Cumulative Inequality and the Welfare State
To understand more about the types of care work that grandparents provide when their grandchildren have disabilities, as well as the impact of that care work, we employ a life course approach that emphasizes cumulative inequalities. We then analyze why re
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Cumulative Inequality and the Welfare State
To understand more about the types of care work that grandparents provide when their grandchildren have disabilities, as well as the impact of that care work, we employ a life course approach that emphasizes cumulative inequalities. We analyze why reliance on grandparents is intensifying in the US and assess the paucity of federal and employer supports for families in the US. Specifically, we discuss how grandchild care is linked to increases in parenting and working patterns, US reliance on poverty-based social welfare programs, and the lack of federal benefit guarantees for working families. These discussions provide the framework for the remainder of the book in our analysis of the types and impacts of care work when grandchildren have disabilities.
Theoretical Frameworks: Cumulative Inequality from a Life course Perspective We use a life course perspective to explore what types of care grandparents provide for grandchildren with disabilities and the impact of that care on grandparent wellbeing. During the interviews, we asked respondents to tell us about care work across the life course: in the past when their children were young, in the present when their grandchildren are young, and in the future when grandparents will be growing old. Life course theory suggests that history matters and that the impact of historical events is shaped by age at the time of the event.1 Lives are linked through social relationships and while everyone has individual agency to construct their own lives, this agency can be amplified or constrained through social structures and interpersonal relationships.2 From within a life course framework, cumulative inequality theory is central to understanding wellbeing in old age.3 Cumulative inequality theory suggests that social institutions generate inequality and that disadvantage increases exposure to © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. Harrington Meyer, Y. Abdul-Malak, Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39055-6_2
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2 Cumulative Inequality and the Welfare State
risk while advantage increases exposure to opportunity.4 Over the life course people have different opportunities, circumstances, decision-making, even luck, all of which lead to different financial, social, emotional, and physical outcomes in older ages. Early-life differences in education, health, careers, compensation, and mental health problems, for example, contribute advantages or disadvantages in older ages.5 Accumulated inequalities do not tend to dissipate with age. Rather they often become more pronounced. Nonetheless, the extent of disparity may change over time due to a wide array of social and structural factors including social demographic, economic, political, and public policy factors. Notably, federal and state welfare policies can ebb and flow, providing more, or less, support for families with disabilities.6 A life course perspective also helps us to understand the cumulative implications of giving, and receiving, car
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