Politicized Caregiving: How Caregiving Experience Shapes Policy Attitudes

Abstract

Caregiving is universal, but caregiving experiences, and views on how the government should support caregiving, are not. Caregiving is the subject of extensive press coverage, cultural exploration, policy analysis, and daily conversation. Yet less is known about how these experiences inform attitudes. This Element seeks to better understand attitudes toward caregiving policies and explain how varied caregiving experiences shape those attitudes. The analysis is primarily based on an original survey, the National Caregiving and Covid Survey (NCCS). Using YouGov, the authors surveyed representative samples of Asian, Black, Latinx, and white respondents in the spring of 2021. The findings illustrate that views of caregiving policy are linked both to whether one serves as a caregiver and to how one understands their caregiving role. In doing so, the Element presents a clearer picture of the political significance of caregiving in the United States.