Leader: Marco Albertini (UNIBO); Other collaborator(s): Francesca Zanasi (UNIBO); Giorgio Piccitto (UNIBO); ISTAT
The challenge of providing care to an increasingly ageing population is not only connected with the total balance between (informal and formal) care availability and care needs, but also to their distribution in the society. This task aims at producing an updated comparative overview, i.e. looking at the national level data while comparing the Italian case with other countries – of how (i) long term care needs, (ii) informal care, (iii) formal private and (iv) public care are unequally distributed across different dimensions of social stratification: birth cohorts; occupational social classes; income and wealth quintiles; individuals with different educational levels. The overview will be based both on existing scientific, empirically based, studies and on original analyses of existing data sets.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
The task activities have proceded on two, complementary, lines:
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Policymakers and scholars should be informed of the stratification consequences of the specific policy design of policies devoted to supporting caregivers and not self-sufficient older people. The increasingly popular cash-for-care policies are likely to reinforce the diverging destinies of caregivers at the different ends of the income/wealth distribution, with more affluent families being able to add private resources to public transfers and thus outsource a significant part of caregiving, whereas women from lower class families are more likely to opt for (leaving the paid labour market and) engaging directly into care provision while considering cashfor-care amounts as an, insufficient, payment and social recognition for their (informal) care work. To put it in other words, cash-for-care policies are likely to increase option-out opportunities for more affluent women while leaving opting-out options out of reach for low-educated, low-income women – who then may feel even more pressure into their informal filial caregiving role.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
Task 1.2. has worked on: (1) finalizing the paper "The social stratification of informal caregiving: a focus on European mature women", a study with secondary data (SHARE survey) on the socio-economic characteristics of women taking care of their parents and parents-in-law. The study has been presented at the University of Vienna, Department of Sociology (internal seminars) in April 2024, and at the Age-it General Meeting (University Ca' Foscari, Venice), May 2024 (2) data management, analysis, and writing of a long abstract to be submitted to international conferences: "Social Heterogeneity in the time-use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals", a study with secondary data (SHARE survey) on the time expenditure of individuals when they become caregivers, i.e., following the onset of a health shock of the partner, and exploring differences by socio-economic status (3) organization and presentation of results during the Stakeholders meeting at the University La Sapienza, Rome, April 2024 (4) Finalization and publication of the paper: Albertini, M., & Piccitto, G. (2024). La stratificazione sociale nell’accesso alle cure di lungo termine in età anziana in Italia. Polis, 38(1), 131-146; (5) Finalization and publication of the book chapter: Albertini, M., Piccitto, G., & Zanasi, F. (2024). La prospettiva sociologica. La diseguaglianza socio-economica nella domanda di cura, in C. Tomassini, M. Albertini, e C. Lallo (eds.), Avanzare insieme nella società anziana, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Task 1.2. participated in a meeting with stakeholders in Rome in April (https://ageit.eu/wp/2024/05/04/spoke-5-grande-partecipazione-allevento-di-ascolto-e-confronto-con-stakeholders-a-roma/) and in the national Age-It project conference in Venice in May. On both occasions, the audience has shown much interest in the dimension of socio-economic inequality in the (consequences of) provision of care for dependent family members. The results, in fact, suggest a complex interplay of demographic, intergenerational, economic and normative factors in shaping such care relationships -- sometimes leading to unexpected evidence, e.g., tertiary educated individuals (usually considered the most resourceful) appear to be heavily involved in caring, cutting on paid work to free up time. Feedback has been highly benficial to improve the explanatory potential of the results from statistical analyses.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
Task 1.2. has worked on: (1) submitting to the international peer-reviewed journal Ageing & Society the paper "The social stratification of informal caregiving: a focus on European mature women", a study with secondary data (SHARE survey) on the socio-economic characteristics of women taking care of their parents and parents-in-law. The study has been presented during the conference "European Sociological Association" (ESA), University of Porto, September 2024 (2) Improving the analysis of the study "Social Heterogeneity in the time-use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals", a study with secondary data (SHARE survey) on the time expenditure of individuals when they become caregivers, i.e., following the onset of a health shock of the partner, and exploring differences by socio-economic status. The study has been presented during the conferences: American Sociological Association annual conference, (Montreal, CAN), August 2024; ISA-RC28 summer meeting (Providence, RI, USA), August 2024; European Sociological Association (ESA, University of Porto), September 2024; and European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR, University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona), September 2024.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
During the presentation of the studies of task 1.2. in Porto, Barcelona, Providence (RI, USA), Montreal (CAN), there has been a fruitful debate on the reconciliation between caregiving and other activities for individuals with dependent family members. Particularly interesting is the idea of different "currencies" used to free up time for caring: paid employment for tertiary educated individuals, and leisure time for primary educated individuals.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
Task 1.2. has worked on: (1) Finalising the draft of the study "Social Heterogeneity in the time-use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals", a secondary data study (SHARE survey) on the time spent by individuals when they become caregivers, i.e. after the onset of a partner's health shock, and examining differences by socio-economic status. The study was presented at the conference of the Gerontology Society of America (GSA) in Seattle (2024) (2) Finalisation of the draft of the study "Stratificazione sociale e Assistenza ai genitori anziani", a study on social inequalities in caregiving among Italian caregivers, with secondary data (EHIS survey 2019) (3) Preparation of the study "Care expectations in a stratification perspective: evidence from the US". Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the study will examine how expectations of future care are distributed across generational cohorts, income groups and education levels. To achieve these goals, we have completed the organisation and cleaning of the HRS data for the final analytical sample. Preliminary descriptive and explanatory analyses and preliminary multivariate analyses. Final model specifications for the multivariate analysis are underway, along with sensitivity and robustness checks for these models. In addition, work is underway to identify key literature and existing evidence to contextualise our findings.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Task 1.2. continued its research on social inequality and the reconciliation of care and other activities for people with dependents by preparing studies for publication and disseminating the results through participation in conferences.
Scientific Outputs
Books and book chapters
1) Tomassini, C., Albertini, M. & Lamura, G. (2024), Considerazioni multidisciplinari sulla domanda di assistenza agli anziani in Italia, in in C. Tomassini, M. Albertini, e C. Lallo (eds.), Avanzare insieme nella società anziana, Bologna, Il Mulino;
2) Albertini, M., Piccitto, G. & Zanasi, F. (2024), La prospettiva sociologica. La disuguaglianza socio-economica nella domanda di cura, in in C. Tomassini, M. Albertini, e C. Lallo (eds.), Avanzare insieme nella società anziana, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Journal Articles
1) Albertini M., & Piccitto G. (2024). The social stratification of access to long-term care in later life. The Italian case|La stratificazione sociale nell'accesso alle cure di lungo termine in età anziana in Italia, POLIS, 2024, 38, 131-146. https://rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1424/113058
Dissemination events and other (conference papers and proocedings, seminars, schools)
1) Albertini M., & Bei, E. (2024), The potential for AI to the monitoring and support for caregivers: an urgent tech-social challenge, in: Proceedings of the 4th Italian Wokshop on Artificial Intelligence for an Ageing Society co-located with 22nd International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence, «CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS», 2024, 1-4; https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3623/AIxAS_2023_invited.pdf
2) Albertini, M., Zanasi, F., & Piccitto, G. (2023), The Social stratification of informal careiving arrangements in Europe, Innovation in Aging, 2023, 7, 1141-1142 [abstract]; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10736336/
3) Albertini, M., & Zanasi, F. (2023), Multidimensional stratification of informal caregiving arrangements, VII South Tyrol Workshop on Intergenerational Relationship, University of Cologne, Cologne, June 2023;
4) Albertini, M., Zanasi, F., & Piccitto, G. (2023), The Social Stratification of Informal Caregiving Arrangements in Europe. Gerontology Society of America (GSA) conference, Tampa (FL, USA) November 8-12, 2023; https://gsa2023.eventscribe.net/index.asp
5) Zanasi, F. (2024), The social stratification of informal caregiving, University of Vienna, Invited Seminar, Vienna, April 9, 2024; https://www.soz.univie.ac.at/veranstaltungen/archiv-veranstaltungen/detailansicht-archiv/news/multidimensional-stratification-of-informal-caregiving-toward-older-parents/
6) Albertini, M., & Zanasi, F. (2024), Social Stratification in the time-use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals. American Sociological Association annual conference, Montreal (CAN), August 9-13, 2024; https://www.asanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ASA-2024-Final.pdf
7) Albertini, M., & Zanasi, F. (2024), Social Heterogeneity in the Time-Use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals. ISA-RC28 summer meeting, Providence, RI (USA), August 6-8, 2024; https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.brown.edu/dist/9/567/files/2024/08/RC28-2024-Summer-Meeting_FinalProgram.pdf
8) Zanasi, F., & Albertini, M. (2024), Social Heterogeneity in the time-use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals, European Consortium for Sociological Research, Barcelona (ES), September 12-14, 2024; https://ecsr2024.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ECSR-Programme-06092024.pdf
9) Bei, E., Toth, F., & Albertini, M. (2024), European policies for supporting caregivers of older adults with long term care needs: A mixed-methods systematic review, Age-It General Meeting, Venice, Italy, 20-22 May 2024; https://ageit.eu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Programma-Age-It-20-22-Maggio-2024-online.pdf
10) Task 1.2., (2024), Summer school on ageing - Venice International University, Venice (IT), 3-7 June 2024 (Partecipation); https://www.univiu.org/images/aauniviu2017/AGEING/Summer_Institute_On_Ageing_2024_Brochure.pdf
11) Bei, E., Albertini, M., & Toth, F. (2024), European policies for supporting caregivers of older adults with long term care needs: a mixed-methods systematic review. Nordic Conference of Gerontology, Stockholm (Sweden) 12-14 June; https://www.nkg2024.se/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2024/06/Schedule-export-2024-06-13_16-31-16.pdf
12) Bei, E., Albertini, M., & Zarzycki, M. (2024), Caregivers' needs and preferences for care and support services: a cross-national qualitative study, Age-it Spoke5 Conference, Termoli (CB, Italy), 11-13 September 2024; https://age-it.github.io/spoke5.github.io/#venue
13) Zanasi, F & Albertini, M. (2024), Social Stratification in the Time-Use of Informal Caregivers for Older Individuals, GSA conference, Seattle, November 13-16, 2024; https://gsa2024.eventscribe.net/
14) Albertini, M. (2024), The social stratification and consequences of intergenerational caregiving in European families, ISAR - Interdisciplinary Seminars on Ageing Research at Linköping University, October 2, 2024; https://liu.se/en/article/isar
15) Task 1.2., (2024), "I SERVIZI" Dalla longevità alla non autosufficienza. Scenari e prospettive, Fondazione Del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Centro Studi Invecchiamento Università di Bologna, Bologna, September 26, 2024. https://site.unibo.it/alma-aging/it/eventi/i-servizi-dalla-longevita-alla-non-autosufficienza-scenari-e-prospettive