Research framework: The sociology of family has written extensively on intergenerational relations and couples, but less often on siblings. The sociology of aging has been able to examine the care given to elderly relatives, but rarely from the point of view of care configurations and even less often from the one of the resistance of care configurations over time.
Objectives: To explore the ways in which the care work is distributed between siblings faced with the dependence of a parent at the time care is set up and how this distribution changes over time, in France.
Methodology: Quantitative data from CARE-ménages survey (a representative sample of the people aged of 60 and over living at home) and a qualitative post-survey (life stories of 20 child who are caregivers with at least one sibling).
Results: Who becomes the primary caregiver to an elderly parent follows different rules depending on the sibling’s composition. While sororities and mixed sibling most often give rise configurations with a single caregiver sister, male sibling seem to share more the tasks and temporalities of care.
Conclusions: Over time, configurations involving the sharing of care work among siblings prove more stable. Siblings with a single care-giver, on the other hand, run a greater risk of instability due to the possible disengagement of the caregiver, opening up conflicts between siblings over the redistribution of care work.
Contribution: By exploring in greater depth and detail the long-term patterns of care within siblings, this article contributes to the knowledge that runs through the sociology of aging and family.

• siblings
• aging parent
• care
• trajectory of care

https://journals.openedition.org/efg/22401