AN INTERSECTIONAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH EFFECTS OF COMBINING WORK AND CAREGIVING - [No feature marker]

Sep 29, 2026

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Role theory indicates that holding simultaneous midlife employment and family caregiving roles can shape psychological health in both beneficial and harmful ways. Prior evidence lacks causal estimates of how combined roles affect psychological health through the intersection of gender and racial identity. Using longitudinal Health and Retirement Study data (2004–2018), fixed-effects models relate employment status and parental caregiving circumstances to CES-D depression scores among adults aged 50–65.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Background and Research Gap

Role theory and need for causal evidence

Data and Methods

Health and Retirement Study (2004–2018)

Fixed-effects models and stratification

Key Findings

Work+caregiving vs only work or only caregiving

Intersectional results by race and gender

Implications

FAQs

What research gap does the study address?

It evaluates how combining employment and parental caregiving causally relates to psychological health outcomes, specifically at the intersection of gender and racial identity.

Which dataset and outcome measure are used?

The study uses longitudinal Health and Retirement Study data from 2004–2018 and models CES-D depression scores as the psychological health outcome.

How do combined work and caregiving roles relate to depression symptoms?

Fixed-effects results show combining work with parental caregiving is linked to higher depressive symptoms than only working, but lower symptoms than only caregiving. Paid employment appears protective, while parental caregiving may increase risk later in life.

Do the protective effects differ by race and gender?

Using an intersectional lens, combining paid work with parental caregiving shows a protective effect on CES-D scores among White women and men. This effect is not observed for Black men and women.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by Jiven