Who takes care of the elderly in the United States today? The fact is that family members provide over 80% of the care that elderly people need. Most of the time, the elderly live in their own homes. A very few percent of America’s elderly live in nursing homes. Samuel H Preston, a sociologist at University of Pennsylvania, studied how American family is changing. He reported that by the time the average American couple reaches 40 years of age, their parents are usually still alive. This statistic shows the change in lifestyles and responsibilities of aging Americans. The average middle-aged couple can look forward to caring for elderly parents sometimes after their won children have grown up. Moreover, because people today live longer after an illness than people did years ago, family members mist provide long-term care. These facts also mean that after caregivers provide for their elderly parents, who will eventually die, they will be old and may require care too. When they do, their spouses will probably take care of them because they have had fewer children than their parents did. Because Americans are living longer than ever, more psychologists and social workers have begun to study ways of care-giving to improve care of the elderly. They have found that all caregivers share a common characteristic. They believe that they are the best persons for the job, for different reasons. One caregiver said that she had always been close to her mother. Others are either the oldest or the youngest of the family. Regardless of the reason, the caregivers all felt that they could do the job better than anyone else. Social workers interviewed caregiver to find out why they took on the responsibility of caring for an elderly, dependent relative. They discovered three basic reasons. Many caregivers believed that they had an obligation to help their relatives. Some stated that helping others made them feel more useful. Others hoped that by helping someone now, they would deserve care when they became old and dependent.