Sandwich caregiving and midlife women's health: An examination of racial disparities

Objective

This research project aims to (a) investigate the association between sandwich caregiving and midlife women's health and (b) ask how this relationship differs by race.

Background

Although researchers consistently find that physical health declines substantially during midlife for women, much about what produces this trend is unexplored. One notable gap in prior literature is the impact of simultaneously providing care to both aging parents and young children (i.e., sandwich caregiving) on the health and well-being of midlife women.

Method

This study analyzes six consecutive waves of nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) between 2008 and 2018 with growth curve models.

Results

The analysis illustrates that sandwich caregiving does not have a significant relationship with self-reported physical health among White and Black mothers but has a negative association with fair or poor self-rated physical health among Hispanic mothers.

Conclusion

This study contributes to previous scholarship by specifying the heterogeneous consequences of sandwich caregiving for the health and well-being of White, Black, and Hispanic women during midlife. Moreover, this work highlights the importance of exploring the complex implications of sandwich caregiving, as more and more midlife adults begin to provide care to dual generations.

Implications

This study underscores the relevance of the life course perspective and the stress process model in understanding sandwich caregiving. Furthermore, my findings emphasize the significance of the family as a social institution in shaping social inequality and the need for race-specific interventions to mitigate the adverse health outcomes of sandwich caregiving.