The Gendered Health Effect of Intimate Task Performance on Spousal Caregivers

Caregiving research on heterosexual couples suggests that though husbands and wives generally perform the same care tasks for their spouses, wives report higher levels of mental stress, depression, and general frustration (Swinkles et al., 2017; Polenick and DePasquale 2019). Caregiving literature is unclear on why a gender difference exists regarding stress or burden when husbands and wives are largely performing the same tasks. Using gender relations theory, this study considers whether the performance of intimate tasks creates different levels of emotional stress and overall health outcomes for older, heterosexual husbands and wives caring for a spouse with Alzheimer's or related dementias. Intimate tasks (ITs) refer to tasks that likely infringe on the bodily autonomy of the care receiver and include dealing with incontinence and assisting with bathing/showering. To explore this, I conducted logistic regressions using the 2015 and 2020 "Caregiving in the U.S.'' surveys from the AARP. My results showed IT performance has a negative effect on the stress and overall health of both husbands and wives, but comparatively, there is no consistent gender difference in effect. Additional analysis found that when separating the Its, dealing with incontinence had a more negative effect on emotional stress while assisting with bathing/showering had a more negative effect on health outcomes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Leahy, Callen Maeve

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Calasanti, Toni M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Zhu, Haiyan
• King, Neal M.

• spousal caregiving
• stress
• health
• Alzheimer's disease
• incontinence
• bodily autonomy
• gender

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:37615

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115160