Extending our understanding of informal care provision in mid-life in the UK by linking qualitative and quantitative data in the NCDS

在人口老龄化的背景下，提供中年非正规护理是一个具有重大政策意义的问题。这一领域以前的许多文献绘制了英国不同年龄段的非正式护理提供模式(Evandrou等人2015年；Pickard等人，2000年)，并强调了调查非正式护理提供的特点的重要性，例如其强度以及护理者和他们所照顾的人之间的关系(Vlachantoni，2010)。与此同时，使用定性方法的研究侧重于了解照顾者的动机，以及他们自己对关怀活动对他们生活的影响的看法(Greenwood等人，2016)。然而，迄今为止，很少有研究结合来自定性和定量数据的数据，以便更深入地了解中年照料，以及照顾者对其生活史、身份和对社会参与的看法与一系列人口、健康和社会经济特征之间的联系，以及照顾者照料活动本身的特殊特点。拟议中的项目旨在利用国家儿童发展研究，这是一项对1958年出生的人进行的队列研究，这些人在50岁时接受了采访。这项研究将采用定性和定量相结合的方法，以调查中年照顾者如何理解社会参与，这种认知在不同强度的照顾者(每周工作时数)和非照顾者之间有何不同；照顾者对社会参与的看法与他们的主要人口和社会经济特征之间的联系；在50岁时向父母或公婆提供与照顾者生命过程中特定影响或转折点相关的非正式照顾(例如，以其他方式提供与照顾者身份相关的非正式护理(例如，性别和社会阶层)。该项目的成果和分析旨在为中年非正规护理提供方面的证据基础作出贡献，并有助于今后制定旨在支持非正规护理人员的社会政策。这一点尤其重要，因为中年护理对个人来说正变得越来越普遍，需要并依赖社会政策来支持非正式照顾者发挥其作用。此外，了解照顾者的角色对照顾者的环境、行为和资源的影响也是至关重要的，因为中年照顾父母往往与人生这一阶段的其他角色或要求结合在一起，例如有偿工作和成为父母或祖父母。该项目的调查结果将在整个研究期间与英国护理人员分享，并以无障碍政策简报出版物的形式提供给所有党派议会护理人员小组的辩论。这些成果还将在与AgeUK合作的知识交流讲习班上传播，并通过在国家和国际科学会议上的陈述以及通过讨论论文和同行评议的期刊文章来传播。

The provision of informal care in mid-life is an issue of critical policy importance in the context of an ageing population. Much of the previous literature in this area has mapped the patterns of informal care provision across different age groups in the UK (Evandrou et al 2015; Pickard et al, 2000), and highlighted the importance of investigating the characteristics of informal care provision, such as its intensity and the relationship between the carer and the person they are caring for (Vlachantoni, 2010). At the same time, research using qualitative methods has focused on understanding the motivations of caregivers, and their own perspective on the impact that the caring activity has on their lives (Greenwood et al, 2016). However, to-date there has been little research combining data from qualitative and quantitative data in order to obtain a deeper understanding of caring in mid-life, and the links between carers' narratives about their life history, identity and perceptions about social participation with a range of demographic, health and socio-economic characteristics, as well as the particular features of the caring activity itself among carers. The proposed project aims to exploit the National Child Development Study, a cohort study of individuals born in 1958, who were interviewed at age 50. The study will combine qualitative and quantitative methods in order to investigate how carers in mid-life understand social participation, how such perceptions differ among carers of different intensity (number of hours per week) and among non-carers; the association between the carers' perceptions of social participation and their key demographic and socio-economic characteristics; the provision of informal care towards parents or parents-in-law at age 50 related to particular influences or turning points during the carers' life course (eg. unemployment) and the provision of informal care associated with carers' identity in other ways (eg. gender and social class). The project's output and analysis aims to contribute to the evidence base in the area of informal care provision in mid-life, and to the future design of social policies aimed at supporting informal carers. This is particularly important as caring in mid-life is becoming a more common experience for individuals, and social policies are needed and relied upon for supporting informal carers in their roles. In addition, understanding the impact of the caregiving role on the carer's circumstances, behaviour and resources, is also of paramount importance, as caregiving in mid-life for one's parents is often combined with other roles or demands during this part of the life course, such as paid work and being a parent or grandparent. The project's findings will be shared throughout the life of the research with Carers UK, and feed into debates of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Carers in the form of an accessible Policy Briefing publication. The findings will also be disseminated at a knowledge exchange workshop in collaboration with AgeUK, as well as through presentations at national and international scientific meetings, and through Discussion Papers and peer-reviewed journal articles.