Children’s Help to Aging Parents in the Face of Health and Economic Challenges from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Principal Investigator: Emily Wiemers

Active Dates: 2021 – 2023

Funding Source: NIH-NIA

Description:

The coronavirus pandemic has caused dramatic declines in the health and well-being of all Americans with particular challenges to older Americans who face increased risk of hospitalization and death from the virus. This study will assess the change in health, access to health care, and economic well-being that older Americans experienced, how their adult children responded to these changes with help in the form of time, money, and coresidence, and whether the response of adult children differed across socioeconomic and racial-ethnic groups. This project uses an innovative combination of micro-level survey data including the geographic location of respondents and their children, and macro-level data on the severity and timing of the spread of the virus across geographic areas to further examine if where families lived geographically and how close they lived to one another weakened or strengthened their ability to provide help to older adults when needs arose.