Inequalities in informal caregiving over the adult life course in Europe: social participation, health and the influence of Covid-19

该联盟将从生命历程的角度调查生育方面的不平等。寿命的增加并没有伴随着无残疾年数的增加，导致老年人护理需求的增加。欧洲各国在如何满足这种不断增长的护理需求方面存在很大差异，但在欧洲大部分地区，大多数护理都是由家庭、朋友或邻居非正式提供的。家庭规模缩小、伴侣关系解体以及妇女与有偿工作的联系加强，可能导致非正规护理人员在需求不断增加的情况下减少。此外，推迟生育意味着需要照顾年长父母的年轻人数量可能会增加，更多的照顾者同时照顾父母和孩子（三明治照顾），以及越来越多的成年孙辈照顾幸存的祖父母。此外，人口的分布也不均匀。妇女比男子更有可能提供护理，提供护理的时间更长，护理的强度更大，在依靠家庭模式的国家，由谁提供护理方面的性别不平等更大。此外，照顾本身也是一种不平等，限制了获得财政和社会资源的机会。现有证据表明，照料导致劳动力市场的退出;工作时间、工资和养恤金权利的减少;培训机会和职业发展的丧失;并与较差的心理和身体健康有关。然而，现有的研究在很大程度上是基于老年人的横截面样本，或者专注于特定群体的护理，如痴呆症患者。此外，大多数关于照顾的研究都集中在老年配偶或老年工作年龄的照顾者身上，而年轻的照顾者往往在政策和研究中被忽视。年轻化发生在年轻人寻求完成教育、在就业市场站稳脚跟和建立长期关系的时候。年轻的成年照顾者也可能比年长的照顾者拥有更少的经济和社会情感资源。我们将利用欧洲的纵向，人口数据投资，以及丰富的方法和实质性的经验，在一个多学科的团队领先的欧洲学者和非学术合作伙伴，以审查就业，社会参与和健康之间的不平等照顾者和非照顾者在不同的生命阶段，以及性别，社会经济和种族差异的社会，经济和健康的后果。在这些生命历程的护理不平等的比较将在欧洲国家的情况下，特别关注年轻的成年人照顾者以及那些提供护理的中年和晚年。在数据允许的情况下，还将包括与COVID-19疫情相关的非正式护理变化的初步影响。最后，我们包括一个具体的研究目标和工作包，重点是与我们的非学术合作伙伴密切合作，将我们的结果转化为政策建议。

This consortium will investigate inequalities in caregiving from a life course perspective. Increased longevity gains have not beenaccompanied by an increasing number of years spent disability free, leading to an increased need for care for older people. Europeancountries vary dramatically in how they have met this rising care demand, but across most of Europe the majority of care is providedinformally by families, friends, or neighbours. Smaller family sizes, partnership dissolution and women's strengthening ties to paid work maylead to a diminishing pool of informal carers in the face of increasing need. In addition, delayed childbearing means there are likely to be agrowing number of young adults with older parents requiring care, more carers providing care to parents and children simultaneously(sandwich care), as well as a growing number of adult grandchildren caring for surviving grandparents. In addition, caregiving is not equallydistributed. Women are more likely to provide care, to have provided care for longer and to care more intensively than men, and genderinequality in who provides care is greater in countries that rely on a family-based model. In addition, caring itself acts as a form ofinequality, limiting access to financial and social resources. Existing evidence suggests that caring leads to labour market exits; reducedworking hours, salaries and pension entitlements; loss of training opportunities and career advancement; and is associated with poorerpsychological and physical health. However, existing research has largely been based on cross-sectional samples of older-adults or hasfocussed on care for specific groups, such as dementia sufferers. In addition, most research on caregiving has focused on older spouses, orolder working age carers, while younger carers are often overlooked in policy and research. Younger caregiving occurs at a time whenyoung adults are seeking to complete education, establish themselves in the job market and form long-term relationships. Young adultcarers are also likely to have fewer financial and socio-emotional resources than older carers. We will harness Europe's longitudinal,population data investments, as well as a wealth of both methodological and substantive experience in a multidisciplinary team of leadingEuropean academics and non-academic partners to examine inequities in employment, social participation and health between carers andnon-carers at different life stages, as well as the gender, socioeconomic and ethnic differences in the social, economic and healthconsequences of caregiving. Comparisons in these life course care inequalities will be made across European country contexts, with aspecific focus on young adult carers as well as those providing care in mid- and later-life. Where data allow, the initial impact of changes ininformal care related to the COVID-19 pandemic will also be included. Finally, we include a specific research objective and work packagefocused on working closely with our non-academic partners to translate our results into policy recommendations.