More Men are Caring for Aging Parents

If you are a son caring for your aging parents, you are not alone. More men are becoming family caregivers and they feel unprepared.

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Sons Caring for Parents

Helpful Highlights

Very little research explores the roles of men who are adult sons and caregivers to their older parents. The few existing studies have validated that adult sons, especially those separated from aging parents by distance, express worry and concern about meeting caregiving needs

It has been proposed that men view their relationship with their older parents as more dutiful or that of an advocate, and therefore often wait until their parents request their assistance with activities of daily living. With that, sons are more comfortable with IADLs such as finances, administrative decision-making, and household management than ADLs (personal care) such as toileting, bathing, dressing, and grooming.

It has also been found that the amount of caregiving sons contribute is associated with the presence or absence of other caregivers, such as sisters or spouses. Sons reduce their caregiving efforts when they have a sister, while daughters increase theirs when they have a brother, which suggests that sons pass along caregiving responsibilities to their sisters.

Adult sons are more often care managers of services and provide a good deal of support but with the goal of helping their parent(s) regain independence and self-reliance as much as possible. In other words, they strive to empower rather than enable their aging parents.

Men also don’t necessarily define themselves in the caregiver role, but are more likely to just refer to themselves as “sons.” Therefore, men under-identify as caregivers. The former AARP VP of Government Affairs has said, “They just do things, but don’t identify as caregivers per se, so we’re not really sure what’s behind the numbers.”

By the numbers

Personal care (bathing, toileting, dressing, hygiene) is reported as the most stressful task for male caregivers. They are most comfortable with finances, administrative decision-making, and household management.

Like women, men report that having help from family and friends, allowing time to “decompress”, and feeling appreciated by the person they care for help with feelings of burden and burnout.

Emotional and physical burden

Men experience more emotional distress and physical effects than women. Research suggests this is because they feel unprepared for the role of caregiver and approach caregiving in ways that disadvantage them.

A recent study showed that when men focus more on family care work, they are less likely to overinvest emotionally in their paid job role. Therefore, caregiving may be a way for men to find a new source of meaning and purpose, expand their interpersonal connections and support networks, and bust the stereotype that their employment or financial status solely defines their worth.

Normalizing men as caregivers helps families, especially the women in those families, and ultimately helps to equalize men's and women’s paid work and family duties, which benefits society and our economy.

What can men do?

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RESOURCES

Accius, J. (2017, March). Breaking stereotypes: Spotlight on male family caregivers. AARP Public Policy Institute. Link

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) & National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) (2020, November). 2020 Companion Report: Caregiving in the U.S. 2020: A focused look at family caregivers of adults age 50+. Link

Ansberry, C. (2021, October 24). More men are taking care of aging parents. They feel unprepared. Wall Street Journal. Link

Botek, A-M. (n.d.) Sons vs. daughters: The role of gender in caring for aging parents. AgingCare. Link

Collins, C.R. (2014). Men as caregivers of the elderly: Support for the contributions of sons. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 7, 525-531. DOI

Collins, L.M. (2023, October 25). More men are caring for frail parents, spouses. Here's what kind of help they need. Deseret News. Link

Lopez-Anuarbe, M., & Kohil, P. (2019). Understanding make caregivers' emotional financial, and physical burden in the United States. Healthcare, 7(2), 72. DOI

Right at Home

Tiribassi, O. (2021, July 12). Men are increasingly finding themselves in caregiving roles. Firstly. Link

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