Vacancy

• MA/MSc degree in sociology; interest in, and ideally some familiarity with social psychology
• Interest in the topic of social cohesion and in collaborating in a broad research consortium with academic and non-academic stakeholders
• Strong interest in interdisciplinary research, including analytical and theoretical dimensions
• Professional competence in English 
• Competence in Dutch is a plus 
• Skilled in quantitative research analysis techniques
• We look for team players who want to play an active role in an inter- and transdisciplinary research community and training programme

Against the background of an increasing care need due to the ageing population, this PhD project analyses how caregivers’ informal care activities influence their social relations with other people in their environment. The aim of the project is threefold. First, it assesses how informal care affects informal caregivers’ social relations, thus providing an empirical foundation for the size of the potential social problems this raises. This adds to our understanding of informal care consequences, which the literature has so far largely ignored.

Second, by unravelling the mechanisms through which informal care affects informal caregivers’ social relations, the project provides theoretical development as well as input for effective policy tools.

Third, by specifying and testing conditions under which informal care has negative or positive consequences for informal carers’ social relations, it contributes to insights into the role of institutions at meso- and macrolevels.

Background, Research Question, Aims

Demographic changes, most notably population ageing, result in an increasing need for care in Western societies. In response to rising healthcare costs and shortages of healthcare workers, governments – including the Dutch – reshape their healthcare systems so that care provision increasingly shifts towards informal carers. Informal care is here defined as help or care provided to those with health problems by people from their own social network. Mostly this involves family members (e.g., the partner or adult child), but caregivers can also be neighbours, friends or acquaintances.

Research consistently shows negative effects on the well-being of informal carers. Yet, less is known about the consequences for informal carers’ social relations: the quality of their partner relationship, their relations with family members with whom they do or do not share the care for their loved one and the frequency and quality of their friendships. This project questions whether, why and under which conditions providing informal care has consequences for informal carers’ social relations.

The aim of this project is threefold. First, it assesses how informal care affects informal carers’ social relations, thus providing an empirical foundation for the size of the potential social problems this raises. This adds to our understanding of informal care consequences, which the literature has so far largely ignored.

Second, by unravelling the mechanisms through which informal care affects informal carers’ social relations, the project provides theoretical development as well as input for effective policy tools. Combining disciplines (mainly sociology and social psychology) can inform us about theoretical mechanisms, such as time constraints, stress, emotional distancing and feelings of guilt. For example, informal care may result in having less time and energy for maintaining contact with social relations. Also, stress induced by the care situation may be taken out on partners and other social relations, which may lead to emotional distancing as the caregiver feels misunderstood by social relations not involved in the care situation. Simultaneously, informal care may deepen social relations because of intensified contact with other family members or because priorities in life are reoriented towards social relationships. Insights into why informal care affects social relations provide the necessary knowledge base for the future development of policy tools to prevent a possible, unintended reduction in informal caregivers’ social embeddedness.

Third, by specifying and testing conditions under which informal care has negative or positive consequences for informal carers’ social relations, the project contributes to insights into the role of institutions at meso- and macrolevels. Specific attention is paid to the normative expectations that are present in both family and direct social networks of the caregiver and wider society. For instance, in networks with loose solidarity norms, informal carers may receive less understanding for their efforts, whereas within networks that do value informal care provision to a high extent, relations may instead deepen.

Multiple Levels

The project studies informal caregivers at three levels. At the microlevel, informal care always takes place in a dyad of caregiver and care receiver. The mesolevel consists of the direct social network of the caregiver, most notably the partner, family members and friends; relevant characteristics of the mesolevel are prevailing norms, the sharing of care and available alternatives to care provision. The macrolevel constitutes institutions at the national level in the Netherlands.

The focus is on prevailing norms on informal care and family solidarity as well as care alternatives in formal healthcare. Cross-level interactions are applied to gauge the extent to which the relationship between informal caregiving and the strength and quality of social relations, as well as certain mechanisms that may explain this relationship, depend on characteristics of the meso- and macrocontext. For this, large-scale, longitudinal surveys will be used.

Connection to Social Cohesion

With regard to social cohesion, this project explicitly addresses the tension between one form of social cohesion (providing informal care) and unravelling other forms of social cohesion (fewer or distorted social relations). Should we empirically establish such negative relationships, this is problematic, since informal carers need social networks once they develop care needs themselves. This may lead to a negative spiral, in which solidary behaviour of an individual not only harms their social embeddedness in the present but also reduces their resources in the future, implying a potential unmet care need. This negative spiral further amplifies the societal challenge of an increasing care demand while care supply diminishes. Laying bare the theoretical mechanisms of how informal care may harm social relations gives starting points on how policy interventions could break the spiral or turn it into a positive spiral.

The project will rely on large-scale, longitudinal survey data from the Netherlands, such as the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel as well as the Retrospective Caregiver Career module collected as part of this survey. Additional data may be collected in the project. The data will be analysed with advanced statistical research techniques, such as longitudinal and multilevel models.

Informal caregivers are positioned at the individual level, but obviously informal care always takes place in a dyad of caregiver and care receiver. Informal caregivers are embedded in their direct social network, most notably the partner, family members and friends; those social contexts can be characterized by their prevailing norms, the sharing of care and available alternatives to care provision.

Longitudinal analyses will reveal whether and to what extent providing informal care affects one’s social relations and which explanatory factors can account for this. Cross-level interactions will be applied to gauge the extent to which the relationship between informal caregiving and the strength and quality of social relations, as well as certain mechanisms that may explain this relationship, depend on characteristics of the context. Vignette studies may be conducted as an experiment-like test of hypotheses about conditions under which informal care has positive or negative effects for caregivers’ social relations.

Penning, M. J., & Wu, Z. (2018). Caregiving and union instability in middle and later life. Journal of Marriage and Family, 81(1), 79–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12534

Vasileiou, K., Barnett, J., Barreto, M., Vines, J., Atkinson, M., Lawson, S., & Wilson, M. (2017). Experiences of loneliness associated with being an informal caregiver: A qualitative investigation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 585. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00585