The sandwich generation: How do parents of young children divide care when additional informal care needs arise? Evidence from Germany

Aysegül Güneyli , Radboud University
Enrique Alonso-Perez, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Anette Fasang, Humboldt University of Berlin

Population aging is fundamentally changing care needs and intergenerational care provision, with significant consequences for gender inequality in caregiving, employment, and well-being. In this study, we highlight the implications of sandwiched caregiving for within-couple gender inequality in caregiving and men’s and women’s subsequent well-being. We use longitudinal data from 23 waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel Study (GSOEP) from 2001-2023, on 1,390 different-sex couples (12,751 observations) with children under age 18 in the household who start providing informal care. We address two research questions: 1) How does the division of childcare and total unpaid care change for couples with children, when they start additionally providing informal care? 2) How is couples’ division of care associated with men's and women’s well-being around the onset of informal caregiving? Preliminary analyses from fixed-effects regressions using longitudinal couple-level data suggest that the onset of additional informal care may have some potential for reducing within-couple gender care gaps in total care hours, by temporarily and modestly increasing men’s share of caregiving in the short term, at the immediate onset of informal care. We further expect that whether gender care gaps within couples widen or narrow, will differently impact men's and women’s life satisfaction and mental health.

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 Presented in Session 45. Family, Housework and Time Use