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，中年人提供非正式护理是一个具有关键政策重要性的问题。该领域之前的许多文献都绘制了英国不同年龄组的非正式护理提供模式（Evandrou et al, 2015; Pickard et al, 2000），并强调了调查非正式护理提供特征的重要性，例如其强度和护理者与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理解照顾者的动机，以及他们自己对照顾活动对他们生活影响的看法（Greenwood等人，2016）。然而，迄今为止，很少有研究将定性和定量数据结合起来，以更深入地了解中年护理，以及照顾者关于其生活史的叙述，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，以及照顾者照顾活动本身的特定特征。该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，他们在50岁时接受了采访。该研究将结合定性和定量方法，以调查中年照顾者如何理解社会参与，不同强度照顾者（每周小时数）和非照顾者之间的这种看法有何不同；照顾者对社会参与的看法与其主要人口和社会经济特征之间的关系；向50岁的父母或公公婆婆提供与照顾者生命历程中的特殊影响或转折点有关的非正式照顾(例如；失业)和以其他方式提供与照顾者身份相关的非正式照顾(例如：性别和社会阶层)。该项目的产出和分析旨在为中年人非正规护理提供领域的证据基础作出贡献，并有助于未来设计旨在支持非正规护理者的社会政策。这一点尤其重要，因为对个人来说，中年照顾正在成为一种更普遍的经历，需要并依赖社会政策来支持非正规照顾者发挥其作用。此外，了解照顾角色对照顾者的环境、行为和资源的影响也是至关重要的，因为照顾父母在中年时往往与生命历程中其他角色或需求相结合，例如有薪工作和成为父母或祖父母。该项目的研究结果将在整个研究过程中与英国护工协会分享，并以一份无障碍的政策简报出版物的形式提交给全党议会护工小组的辩论。这些发现还将在与AgeUK合作举办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报告、讨论文件和同行评议的期刊文章传播。

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.