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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Between elderly parents and adult children
— a new look at the intergenerational care provided by the 'sandwich generation' | | Author(s) | Emily Grundy, John C Henretta |
| Corporate Author | Family Support for Older People: Determinants and Consequences (FAMSUP) Network, European Science Foundation |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 26, part 5, September 2006 |
| Pages | pp 707-722 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_ASO |
| Keywords | Women as carers ; Children [offspring] as carers ; Multi generation families ; Comparison ; United Kingdom ; United States of America ; Conference proceedings ; Europe. |
| Annotation | The 'sandwich generation' has been conceptualised as those mid-life adults who simultaneously raise dependent children and care for frail aged parents. Such a combination of dependents is in fact very unusual. A more common situation is when adults in late mid-life or early old age have one or more surviving parents and adult but still partly dependent children. It can be hypothesised that for parents in this pivotal position, the demands from adult children and from aged parents compete, with the result that those who provide help to one are less likely to provide help to the other. An alternative hypothesis, however, is that family solidarity has an important influence but is not universal, so that some pivotal generation parents engage in intergenerational exchange in both directions, and there is positive association between helping parents and helping children. To investigate this question, the paper presents an analysis of data from two broadly comparable national surveys in Great Britain and the US on the care provided by women aged 55-69 to their descendent and ascendant relatives. The results show that around one-third of the women reported providing help to members of both generations, and that around one-fifth provided support to neither. They broadly support the solidarity hypothesis, but provide some evidence that having three or more children is associated with a reduced likelihood of providing help to a parent. This is the first of four empirical studies on the provision of family support to older people, written by members of the Family Support for Older People: Determinants and Consequences (FAMSUP) Network, European Science Foundation (ESF). (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060816003 A |
| Classmark | P6:SH: P6:SS: SJC: 48: 8: 7T: 6M: 74 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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