Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 52, Issue 6 S317-S324, Copyright © 1997 by The Gerontological Society of America
Determining the amount of help used by disabled elderly persons at home: the role of coping resources
RF Boaz and J Hu
Department of Economics, Graduate School, The City University of New York, NY 10036-8099, USA.
The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of coping resources on
the amount (hours) of help used by disabled elderly persons in their home.
The findings are based on the 1989 National Long- Term Care Survey. The
distribution of help-hours is very skewed, mirroring the skewness of
limitations in physical and cognitive functioning. Controlling for these
limitations, the most important coping resources are the combinations of
helpers who join forces, and coresidence with a helper. The effect of
helpers' networks is large and consistent across marital status and living
arrangements. The networks are more extensive for married than for
unmarried persons. In reference to persons who rely only on nonrelatives:
(a) a network of a spouse and children enables a married person to have 40
additional weekly hours of help, (b) a network of children and others
enables an unmarried person to have 29 additional help-hours per week if
he/she coresides with other adults and 10 additional weekly help-hours if
he/she does not. The issue of concern for public policy is whether such
family networks will be preserved and, if not, how to obtain the funds for
the alternative of sufficient paid help in the community.
