Sandwich Generation and Ever-married Women’s Perceived Stress: Do “Gone Lovers” Matter?

Abstract

Building on the stress process model and adopting an intersectionality framework, this study highlights the formation of a stronger intergenerational family symbiosis system in China. It offers a systematic understanding of the association between multigenerational caregiving and sandwich women’s stress, extending prior research by exploring the mitigating effect of husbands. Drawing upon China Health and Nutrition Survey data, findings indicate that sandwich women experience less stress than non-sandwich women. Particularly among sandwich women, upward care has a stress-reducing impact, while downward care has a stress-enhancing impact compared with carefree sandwich women. Providing active dual care has no significant effect, but when active help shifts to passive need, sandwich women’s stress reaches a peak. Husbands living at home could not buffer wives’ stress. These analyses depict the vulnerability of Chinese sandwich women under the revival of patriarchy and the imbalanced population structure and warrant a sounder public care system.