Between adolescents and aging grandparents: Midlife concerns of adults in the “Sandwich generation”

Prepared to care: adult attachment and filial obligation

OBJECTIVES

Past work found that close adult attachment dimension scores predict caregiver preparedness. Theory and past research suggests filial obligation (FO) may mediate the relationship between attachment and caregiver preparedness. The goal of this study was to test that hypothesis.

METHOD

The sample, collected using Mechanical Turk, included 165 women between the ages of 45 and 65 years who were not providing care to an aging parent.  Participants were reimbursed $0.75 for completing an online survey assessing response validity, dimensions of adult attachment, depressive symptomatology, FO, and caregiver preparedness, among other variables. The mean participant age was 52.2 years (SD = 5.5).

RESULTS

The sample was predominantly White/Caucasian (82.6%), and Black/African American (7.3%).  With respect to education, 14.5% completed high school or general education development (GED), 32.7% completed some college, 36.4% completed a Bachelor's degree, and 15.7% completed graduate degrees. The three attachment dimensions (close, dependent, and anxious) and FO were all significantly inner-correlated.  Stepwise multiple regression analyses found that FO fully mediates the relationship between close attachment and caregiver preparedness, even after controlling for age, education, income, depression, and birth order.

CONCLUSION

The primary finding is that FO mediates the relationship between close attachment style and caregiver preparedness among prospective caregivers. This suggests that individual differences in attachment style among prospective caregivers indirectly predict preparedness for future caregiving through FO, suggesting a mechanism relating attachment style and preparation for future care.

Measuring Impact of Stress in Sandwich Generation Caring for Demented Parents

Stress in caregivers may affect the healthcare recipients receive. We examined the impact of stress experienced by 45 adult caregivers of their elderly demented parents. The participants completed a 32-item questionnaire about the impact of experienced stress. The questionnaire also asked about interventions that might help to reduce the impact of stress. After exploratory factor analysis, we reduced the 32-item questionnaire to 13 items. Results indicated that caregivers experienced stress, anxiety, and sadness. Also, emotional, but not financial or professional, well-being was significantly impacted. There was no significant difference between the impact of caregiver stress on members from the sandwich generation and those from the nonsandwich generation. Meeting with a social worker for resource availability was identified most frequently as a potentially helpful intervention for coping with the impact of stress.

The Association between Membership in the Sandwich Generation and Health Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study

The current study examined the association between membership in the sandwich generation, defined as providing care to both children and parents or in-laws, and five health behaviors: checking the food label for health value when buying foods, using a seat belt, choosing foods based on health value, exercising regularly, and cigarette smoking. Participants (N=4943) were from a longitudinal study of a midwestern community-based sample. Regression analyses tested the unique effect of sandwich generation membership on health behaviors above and beyond demographic factors and prior levels of the same behavior. Compared to other caregivers and noncaregivers, multigenerational caregivers were less likely to check food labels and to choose foods based on health values. Multigenerational caregivers were less likely than noncaregivers and those who cared for children only to use seat belts, and they smoked marginally more cigarettes per day than those groups. Multigenerational caregivers were less likely than noncaregivers and those who cared for parents/in-laws only to exercise regularly. Thus, in general, healthy behaviors were diminished for multigenerational caregivers.

Aging parents and their middle-aged children: demographic and psychosocial challenges

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of an extended lifespan of parents on middle-aged women and men from a demographic, sociological and psychological perspective. Based on Swiss data, three main research questions are investigated and discussed in three different sections: (a) How far has the common lifespan of children and parents been extended and how does it affect kinship structures? (b) How accurate is the term of "sandwich generation" in this context? (c) Which are the psychological concomitants-in terms of filial maturity-of being reinvolved with one's old parents in mid-life? The demographic analyses illustrate a considerable extension of common lifespan of children and parents. Combined with low fertility rates this results in rapidly increasing parent-support ratios. A sociological approach analysing the concept of "sandwich generation" indicates that, for women, a new kind of double burden (professional work and family care) is more widespread than being 'sandwiched' between the youngest and the oldest generation. Finally, in the third section, results are reported from a longitudinal study of middle-aged persons living in different social contexts (such as living or not living with a partner and/or children) on the intrapsychic concomitants of becoming reinvolved with one's parents. The response patterns reveal a considerable intergenerational ambivalence. Although the possibility to help old parents depends heavily on living context and is a question of available resources, the willingness to help is also closely related to psychological variables such as attachment.