General information
Code: J5-50160
Period: 1.10.2023 - 30.9.2026
Range on year: 0.22 FTE | 2023
Project leader at FDV: prof.dr. Valentina Hlebec
Research activity: Social sciences
Abstract
We will conduct empirical and theoretical research on discrimination against informal family carers in employment and work in Slovenia. We will discuss the relatively new concept of associative discrimination and we will link it to the discrimination due to family care responsibilities to which carers are exposed when looking for a job, at work and when terminating an employment contract. We will review and analyze theoretical and empirical findings on discrimination against informal carers in Europe and elsewhere in the world, with a focus on carers of elderly and dependent family members. We will study the manifestations and reasons or starting points of discrimination against carers. We decided to focus on cares of the elderly following the findings on the complexity and unpredictability of care for people in need of long-term care and given the growing number of employees with care responsibilities to older family members. We place our research in the broader field of informal family care for people with long-term care needs, employment discrimination and reconciliation of paid work and family. These would provide theoretical and conceptual frameworks as well as identify problems, research issues, and make research findings meaningful. Employment discrimination will be treated as inequalities between carers and non-carers. From workers’ perspective, we will explore mechanisms that produce unequal treatment practices in the work environment, ways of discrimination carers experience, perception of discrimination, its causes and starting points, the consequences discrimination leaves on the victims and the confrontation or action against discrimination. The research methodology is based on the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods (Creswell and Plano 2007). Our research plan is a two-phase beginning with the collection and analysis of quantitative data. The first phase is followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data, the purpose of which is to deepen quantitative findings and connect both qualitative and quantitative findings. We will apply the model of participant selection. A review at the quantitative level is needed in order to support the theoretical sampling of participants for the qualitative part of the research. Our research will emphasize qualitative analysis.
The phases of the project and their realization
In order to address the two research questions defined above, we will use a mixed-methods research design (Creswell and Plano, 2007), basing our analysis on both primary (qualitative) and secondary (quantitative) data sources. A two phase research design will be used, starting with secondary quantitative data analysis of EQLS (2012) data. Second, qualitative phase comprises of qualitative data collection and analysis, which should result in in-depth study of actual experiences of discrimination by association by informal family carers. The specific research design used in our project is participant selection model (Creswell and Plano, 2007). One of the purposes of the first quantitative phase is to inform and support sampling strategies for the second phase. In our study, the emphasis is on second, qualitative stage.
The study will be carried out within three research work packages (WP), which can be generally thought of as sequential (WP2–WP4), although certain activities planned in consecutive stages can also be expected to overlap (see Table 1 in section 23.5). Two additional WPs will focus on the general project management (WP1) and dissemination activities (WP5). These are depicted as circumscribing and taking place alongside the research-based WPs that form the bulk of the project activities.
Work package 2 (Literature and legislation review) will take place in months 1-6.
Work package 3 (Quantitative analysis) will take place in months 7 and 13. The purpose of WP3 is twofold. Its aim is to answer RQ1 and provide guidelines for sampling in WP4.
The quantitative analysis of EQLS data (2016) will provide answers to RQ1.
Work package 4 (Qualitative analysis) will address RQ2. Its duration is from month 14-36. We will employ qualitative research methods for this WP. We will conduct face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 20 informal family carers. The sampling strategy will be informed by wp2 and wp3. Based on systematic literature review WP2 and quantitative analysis WP3, we will establish which specific groups of family informal carers will be recruited for WP4, apart from family carers working full time, working part-time, men and women.
Research Organisation
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/20837
Researchers
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/20837
Citations for bibliographic records
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/20837
Key words
associative discrimination, discrimination due to family responsibilities, elderly care, employment discrimination, gender, informal family carers, work-life balance
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