Spousal care and its effect on partnership characteristics - a longitudinal analysis of spousal caregiving and care receipt in Germany

OBJECTIVES: Many studies have investigated the impact of spousal care on the caregiver's (sometimes care recipient's) life, whereas only few studies took its effect on the partnership into account. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine whether the onset of spousal caregiving or care receipt in a person's life is associated with a change of the own partnership characteristics.

METHOD: A longitudinal design was set up which included 4573 participants of 2014 and 2017 (fifth and sixth wave) of the DEAS (German Ageing Survey - a nationally representative sample). Receipt of spousal care or spousal caregiving activity was detected by dichotomous questions, and the partnership characteristics (partnership satisfaction, conflict frequency and partnership bond) were measured by three 5-point scales. For estimating the effect of spousal care on the own partnership characteristics, linear fixed effects (FE) regressions were used for each of the independent subgroups (caregiver and care recipient). Thus, the analysis was performed with an unpaired sample of caregivers and care recipients.

RESULTS: Adjusted for potential confounders, regression analysis showed that while the caregivers' satisfaction with partnership decreased, partnership satisfaction of the care recipients increased with the onset of spousal care. A decrease of the conflict frequency and the partnership bond were only identified among caregivers.

CONCLUSION: This longitudinal study extends previous knowledge in the field of spousal care research and underlines the importance of appropriate interventions in these care situations.