A l’occasion des 47e JESF qui se tiendront du 3 au 5 décembre 2024, Anais Cheneau présentera les résultats de ses analyses du volet Organisation des soins de l’enquête France : “Caregiving, mental health and familial norms: Evidence from a matched sample of French adult children“. Voir résumé ci-dessous-1.
Aimée Kingsada, chercheuse associée au LIRAES-Chaire Aging UP! présentera une “Analyse des préférences des Français pour des programmes de prévention de la perte d’autonomie” à partir des premiers résultats du volet Prévention et Innovation de l’enquête Aging UP! lancée tout récemment.
Thomas Blavet chercheur associé au LIRAES-Chaire Aging UP! présentera “Long-term care expenditure projections model for OECD countries“.
Programme complet : Programme_JESF_2025
1- Caregiving, mental health and familial norms: Evidence from a matched sample of French adult children. Cheneau A., Sicsic J., Rapp T.
Background: Informal caregivers provide essential support to older adults, yet often face mental-health strain. Whether such strain depends on familial norms remains underexplored.
Methods: Using the 2024 French Aging UP! survey of adults aged 50+, we focus on adult children with at least one living parent (N=1,227; 359 caregivers, 868 non-caregivers). We estimate linear probability and logit models on a propensity-score–matched sample with exact matching on gender, adjusting for socioeconomic and family covariates. Outcomes are four items from the MHI-5 (nervous, downhearted, happy, calm/relaxed). We test moderation by three familial-norm measures and probe endogeneity of norms using logistic models by care duration and intensity.
Results: Caregiving is associated with higher probabilities of feeling nervous (≈+11 pp) and downhearted (≈+10 pp), and lower probabilities of feeling calm/relaxed (≈–13 pp) and happy (≈–8–11 pp). Familial norms moderate these associations: caregivers who endorsed strong family responsibility showed smaller mental-health effects, whereas those agreeing that “children have their own lives” experienced worse mental health effects. These associations persist, though attenuated, after adding health and financial controls.
Conclusions: Mental-health harms of caregiving are substantial and conditioned by norms. Policy should target higher-risk caregivers and align care plans with family preferences, facilitating flexible, gradual and affordable delegation to professionals.