News

Portland State University Professors Margaret Neal and Leslie Hammer have released the results of a landmark study of the effects of maintaining multiple family caregiving and work roles in a book entitled Working Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents: Effects on Work and Well-Being.

Available after October 20, 2006, and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Working Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents is believed to be the first-ever study to examine multiple work and caregiving responsibilities from the perspective of dual-earner couples, where both members, the husband and the wife, not only care for children and for aging parents, but also work, all at the same time. These couples with multiple family caregiving and work roles are referred to in the study as the “sandwiched generation” and are estimated to represent 9-13% of American households with an adult between the ages of 30 and 60.

“The topic is timely. Given the tendency for many couples to delay becoming parents until their 30s or even 40s, and the increased longevity of the grandparent generation, a small but significant number of dual-earner families face the challenge of providing care to both generations,” said Ann C. Crouter, Center for Work and Family Research, Pennsylvania State University.

Up to this point, most work-family research has concentrated on individuals who are combining work with their nuclear family responsibilities at home, involving children and a spouse or partner. Less attention has been given to workers responsible for the care of elderly parents. Still fewer studies have observed workers with multiple family responsibilities, caring for both children and aging parents.

“We believe that the findings of our research point to the significant need for more support provided to working families– especially those sandwiched between caring for children and aging parents–by government and workplace policy makers” said Professors Neal and Hammer.

The book examines how sandwiched couples manage their many family and work responsibilities, and suggests that the workplace could be a primary arena for change in the form of provision of supportive programs and policies, including work schedule flexibility and supervisor support for families. The book notes significant effects of being “sandwiched,” including depression and conflict between work and family, and how the parent-care role especially influences workers, as does marital role quality. The benefits of combining work and family and the reciprocal support often received from aging parents also are addressed.

Neal and Hammer recommend several ways for working couples to improve their well-being, including:
* Planning time for each other and their own personal needs
* Obtaining practical support with caregiving, such as using available supports at work, getting help from family members, hiring outside help, and using available technology (e.g., cell phones, voicemail)
* Choosing jobs with high levels of flexibility
* Decreasing demands by choosing to stop certain activities, re-evaluating life and family priorities, reducing work hours, simplifying one’s lifestyle, or reducing personal expectations.
* While the obvious solution to the time crunch presented by working and having caregiving responsibilities for both children and aging parents is to cut back on social activities, the study found that this actually results in poorer well-being. Couples need social support from friends and family.

In addition, Neal and Hammer provide recommendations for employers, managers, government policymakers and family-care practitioners. They note that the U.S. has not kept pace with other industrialized, and some non-industrialized, countries when it comes to providing national programs and policies needed to support working caregivers, such as paid family leave. Their study’s findings indicate the importance of such leave, along with the provision of work-schedule flexibility and supervisor support for family issues.

Margaret B. Neal is director of the Institute on Aging and professor of Community Health in the College of Urban and Public Affairs. For the past several years, Prof. Neal’s research has focused on the challenges and opportunities faced by individuals who are balancing employment with providing informal care to children and/or elderly family members or friends, and the ways in which the public and private sectors can assist these caregivers. Leslie B. Hammer is professor of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She directs the Occupational Health Psychology program and the Center for Work-Family Stress, Safety, and Health, both funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Prof. Hammer’s research has focused on the difficulties of coordinating the demands of work and family.

Copies of Working Couples Caring for Children and Again Parents: Effects on Work and Well-Being ($32.50, 296 pages, paperback, $99.95, cloth) through www.erlbaum.com/nealhammer (paperback ISBN 0-8058-4604-2; hardbound ISBN 0-8058-4603-4). Media interested in receiving a review copy should contact Erin Malecha Arias, 503-725-8763 or malecha@pdx.edu.

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Source:
Leslie Hammer (503-725-3971)
PSU Psychology Department

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#06-124)