While the eldest daughter still tends to shoulder the heaviest burden of caring for aging parents, more and more adult children are pitching in, says Steven Stern, professor of economics at the University of Virginia.
"Families often behave as if there is only one caregiver," said Stern. "While there is usually one child who is the primary caregiver, other adult children are often willing to help out, within the limits of their capabilities. Often, the caregiver may not think to consult with her siblings and she misses out on opportunities to get help."But this has been changing.
Stern, and his co-author, Tenille Checkovitch, now a Yale-educated lawyer and formerly an undergraduate student at U.Va. majoring in economics, studied the arrangements families make to care for aging parents in their article, "Shared Care-giving Responsibility of Adult Siblings with Elderly Parents," published in the current issue of the Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 37, No. 3, which appeared on June 21.