The effects of adult children's gender composition on the care type and care network of ageing parents

Although the literature on informal care-giving for older parents shows that daughters have a higher tendency to provide care compared with sons, only a few studies have focused on the gender composition of all children or parents' entire range of care options. Our study examines the effect of children's gender composition on informal and formal care types, as well as the informal care network. Using data from the 2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 40,312), we found that parents with daughters tended to use less formal care because daughters take on additional informal care-giving responsibilities. Daughters were the main care-givers among parents' informal care networks. Further analysis indicated that daughters-in-law play an important role in the care-giving process when parents have only sons. We concluded that the presence of a daughter among the children reduces the use of formal care. The results indicated that children's gender composition is an important factor in explaining the allocation of informal care to parents.