Driven to Care: A Society-Centric Analysis of Family Caregivers' Travel Behavior and its Determinents

This dissertation examines the travel behaviors of family caregivers within the context of an aging American society, employing a society-centric approach. Central to this study is the exploration of how caregiving responsibilities intersect with socio-economic factors, public policy, and access to mobility to determine travel outcomes. The dissertation is composed of three papers with three different methodological approaches which underscore limitations associated with relying on a single data or method to gain a comprehensive understanding of family caregivers’ travel behavior. The first chapter titled “Facing a Time Crunch: Time Poverty and Travel Behavior in Canada” used the 2015 iteration of Canada’s General Society Survey to demonstrate that households with children and seniors, along with marginalized groups, feel greater transportation-induced time stress across Canada. The second chapter titled “Aging Society, Family Care & Travel Time Budgets” employed a two-part hurdle model on the American Time Use Data to conduct a focused investigation on different care travel burdens by gender. Last but not least, the third chapter titled “Mobility of care and older adults: Travel facilitators and barriers for family caregivers” is based on qualitative research of family caregivers in New York State which highlighted the importance of social networks and workplace flexibility in determining subjective travel burdens of family caregivers. Taken together, the findings suggest that informally-organized and socially-determined factors associated with friends, families, employers, community organizations, and cultural values (e.g., gender bias) play a significant role in determining the travel behaviors of caregivers. In doing so, this dissertation also raises a bigger question about the attenuated presence of the American welfare state and its ability to face the challenges of an aging society. The findings point towards several potential avenues of policy intervention to lessen transportation burdens of caregivers including greater workplace flexibility to manage work/family conflict, government subsidized wheelchair accessible vehicle ownership, and inter-agency collaboration between transportation institutions and welfare agencies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D., City and Regional Planning

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

City and Regional Planning

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Sang-O

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Michener, Jamila
• Warner, Mildred

• Aging Society
• Family Care
• Mobility Justice
• Transportation Policy
• Travel Behavior

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

http://doi.org/10.7298/4nj7-8h24

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 14781
ProQuest Publication ID: 31641473

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/117170