Who Cares? Unpaid Caregiving by Sexual Identity, Gender, and Partnership Status Among US Adults

Recent schol ar ship indi cates that sex ual minor ity adults have higher care giv ing rates than het ero sex u als and that women are more likely to be care giv ers than men. However, lit tle research has addressed how gen der and sex u al ity inter sect in shap ing care giv ing sta tus. This study uses data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and aggre gates a prob a bil ity-based sam ple of adults liv ing in 36 U.S. states between 2015 and 2021. We exam ine who pro vi des care among adult het ero sex ual, les bian, gay, and bisex ual men and women. Results reveal that women are more likely to be care giv ers than men, but only among het ero sex u als. We find little variation in caregiving by sexuality among women, but bisexual men are more likely than het ero sex ual men to be care giv ers; the lat ter result appears to be driven by unpartnered, bisexual men. Lastly, we contextualize caregivers' experiences and reveal selected descrip tive differ ences in pat terns of care recip i ent-care giver rela tionships across gen der and sex ual iden tity groups. Our find ings advance under stand ing of care giv ing and chang ing fam ily ties in an era of pop u la tion aging and increas ing diversity in sexual identities.