The Competing Demands of Paid Work and Parent Care

This article investigates the potentially competitive relationship between paid work and parent care provided by daughters and daughters-in-law. In line with the scarcity hypothesis of role theory, four subhypotheses were formulated and tested empirically. In a population-based probability sample of middle-aged women (n = 581), only partial empirical support was found for the scarcity or role conflict hypothesis. It appeared that employment significantly reduces the chances of becoming a caregiver. However, parent care and employment are not conflicting in time as the amount of care provided to parents was not affected by out-of-home employment. Parent care has only a small impact on work decisions, and employed caregivers do not experience more caregiver role strain. It was hypothesized that employed women not yet providing care anticipate a role conflict when a parent becomes frail and needs help. Consequently, a self-selection process takes place whereby the nearest living daughter with the least competing demands is most likely to accept the caregiver role. Once the caregiver role is accepted, both role strain and the time spent on parent care are determined by factors other than employment status or work hours.