Working While Caring for Mom,Dad,and Junior Too: Exploring the Impact of Employees’ Caregiving Situation on Demands,Control,and Perceived Stress

Abstract

Although demographic evidence suggests that, in the developed world, the number of employees who provide both childcare and eldercare is substantial, we know very little about how these “sandwiched” employees differ from those who provide only one form of caregiving (i.e., childcare, eldercare). In this article, we use partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine dual-income employees in households with three different caregiving situations: employees with only childcare (n = 4,129), only eldercare (n = 599), and both childcare and eldercare (n = 767). Findings show that demands contribute to stress more for sandwiched employees than those who provided only one form of caregiving, and more for employees with only eldercare demands than employees with only childcare demands. Results also indicate that control (at work, at home) negatively moderates the relationship between demands (at work, at home) and stress for some employees but not others.