Filial caregiving for the disabled elderly: the role of contextual interactions.

Summary The economic literature extensively outlines a future decline in family support for the disabled elderly. However, the existing literature overlooks the existence of contextual interactions in the family, ignoring that factors reducing the caregiving supply from some potential caregivers may simultaneously increase the propensity of others becoming involved in caregiving, through an intrafamily offset mechanism. Thus, contextual interactions are likely to moderate the impact of changes in the family network on filial caregiving. Using French cross-sectional data from the 2008 Disability and Health Survey, our empirical analysis confirms the importance of considering contextual interactions when investigating filial caregiving: children become involved in care more often when they have fewer siblings, when siblings participate in the labour market or when they live far away from the parent. Gender differences in contextual interactions also indicate that changes in the family network are likely to reduce the existing gender inequalities in filial caregiving.