IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dem/wpaper/wp-2020-037.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The “Sandwich Generation” revisited: global demographic drivers of care time demands

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Alburez-Gutierrez

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Carl Mason
  • Emilio Zagheni

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

Generational overlap affects the care time demands on parents and grandparents worldwide. Here, we present the first global estimates of the experience of simultaneously having frail older parents and young children (“sandwichness”) or young grandchildren (“grandsandwichness”) for the 1970-2040 cohorts using demographic methods and microsimulations. We find that sandwichness is more prevalent in the Global South – e.g., almost twice as prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa as it is in Europe for the 1970 cohort – but is expected to decline globally by one-third between 1970 and 2040. The Global North might have reached a peak in the simultaneous care time demands from multiple generations but the duration of the grandsandwich state will increase by up to one year in Africa and Asia. This increasing generational overlap implies more care time demands over the entire adult life course but also opens up the opportunity for the full potential of grandparenthood to materialize.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Alburez-Gutierrez & Carl Mason & Emilio Zagheni, 2020. "The “Sandwich Generation” revisited: global demographic drivers of care time demands," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-037, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-037
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2020-037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2020-037.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2020-037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Margolis & Ashton M. Verdery, 2019. "A Cohort Perspective on the Demography of Grandparenthood: Past, Present, and Future Changes in Race and Sex Disparities in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1495-1518, August.
    2. Christine McGarrigle & Hilary Cronin & Rose Kenny, 2014. "The impact of being the intermediate caring generation and intergenerational transfers on self-reported health of women in Ireland," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(2), pages 301-308, April.
    3. Rachel Margolis & Laura Wright, 2017. "Healthy Grandparenthood: How Long Is It, and How Has It Changed?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2073-2099, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natasha V. Pilkauskas & Mariana Amorim & Rachel E. Dunifon, 2020. "Historical Trends in Children Living in Multigenerational Households in the United States: 1870–2018," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2269-2296, December.
    2. Ariane Ophir & Jessica Polos, 2022. "Care Life Expectancy: Gender and Unpaid Work in the Context of Population Aging," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(1), pages 197-227, February.
    3. Karen Glaser & Karsten Hank, 2018. "Grandparenthood in Europe," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 221-223, September.
    4. Judith A. Seltzer, 2019. "Family Change and Changing Family Demography," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 405-426, April.
    5. Cisotto, Elisa & Meli, Eleonora & Cavrini, Giulia, 2021. "Grandparents in Italy: trends and changes in the demography of grandparenthood from 1998 to 2016," SocArXiv 4nh5e, Center for Open Science.
    6. Roberta Rutigliano, 2020. "Counting on Potential Grandparents? Adult Children’s Entry Into Parenthood Across European Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(4), pages 1393-1414, August.
    7. Brenna, Elenka, 2021. "Should I care for my mum or for my kid? Sandwich generation and depression burden in Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 415-423.
    8. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2022. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-023, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    9. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2024. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 1-32, December.
    10. Solveig A. Cunningham & Gloria L. Beckles & Jannie Nielsen, 2022. "Declines in Health and Support Between Parents and Adult Children: Insights from Diabetes," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1699-1723, August.
    11. Giorgio Di Gessa & Baowen Xue & Rebecca Lacey & Anne McMunn, 2022. "Young Adult Carers in the UK—New Evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-13, October.
    12. Simon N Chapman & Jenni E Pettay & Mirkka Lahdenperä & Virpi Lummaa, 2018. "Grandmotherhood across the demographic transition," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Marco Albertini & Aviad Tur-Sinai & Noah Lewin-Epstein & Merril Silverstein, 2022. "The Older Sandwich Generation Across European Welfare Regimes: Demographic and Social Considerations," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(2), pages 273-300, May.
    14. Bruno Arpino & Jordi Gumà-Lao & Albert Julià, 2018. "Family histories and the demography of grandparenthood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(42), pages 1105-1150.
    15. Diego Alburez‐Gutierrez & Carl Mason & Emilio Zagheni, 2021. "The “Sandwich Generation” Revisited: Global Demographic Drivers of Care Time Demands," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 997-1023, December.
    16. Rachel Margolis & Ashton M. Verdery, 2019. "A Cohort Perspective on the Demography of Grandparenthood: Past, Present, and Future Changes in Race and Sex Disparities in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1495-1518, August.
    17. Russell, Helen & Maître, Bertrand & Privalko, Ivan, 2019. "The ageing workforce in Ireland: Working conditions, health and extending working lives," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS92.
    18. Karsten Hank & Giulia Cavrini & Giorgio Gessa & Cecilia Tomassini, 2018. "What do we know about grandparents? Insights from current quantitative data and identification of future data needs," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 225-235, September.
    19. Lovelyn G. Tipon, 2024. "Chronicles of Grandparenthood Journey: A Narrative Inquiry," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 11(8), pages 486-501, August.
    20. Irene Mosca & Rose Kenny, 2014. "Exploring differences in prevalence of diagnosed, measured and undiagnosed hypertension: the case of Ireland and the United States of America," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(5), pages 759-767, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    World; demographic ageing; dependency; developing countries; generations; microsimulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Wilhelm (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.