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Standard errors in parentheses. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
| Variables | Support for eldercare |
|---|---|
| Caregiving increase | 0.0771* |
| (0.0411) | |
| Caregiving decrease | 0.0352 |
| (0.0756) | |
| Caregiving attitudes | 0.102 |
| (0.0798) | |
| Caregiving skills | −0.0756 |
| (0.0716) | |
| Age | 0.135 |
| (0.103) | |
| Education | −0.0234 |
| (0.0782) | |
| Black | 0.0345 |
| (0.0413) | |
| Latino | 0.0169 |
| (0.0404) | |
| Asian | 0.0802** |
| (0.0392) | |
| Party | −0.122 |
| (0.0753) | |
| Ideology | −0.268*** |
| (0.0934) | |
| Gender | 0.0888** |
| (0.0423) | |
| Non-binary | −0.00315 |
| (0.0793) | |
| Employed | 0.00442 |
| (0.0429) | |
| Gender role | 0.0526** |
| (Children) | (0.0240) |
| Gender role | 0.0573*** |
| (Adult) | (0.0222) |
| Family income | −0.424*** |
| (0.0959) | |
| Married | 0.0788* |
| (0.0457) | |
| Constant | 1.009*** |
| (0.0789) | |
| Observations | 1029 |
| R-squared | 0.226 |
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Standard errors in parentheses. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Forum: Fall 2023 Issue Introduction
- Articles
- When are Identities Politically Consequential? Identifying Conditions of Descriptive, Substantive, and Allied Group Identity
- Religious Group Affect and Support for First Amendment Liberties
- Exceptional Times for an Exceptional People: How the Prosperity Gospel, Christian Nationalism, and Race Affect Americans’ Economic Attitudes and Behavior
- Who Cares About Caregiving?: Identity and Caregiving Policy Perspectives
- Legacies of Militarism: Ascriptive Republicanism and the Origins of America’s Contemporary Gun Culture
- Dreamers, Queer Kids, and American Culture Wars: Centering Young People in Identity Politics
- Politics and Popular Culture: Stretching Imaginaries and Filling in Holes
- Book Reviews
- Kaitlin N. Sidorsky and Wendy J. Schiller: Inequality Across State Lines: How Policymakers Have Failed Domestic Violence Victims in the United States
- Manuel P. Teodoro, Samantha Zuhlke and David Switzer: The Profits of Distrust: Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Forum: Fall 2023 Issue Introduction
- Articles
- When are Identities Politically Consequential? Identifying Conditions of Descriptive, Substantive, and Allied Group Identity
- Religious Group Affect and Support for First Amendment Liberties
- Exceptional Times for an Exceptional People: How the Prosperity Gospel, Christian Nationalism, and Race Affect Americans’ Economic Attitudes and Behavior
- Who Cares About Caregiving?: Identity and Caregiving Policy Perspectives
- Legacies of Militarism: Ascriptive Republicanism and the Origins of America’s Contemporary Gun Culture
- Dreamers, Queer Kids, and American Culture Wars: Centering Young People in Identity Politics
- Politics and Popular Culture: Stretching Imaginaries and Filling in Holes
- Book Reviews
- Kaitlin N. Sidorsky and Wendy J. Schiller: Inequality Across State Lines: How Policymakers Have Failed Domestic Violence Victims in the United States
- Manuel P. Teodoro, Samantha Zuhlke and David Switzer: The Profits of Distrust: Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government
